President's Report - August 2007
It is traditional in a President’s report, especially from a new President, to underline how well things are going. Instead, I confess, I see my role this year as posing some questions about our purpose and direction. I feel qualified to do so having attended virtually every AMSANZ meeting for over 20 years and served several years on the committee.
Last year we had quite a successful small-scale and very low-budget conference in Auckland. I think the 40 or so delegates who attended were reasonably happy with it. The following week I went to Tasmania and saw how the Australians did it – by comparison, a grand affair, with lots of camaraderie and lots of levity. I was reminded of the feeling that used to prevail at the AMSANZ meetings in New Zealand, which many of us used to describe as the best conferences on our calendar, the ones not to miss.
I wonder why it seems that we have lost some of that spark in recent years – it is the Committee’s suspicion that have we become too preoccupied with the mechanics and the legalities of CAA medicals, and somehow lost sight of that aspect of celebrating a passion for aviation. The years of battling with CAA and MOT did not exactly engender a barrel of laughs, but those battles have hopefully now passed – so we would like to do something to recapture that earlier feeling and have a bit more fun.
Your thoughts on how to do that will be critical.
But firstly, who are we?
Of the 127 on the membership list, some 32 have 3 or more years of unpaid subs – and will soon receive a letter seeking confirmation that their membership should lapse. That leaves some 95 active members (6 women, 89 men). Just six of these (almost all ME’s) reside off-shore.
Interestingly, of those 95 members, only 64 are currently ME’s according to the CAA website. Of the remaining 31, four are current or previous CAA doctors, another 18 are in relevant clinical specialities (mostly ophthalmology, but also ENT and one psychologist) – leaving a further 9 members who are non-ME doctors, almost all GP’s and from my reckoning, mostly ex-ME’s (such as Brian Spackman).
Also interestingly, 9 of the 67 ME’s resident in New Zealand are not members of AMSANZ (some were previously), and I will ask the committee to approach those members for their feedback on how they see the Society.
Not surprisingly, most of the 21 offshore ME's are not in AMSANZ (though many of them are members of ASAM in Australia).
Secondly, what are we?
Our rules as quoted on the website (which does need updating), give our objects as
the cultivation and promotion of aviation medicine and related sciences or disciplines,
the provision of an authoritative body of opinion in relation to aviation medicine.
The objects go on to mention: meetings, written articles, competitions, support of research, and co-operation with similar groups especially in Australia.
In terms of meetings, in 2006 we had two successful small meetings, one in conjunction with the Easter Warbirds over Wanaka show, and the other at Air New Zealand in Auckland. This year is our third time to gain economies of scale by combining with ANZSOM.
Next year is up for debate, as will be discussed later, and 2009 is planned to be a combined meeting in Fiji with the Australians, whose organisation is now the Australasian Society of Aerospace Medicine.
In terms of written articles and research, little has happened. Notably, there has been no sign of “AvMedia” in a long time. As far as co-operation with similar groups, the Wanaka Airshow meeting was a conjoint effort with the Victorian Society Branch (AMSVIC) and was a great success.
The “President’s Prize” for the top student on the Otago Diploma Course has ceased to be relevant now that the course is mostly overseas students. However, the Patterson Trust has agreed to support the Erenstrom Prize for the best paper presenting original research in aviation medicine at the conference. This year we did not receive anything resembling an entry, but we intend to push it next year. My suggestion would be a winning prize of $1500 and a runner-up prize of $500.
Those are our stated objects and purpose, but are they right? What about the other doctors who are passionate about aviation, but are not medical examiners? The committee listed a dozen such colleagues off the tops of our heads. Should we be doing things of interest to them, or should our activities focus on pilot medical examinations? And once we have clarified our purpose, how do we achieve it, and enjoy it more along the way?
One of the suggestions from the Committee is that next year we depart from the traditional conference model, and try a weekend fly-in meeting, in the later summer or early spring when the weather is stable.
Several ideas have been floated as possibilities. We could run two such meetings, in different parts of the country. We felt it would be a workable model to have a three-year cycle in which one is “non-standard” in this way, one is our traditional conference, combined with ANZSOM if that suits, and the third year is a combined meeting with the Australians.
Another suggestion was some new committee members. New people mean new ideas, and we think that we need to be refreshed a little!
And beyond that, we need your ideas. I recall years ago, when I edited AvMedia, we conducted a membership survey to find out what members wanted. The most compelling conclusion we reached was that most the members had no interest in completing a survey. We concluded that nobody felt strongly about the need to change anything.
However, I hope that this time we can generate ideas to help make the practice of aviation medicine more stimulating and satisfying.
David Powell