Association of Southern Urologists

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL BODY MEETING OF ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHERN UROLOGISTS

19.8.2000, VISHAKAPATNAM

Around 100 members attended the General Body Meet convened by the President Dr. K.M.K.Rao who welcomed the gathering. Dr. T.R.Murali, Hon. Secretary in addition to reading out the minutes of the last General Body Meeting at SRMC, Chennai, submitted his report for his two year's tenure. The National PG Training Programme which was conducted by the Hon. Secretary in February 1999 and 2000 were greatly appreciated by the postgraduates.

The Treasurer submitted his report and audited statement. He took the permission of the house to appoint Mr. Muthukaruppan as Auditor for ASU. Also he appraised the members regarding steps he is taking to register the Society.

Dr. Sunil Shroff Organizing Secretary of the ASU generously donated Rs. 50,000.00 towards the Society and requested a corpus to be made for the Best Video Prize which was yet unsponsored. It was decided not to accept money less than Rs. two lakhs as corpus for future awards from individual members.

Dr. Shivasankar, the Organizing Secretary of the 12^th Annual Conference, with a visual presentation, outlined his grandiose plans for the conference in the 2^nd week of July at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He proposed a pre-conference CUE which will include a live or video workshop.

Dr. N.Vijayasankaran and Dr. RM.Meyyappan were elected as the President -Elect and Hon. Secretary respectively as their nominations were unanimous.

Dr. Ilangovan was requested to continue as the Treasurer as he has proved to be of invaluable help to the Society being at Chennai. He will be able to co ordinate with the incoming Secretary, also from Chennai.

Prof. H.S.Bhat Oration 2001 will be rendered by Prof. K.Ravishanker. The topic for Khivraj Memorial Symposium was chosen as Continent Urinary Diversion and Prof. S.Varadarajan was chosen as Moderator by the house. The Convener of the Point-Counter Point Debate and Quiz Master for the Prof. Ravishankar Uroradiology Quiz for 2001 will be selected from Karnataka in consultation with Dr. RM.Meyyappan. Dr. Suresh Bhat, Kottayam was awarded the Prof. A.P.Pandey Traveling Fellowship. Dr. Natarajan, PG from Manipal received the Prof. Ravindranath Traveling Fellowship for year 2000 - 2001.

There was a lot of debate on the low turnout for the XI Annual Conference as compared to previous years. The only meaning full points which emerged were the increasing numbers of conferences and workshops all over the country in addition to long distances members have to travel to reach the conference destinations. A senior member, Prof. P.Venugopal, felt the content of conferences should be improved and said all the workshops and conferences within the zone should have the sanction of the executive council of ASU. Many members felt the programme should be circulated long before the conference. An earnest attempt was made during the last two times. However since papers are sent much later than the scheduled date it is not possible to carry out this always.

Some members felt better marketing and announcements at least an year ahead of the conference. One of the members Dr. R.P.Rajan, SRMC, Chennai, suggested that the state conferences can be held in smaller cities while the South Zone which has close to 400 full members should be held in large metros for better participation. This is food for thought and debate.

There were some constitutional amendments proposed. Due to delay in postage many members did not receive the amendments. Hence discussion on amendments was postponed to the next meet.

Kerala will host the 13^th Annual Conference in 2002. This was not discussed by oversight in the GB. However it is now routine practice for the state chapter (on this occasion, the UAK) to convene and inform the Executive Council about the venue and Organizing Secretary at the mid term meet at Nagpur during USICON 2001