ISGE VIDEOS

2007 brings new hope for the future for us all. For those in other parts of the world, a little apolitical comment on where we are “Down Under”.

 

Australia is at present experiencing the worst drought its history and, as a result, some of the most ferocious bushfires the country has ever seen with nearly one million hectares of bush and farm land having been destroyed. Although we feel aggrieved there are many other hot spots in this very unsettled world undergoing a lot more hardship than we are here in the great southern continent-a little more than apolitical!

 

 The ISGE similarly has been undergoing threats to its existence over the last few years with poor membership numbers, mismanagement at certain levels and inadequate funding. The Society continues to be indebted to the loyalty shown to it by Storz under the watchful eye of Mrs. Storz herself. She has continued through the Society’s difficult times to provide us with funding that has continued to feed life into training, corporate and conference sponsorship. For her generosity we are truly grateful. Over the last two years the ISGE has been proud to have Harry Reich at the helm. Harry is known to us all as a great pioneer in most aspects of endoscopic surgery and he has now shown that he also is a fine leader who has worked very hard to keep our Society together through continuing difficult times. Although he is stepping down as president in Osaka ,he will continue to be intimately involved with the leadership group over the next two years.

 

Our Society has been very honoured to have had such outstanding leadership since its inception and I only hope that the future will become rosier under the new leadership relying on experience from Harry, Jacques Donnez, Jack Sciarra, Yap Lip Kee and the like but to name a few.

 

The strength of ISGE during these turbulent times has centred , not only on the successful conferences that have been run throughout the world but its reputation as a Society which specializes in training. The whole membership is indebted to the regional training supervisors for their continuing dedication to the task of organizing and running training workshops throughout the three zones of the globe-Ray Valle in the Americas, Ivo Brosens in Europe and Yap Lip Kee in Asia. These workshops could not have proceeded , despite good leadership, without the generosity of all those who donated their time so freely as teachers.

 

The highlight of ISGE’s 2006 would have to have been the wonderful, socially and educationally, Annual Meeting in Buenos Aires under the directorship of Roberto Sainz. The Society is very grateful for this fabulous meeting and the contribution it provided to our sagging coffers! The regional meeting in Mumbai was well attended and was enjoyed by all those who attended despite the inclement weather-reminded me of Melboure,at least a little.  And, of course, Beijing was a fine regional meeting with very good friends.

 

2007 promises two exciting meetings in the northern spring (March18-21) in Osaka, Japan (Scientfic Chair-Hoshai Hiroshi) and Slovenia (Regional meeting,September 5th) late summer, early Autumn .The latter meeting is to be held in conjunction with the ESGE with the kind co-operation of that society under the careful chairships of Hans Tinnenberg and Lisolette Mettler. Our Japanese colleagues have done a marvellous job in putting together a challenging meeting and they expect a first class faculty to insure success. The theme of the Regional meeting is “Adhesions” and this topic is of great importance to all of us involved in surgery. Details of these meetings can be found on our website at www.isge.org.

 

As usual, with the forthcoming Annual Meeting, there will be elections of new Board members which, of course, means that some others will be stepping aside. As a member of the ExCo I am greatful to all those who have contributed in some way to the survival of the Society. Bruno Van Herendael has helped the Society at a time when it was in great turmoil, The Dark Ages”, and for his contribution we must all be truly grateful.

 

There are many people within the Society that have the enthusiasm to work as a team and make us great-the envy of societies such as AAGL and ESGE. The future ExCo doesn’t really want to be envied but embraced by these other societies so that we can all work together to carry forward the advances that we have made in gynecological surgery.

 

 

 

I look forward to seeing as many members as possible in Osaka,

 

Best wishes from Melbourne Australia,

 

Peter Maher (President-elect,ISGE,2007)