Message from the IUGA Board regarding selection of annual meeting locations
The IUGA Board has decided that it is necessary to modify the process for selection of annual meeting locations and would like to share its thoughts with you and other members.
The annual meetings are the single most important contributors to the financial viability of IUGA and, therefore, the process to decide where to hold them is of great importance.
The board is committed to growing urogynecology in different parts of the world, and taking the annual meeting to different countries is a significant contributor to achieving that. However, the board also has the fiduciary responsibility to ensure the financial well-being of IUGA. As a result, it must find a balance between these two imperatives. As you are likely aware, the search for such a balance is a common focus these days for many medical and health associations.
The board has decided that the best way to achieve this balance is to have a regular rotation of the annual meeting among areas of the world. They have decided on a three-year rotation that will see the annual meeting in North America one year, in Europe the next year and somewhere in the rest of the world in the third year. The rotation would then be repeated.
The board believes that this rotation will provide a good balance between ensuring the financial viability of IUGA and the desire to bring a focus on urogynecology to parts of the world where it is not as well understood or appreciated.
This rotation has, in fact, already begun as the 2014 annual meeting will be in North America, in Washington, DC, the 2015 meeting will be in Nice, France, and the 2016 meeting will be in Cape Town, South Africa. Following this cycle, the 2017 meeting would be appropriate to hold in North America, the 2018 in Europe and the 2019 meeting in some other part of the world.
The board has received one proposal from North America to host the meeting in 2017 and that was from Vancouver. There were two proposals received from Europe – from Prague and Vienna – and they have both indicated to the board that they would be pleased to be considered as the location for the meeting in 2018. Assuming the adoption of this plan to rotate the location of the annual meeting, Vancouver would be the annual meeting location in 2017.
The board is interested in the thoughts of members regarding this plan to rotate the location of the annual meeting. If you would like to share your thoughts regarding this, please send them to Chuck Shields, the IUGA Executive Director, at chuck@iuga.org and he will pass them along to the board. The board would ask to receive your feedback by January 20 and thanks you in advance for any comments you might share.
The IUGA Board |