Association of Southern Urologists

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

9.7.2005, BANGALORE

The General Body Meeting of Association of Southern Urologists was held at NIMHANS Convention Centre on 9^th July 2005 at 5 pm. The meeting was chaired by Prof. G.K.Venkatesh, President ASU, who welcomed the members.

The General Body paid respect to two of their members who expired in the previous year. Prof. M.S.Rajashekar, Retd. Prof. and HOD of Bangalore Medical College and Dr. Manohar Shetty, young Urologist from Udupi. The AGM authorized the Secretary to send condolence message to the bereaved families on behalf of the Association.

The minutes of Annual General Body Meeting held at Vijayawada was passed.

Dr. Keshavmurthy R, Hon. Secretary read out the report for the year 2004-2005. This was accepted and passed by the members.

Dr. Pitchai Balshanmugam read out the Treasurer report for the year 2004-2005 with financial year ending 31^st March 2005. The Treasurer highlighted that the accounts were streamlined and separate corpus formed for MIUC fellowship and Prof. H.S.Bhat Oration were set aside and interest accrued would be utilized for the awards. The General Body appreciated the contribution of Rs. 75,000.00 as additional corpus for Prof. H.S.Bhat Oration which was contributed by students and family of Prof. H.S.Bhat. The rest of the corpus money for the awards would be clubbed into single fixed deposit. The Treasurer informed the AGM that the application and formalities for obtaining the IT exemption has been initiated; it would take a few months to obtain sanction of IT exemption. The Treasurer report was passed by the General Body.

Dr. RM.Meyyappan from Chennai was unanimously elected as the President Elect. There were no applicants for the post of Treasurer. The General body approved the proposal to continue Dr. Pitchai Balshanmugam for one more term.

The list of New members enrolled with the Association were read out which was approved by the General Body. 21 new Life Members and 19 new Associate Life Members were enrolled.

The 17^th Annual Conference of ASU is scheduled to be held in 2006 at Thiruvananthapuram. Dr. Syam K. Ramesh presented the report and welcomed the members to attend the conference at Thiruvananthapuram. The dates would be informed to the members once it is finalized. The General Body discussed regarding the delegate fee and approved the hike in the delegate fee which was fixed as Rs. 1,500.00 for delegates and 750.00 for Post Graduate students

The 18^th Annual Conference of ASU will be hosted by Coimbatore with Dr. Ramalingam as the Organizing Secretary.

Dr. Prashanth Kumar presented the report of the 15^th Annual Conference at Vijayawada. He presented a cheque of Rs. 1,00,000.00 to the President as the proceeds of the conference at Vijayawada.

Dr. Jeyaraman R. from Chennai proposed that Chennai would host the USICON 2008 as it was turn of Tamilnadu to host the USICON. The General Body unanimously approved his proposal.

Dr.V.N.Moni from Calicut was awarded the Prof. H.S.Bhat Oration for the year 2006. Dr. T.V.Narayana Rao from Rajamundry was awarded to moderate the Khivraj Memorial Symposium at Thiruvananthapuram in 2006. The topic of the Symposium selected was "Management of Long Term Sequelae of Posterior Urethral Valves". The General Body approved this unanimously.

The Hon. Secretary tabled the proposed amendment to the ASU constitution which was sent to the members earlier.

Existing: Rule 13 Under The Heading Council

The council of the association shall consist of:

Office bearers elected as per Rule 11, two immediate past presidents and 4 members elected in the Annual General Body meeting from the list of suggested nominations submitted representing each state of South India.

Amendment Unanimously Approved By The General Body

The Council of the Association shall consist of:

Office bearers elected as per rule 11, immediate past president and past secretary and 4 members elected in the Annual General Body meeting from the list of suggested nomination submitted representing each state of South India.

The issue of hike in the Life membership fee of ASU was raised

Dr. Srithar from Chennai had submitted the proposal for hike in the membership fee which was deliberated at the Council Meeting and placed before the AGM for discussion. The Secretary and the Treasurer felt that due to escalating costs and the inflation it was justifiable to hike to the membership fee to Rs. 2,000.00. The Treasurer informed that the membership fee had not been hiked since 1996-1997 and most of the state chapters and city chapters had membership fee which was more than the ASU. Dr. H.Krishna Moorthy from Kochi objected to the hike as it would be unjustifiable to charge Rs. 2,000.00 for new members as they would have just finished post graduation. Dr. Nitin Kekre from Vellore was of the opinion that the membership fee should be collected annually and those who would not pay would not be on the rolls. The Secretary informed the difficulty to keep track of the dues as we still do not have a permanent office and staff to monitor this. Legally it would be difficult to enforce as the present members were all Life Members.

Dr. N.Krishnanmurthy after debating this issue, proposed that the hike to Rs. 2,000.00 be placed before the AGM for approval which was approved by the General Body and it would be applicable for fresh applicants. This was seconded by Dr. Shivashankar R.

The meeting concluded with the President thanking all the members present in the General Body.