Letter from the presidentSydney the 3rd of September 2008
Dear fellow rehabilitators,
I am so pleased to tell you about how good it was to participate at "The 5th International Symposium on Veterinary Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy" in Minneapolis last week. A big "Thank you!" to the symposiums co-chairs Liz LaFond and Amie Lamoreaux Hesbach for organising it so well! The theme of the symposium was collaboration and collegiality, which was sensed all through the program with participants from different fields of veterinary rehabilitation. There were veterinarians and physical therapists holding lecturers together, as well as other professionals such as engineers speaking on their aspect of the subject. The collaboration was especially promoted during the much appreciated social activities, like the Gala dinner. The program included a vast number of topics like pain management, conditioning, evidence based medicine and behavioural changes- each linked to the functional aspects of the animals. It sure was a special meeting, not only were there over 400 participants (including exhibitors) from 16 countries- all continents, including the poles, were represented since the splendid opening speech was given by Anne Bancroft, the polar explorer. We also had the first formalised bi-annual meeting of the International Association of Veterinary Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy. The organisation is now formally registered as a non-profit educational organisation in Tennessee. We declared the missions and by-laws of the organisation, as well as the economic report. The money that was pledged to the organisation at the 4th Symposium has been used to start and maintain our website. We informed about the membership fees, $50 for active and $30 for associate members, and 98 membership application forms were collected. For those of you who want to join, the membership application form is at this web-page; please return it to Dr. Millis. You will receive further details on how to pay when he has received your application. Four committees were formed; Scientific, Economy, Website, and Symposium. The issues concerning a journal and a database (with easily reached contact information on research and evidence based medicine) will be conducted by the Scientific committee. The Board of Directors will, for the next two years, consist of Anna Bergh (president), May Romer- Bartels (president-elect), Lin McGonagle (secretary, chair website committee), Darryl Millis (treasurer), David Levine (chair scientific committee), Liz LaFond (chair symposium committee), Amie Lamoreaux Hesbach, Amanda Sutton and Narelle Stubbs. One seat on the Board of Directors has been reserved for the chair person of the next symposium. As for the close future, we will organise the work of the committees that were initialised during the meeting, as well as decide on where to hold our symposium in 2010. Those of you, who want to host the symposium, please send us a mail before the 30th of September with the outlines of the planning of the program, facilities, accommodation, social activities and sponsoring. We are looking forward to hearing from you! And we are also greatly looking forward to getting feedback from you- tell us what you want us to do during these next two years and how you are willing to help with it!! We do want at least one representative from each country that can help with getting information regarding that particular country! In this way we will try to work for (and with!) our members to improve the position of animal rehabilitation and physical therapy in as many countries as possible. So, keep in touch and take care, Anna Bergh, president |