West of Scotland Pain Group AGM - minutes

West of Scotland Pain Group AGM

9th May 2007, 1930
Republic Bier Hall

Present: Fiona Allan, Lew-Chin Chee, David Craig, Robin McKinlay, Lars Williams
Apologies: Ruhy Parris, Jonathan Oates, Ajit Panickar, Mick Serpell, Judith Wilson

1. Secretary’s Report
(i) Attendance
Better attendance figures this year, over 30 for first meeting, possibly reflecting fewer meetings this year

(ii) Website
Once again, we would like to thank Jonathan Oates for setting up and maintaining the excellent website, at www.wspg.org.uk. Recent developments include posting of links to other pain organisations, BPS, IASP, etc. The website has attracted favourable comment from readers / listeners in the US, and one US trainee got in touch via the website to ask about a sabbatical in Glasgow

(iii) Venue & Catering
The Walton Centre at the Southern General has proven a good (and cheap) venue, probably easier to reach for most than the EDC. The venue will be demolished at some time over the next few years but we will continue to use it for as long as we can. LW looked into alternatives, including the Royal College and Lang’s hotel, but these would be too expensive at our current level of income.

Catering for the coming season still to be arranged. We have tried both internal and external options and neither has been entirely satisfactory. A takeaway curry or similar might be ideal? We will look into this option for the forthcoming programme.

Postscript 12/6/7: The Walton has been booked for the following dates:
weds 3rd oct 2007
weds 5th dec 2007
weds 5th march 2008
(weds 1st oct 2008)
(weds 3rd dec 2008)
Meetings will run 1830 – 2100

(iv) Joint Meeting with EoSPG, Langs Hotel
This was a resounding success, despite many unexpected obstacles. All on the committee expressed relief that the next meeting would be organised by Steve Gilbert from the East group.

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

3. Chairman’s Report
Robin thanked the committee for their hard work during the last year, particularly all the work involved in setting up the joint meeting. Robin announced his intention to step down, and suggested that Lars take over as Chairman, in order to keep some continuity and also to establish a precedent whereby the secretary goes on to become chair.

All present thanked Robin for all his hard work

4. Election of new committee members
Before tonight’s meeting, both Robin and Lew-Chin announced their imminent departure from the committee, with Lars hoping to escape too. Unfortunately we could find no-one to take over our posts….So, Lew-Chin has kindly agreed to stay on as treasurer for the time being, Lars will act as chairman, and we will headhunt a new secretary.

David and Fiona have kindly agreed to acting as specialty representatives for, respectively, psychology and pharmacy. These new posts will include responsibility for advertising the group to the post-holders’ specialties, and suggesting and arranging talks relevant to these specialties.

Postscript 12/6/7:
Jonathan Oates has kindly agreed to take over as secretary.
Claire MacKelvie has kindly offered her services as a physiotherapy representative.

5. Speakers for next year
A few suggestions discussed – putative speakers to be contacted.

Postscript 12/6/7:
We now have speakers booked for October and December, thanks to Fiona and David for arranging these.

6. AOCB
We had some discussion about the rolling educational programme of tutorials, co-ordinated by the current pain fellow. When this programme first started, we ran the tutorials before the WoSPG meetings to maximise attendance, although this meant starting the tutorials at 5pm sharp. Over the last few years the tutorial programme has become increasingly popular, with people coming to the tutorials from throughout the city, so the 5pm start is proving difficult. We decided it would be best to separate the tutorials from the main WoSPG programme, although we will continue to advertise them through the WoSPG website.

Meeting closed 220hrs
LW 12/6/7

THE WEST OF SCOTLAND PAIN GROUP
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 9.5.2007
TREASURERS REPORT

Anticipated balance of funds reported 2005-6 = 3675.60
Anticipated balance of funds reported 2004-5 = 3361.94

FINANCIAL YEAR 2006-7
EXPENDITURE £
Catering
Sette Odori £220
Joint meeting £1825.00 = 2045.00

Hire of Glasgow Western Postgraduate Medical Centre = 0

Fee for promotional stands = 0

Speakers gifts = 100.00

Speakers expenses = 0

Grants = nil

TOTAL EXPENDITURE = 2145.00

INCOME
Trade stands = 1700.00

Sponsorship of speakers expenses = 0

Interest April 06 to Mar 07 (estimated) = 63.25

TOTAL INCOME = 2293.25
SURPLUS = 148.25

ACCOUNT BALANCES
Treasurers Account(25.4.7) = 3523.35

ANTICIPATED BALANCE OF FUNDS = 3823.25

TREASURER’S REPORT 2006-7
I am pleased to announce that our finances continue to be in good health. We had a surplus of £148.25 from this year. This is due to a combination of factors. Firstly, the free venue for meeting, this year at the Southern General Hospital, with no promotional stand fee. Secondly, very meticulous planning on the committee’s behalf to ensure that we had a good delegate attendance and support from pharmaceutical companies to offset the costs of the joint meeting in March.

It has been a pleasure to serve the group.However, after three years, I feel it is time to relinquish this post to another willing volunteer. New energy is required to be injected into this post to ensure that we can continue to organise high quality meetings which will attract all of those involved in the business of pain in the West of Scotland.