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Final Agenda and Minutes for 2008 General Assembly,
Goteborg Monday 16th June at 5.00 p.m. (Malleus).

AGENDA

1. Welcome from Chair (Holgers)

2. Attendance
Voting representatives: Attias (Israel), Barajas (Spain), Dauman (France), Hegarty (Ireland), Holgers (Sweden), Pace Balzan (Malta), Tawartkiladze (Russia), Uloziene (Lithuania).
Observers: Sheldrake (U.K.), Sliwinska-Kowalska (Poland), Mazurek (Germany)
 Apologies: Dillier (Switzerland), Kiessling (Germany), Kentala (Finland), Luxon (U.K.), Pascu (Romania), Pitt (Ireland), Sulkowski (Poland), Vik (Norway). 

3. Minutes of GA in Heidelberg, (June 2007) were available on the EFAS website www.efas.ws and were also projected on the screen in the room. There were no corrections and the Assembly accepted the minutes.
There was one comment arising from the minutes of 2007. This was about the scholarship fund to enable two students to attend the next EFAS Congress in Tenerife in 2009. The proposal had been made in the GA of 2007 but had not been advertised on the website as yet (Pace Balzan).

4. Finance
The treasurer was not present for this meeting but had informed the council about the favourable financial situation so that it was probable that it would be possible to offer the 2 scholarships as had been proposed in the previous Assembly in Heidelberg (Holgers).

5. EFAS policies
EFAS supports initiatives taken by the EFAS members on the promotion on education in Audiology. The Assembly decided that the executive committee should take the decisions on whether an activity is organized in the name of EFAS.

6. Education in Audiology
A report on the workshop on ‘University Education in Audiology’ held in Bad Zwischenan, Germany (16/17th January 2008) was presented by the General Secretary (Pace Balzan). Reference was made to the information about the meeting which is already accessible through the EFAS website under ‘General Audiologist’. The Assembly suggested that the report presented at the GA, would be made available on the website as well, which will be made by the General Secretary.
There were discussions about important points raised at the meeting on ‘European University Education in Audiology’ regarding the role of EFAS in advancing Audiology education and practice in European countries:

  • The General Assembly decided that coordinating harmonization of curricula, facilitating exchange of information between education sites, and providing a list of institutions, which were willing to participate in networked programmes, was according to the scope of EFAS, as suggested in the workshop in Germany. The GA decided to work in this direction.
  • The General Assembly decided not to develop a structure to provide CME to since this is already exist and is coordinated by the UEMS.
  • The General Assembly decided to take a look at the ‘Code of Ethics’ for guidance of good practice in Audiology which is available on the ISA website. EFAS could look at that code and determine whether the Association wanted to adopt it.

  • The General Assembly decided that further discussion was necessary regarding EFAS acting as a certification body at the different levels of audiological education (general audiologist/specialized audiologist). The goal of this work is to further harmonize the education system in different countries. Until the next GA, the EFAS board will prepare for considerations of these items, and further meetings/discussions within the committee of representatives of EFAS were decided necessary.
  • The present General assembly decided that these topics will be discussed at the next General Assembly in Tenerife.
  • The Assembly decided to give to Pace Balzan and Holgers the assignment to arrange a meeting in order to further work with the education in audiology and to create guidelines to harmonisation of the audiology education in Europe. The working group, which participated in the meeting in January, will be invited to work for the further progress in this important work. The following representatives at the present GA volunteered to participate in the working group: These were Rene Dauman, Joseph Attias and George Tawartkiladze.


7. Tenerife Congress 2009
Barajas presented information on the next EFAS Congress (21-24th June 2009).  He gave information about the location of the meeting, and an overview on topics that could be covered, the programme setup (including social events) and the list of prospective invited speakers. He also showed a short video. He announced that the Congress website www.efas2009.org would become accessible this same month.

8. Other business/ matters arising
Attias raised the question on scholarship to the next EFAS congress for two students for the Tenerife Congress. The Treasury report was not available during the GA, why Holgers proposed that the final decision about the sum of the scholarship should be suggested after consideration of the final reports from the treasurer considering the financial situation for EFAS. This was agreed upon by the Assembly. Tawartkiladze suggested that the Past Chairman (Attias) ought to be responsible for announcing the scholarships on the website and choosing the winners of the scholarships on the basis of the abstracts submitted. Holgers suggested that the Congress president (Barajas) should also be involved in this selection process. The General Assembly agreed to assign Barajas and Attias to suggest candidates for the scholarships for the Tenerife meeting and propose the candidates to the board for decision.

9. The Chairman thanked the members present and the meeting was formally closed.