Minutes from the AGM

The last session held at the Ebenezer Duncan centre, a joint meeting between chronic pain and palliative care staff, was well-attended and very well received. Although not part of the West of Scotland Pain Group programme, Pete MacKenzie kindly let me advertise the Group to members of the palliative team who attended, and we manged to get a few e-mail addresses to add to the mailing list. So, for those of you who've just joined the mailing list, welcome!

We had an informal AGM in a city centre pub a few weeks ago, and I remained sober enough to take some minutes, which you will find appended to this e-mail, along with the treasurer's report. To save you having to open and read the whole lot, I'll provide a quick summary here:

Attendance hasn't been great, averaging 15 or so per meeting, though it did seem to be picking up towards the end.

A few have complained that the EDC is difficult to get to, so we decided to give another venue a try this year, the Walton Centre at the Southern General in Glasgow. This, I'm told, brings the Group full circle, as it started off meeting at the Walton 20 or so years ago.

We plan to revert back to the original day as well, the first Tuesday of the month. This should make it easier to remember the meetings.

The most controversial change we've planned is to reduce the number of meetings to 3, from 6. Everyone seems to be busy and no-one likes giving up their free time to attend evening meetings, so this should ease the burden, and hopefully improve attendance. The question now is whether we should have 2 speakers / meeting? Any thoughts, please let me know.

Finally, on a positive note, we're going to get outside caterers for the food...another reason to make the effort and attend in October when the meetings start up again. In the meantime, for any late-breaking news, check our website at:
www.wspg.org.uk

Lars Williams
Consultant in Anaesthesia and Pain Management
Honorary Secretary, West of Scotland Pain Group
Southern General Hospital, Glasgow

lars.williams@sgh.scot.nhs.uk


West of Scotland Pain Group AGM 24th May 2006

Present: Lew-Chin Chee, Robin McKinlay, Lars Williams
Apologies: none

1. Secretary’s Report

(i) Attendance
Numbers low initially, picking up towards the end of the year:
Oct 05= 9
Nov 05=10
Dec 05=15
Jan 06=19
Feb= joint meeting
Mar 06= 20

(ii) Website
We would like to thank Jonathan Oates for setting up and maintaining our website, at www.wspg.org.uk
This has proved to be a fantastic resource, both as a noticeboard for up-to-date announcements and as an archive of previous talks, which Jonathan has been recording for us and posting as audio stream feeds and podcasts.

We will contact the NBPA to ask about posting links between our respective websites

(iii) Venue & Catering
The EDC has been a good venue in terms of facilities and cost (free!), but it is difficult to get to from the other Glasgow hospitals. We discussed venue change again, and decided that the Walton Centre in the Southern General campus might be a suitable alternative. We will confirm according to availability.
We will arrange external catering for the coming season.

(iv) Frequency of Meetings
We wonder if we could improve attendance by decreasing the frequency of our meetings. This would lessen the burden on those who find it difficult to attend due to home and family commitments. We could have slightly longer meetings, perhaps with 2 speakers, e.g. speaking for 30 mins, plus 20-30 mins for discussion?
Planned dates for meetings: revert to first Tuesday of the month, October, December, February (for joint meeting)

(v) Joint meeting with the East of Scotland Pain Group
Our turn to arrange the meeting this year, provisionally February 2007. Suggestions for 'star' speakers welcome. Possible venue = Royal College of Physicians, but we’ll look into a hotel option as well.

2. Treasurer’s Report 2005-2006
This was submitted by Lew-Chin and is appended below.

Introduction
Our fortunes have turned this year with the group making a surplus of £648.38. The main reason for this is the change to a free venue with no promotional stand fee, and less costly catering.

We have closed our Premier Bonus account. The balance from this account has been transferred to the Treasurer’s account to make servicing the Group’s accounts easier.

With our finances looking healthy again we are in a good position to continue to organise high quality education meetings for the Pain Group and also to offer education sponsorship. Our efforts will be guided by the attendance at these meetings.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 24.5.6 – TREASURER’S REPORT

Anticipated balance of funds reported 2004 – 2005 = 3361.94
Anticipated balance of funds reported 2003 – 2004 = 3044.86


FINANCIAL YEAR 4.4.2005 – 5.4.2006

EXPENDITURE £

Catering = 202.5

Hall hire = 0

Fee for promotional stands = 0

Speakers gifts = 200.00

Outstanding catering (not yet invoiced) = 200.00 (estimate)

TOTAL EXPENDITURE = 602.5


INCOME

Trade stands = 1200

Interest (4.4.2005 – 5.4.2006)
Treasurers Account(estimate) = 8.60
Premier Bonus Account (estimate) = 41.78

TOTAL INCOME = 1250.38

SURPLUS = 648.38


ACCOUNT BALANCES
Premier Bonus Account (now closed) = 2105.19
Treasurers Account = 1507.41


COMBINED ACCOUNT BALANCE 5.4.6 (est) = 3675.6

ANTICIPATED BALANCE OF FUNDS = 3675.6


3. Chairman’s Report
Robin thanked the committee for their hard work during the last year. Thanks are also due to Steve Gilbert for arranging a successful joint meeting in Edinburgh. Several ideas for future meetings were discussed.

4. Speakers for next year
LW and RM will liase with ideas. As ever, all suggestions gratefully received.

5. AOCB
Meeting closed 2000hrs
LW 28/6/6