Minutes of the GBM held on Feb 21, 2015. Jaipur
The President IACTA, Dr Murali Chakravarthy, called the meeting to order.
Seated on the dais were the President, Senior Vice President, Associate Vice
President, The Secretary, Treasurer and the Chief Editor of IACTA.
1. Report of tenure by Secretary and Treasurer.
Dr Suresh Nair gave a very brief report on the progress that IACTA has
made during the last 3 years. The highlights were:
a) Membership of IACTA has increased by 241 in the last 3 years and now
stands at 1261. This excluded the 20 odd membership requests that
were received during the first day of the conference
b) The IACTA secretariat has now become the nerve center of all
activities related to the society. All queries are now directed to the
secretary and the office, unlike previous years where it was
distributed to different offices. Even Life Membership and application
for various examination or courses conducted by IACTA are now
initially directed to the IACTA office and then re-directed
c) The IACTA office in consultation with the Treasurer now deals with all
financial transactions. All financial commitments are now monitored
by the IACTA secretariat while giving enough independence to all
IACTA related bodies (IERC, Annals and TEE) to deal with finances as
seemed fit by them.
d) The secretary called out to the GBM to give a special thanks to the
Treasurer because of whom, the entire financial confusion prevailing
in IACTA could be dealt with efficiently. At the time of taking over, the
Annals accounts were not properly accounted and IACTA was under
the IT scanner. All this could be dealt with efficiently because of the
untiring efforts of the Treasurer, Dr Thomas Koshy.
e) FIACTA and TEE workshop applications are now directed to the
IACTA office and from there, are now disbursed to the respective
offices.
f) All Life membership applications now receive a reply from the IACTA
office within 72 hours and any queries are dealt with without delaywithin 48 hours.
g) Amendments of the by laws have been made in 2013 and presented to
the GBM. These amendments are now to be send to the Registrar’s
office.
h) Inaugural function at the National Conference is now protocoled and
strictly followed. This is the third year we are successfully following
the protocols.
i) Confusion related to all orations and Life Time achievement awards,.
are now cleared and is being followed. This includes the list of
members who should sign the certificates, amount to be used for
medals, and who should bear the expenses including those of the
recepients
j) New IACTA-Kabir and IACTA-Belani awards were introduced in 2014
from the contributions made to the society by Dr Kabir and Dr Belani
(ongoing contribution). These awards are given to the best students of
TEE and FIACTA examinations.
k) ID cards have been issued to a great number of IACTA members and
we have collected about 150 requests at the present conference. These
cards will be handed over by the end of March. Members having old
cards were given new cards.
2. Financial aspects IACTA
The treasurer, Dr. Thomas Koshy presented the details of the audited
accounts of previous financial year (FY 2013-14 or AY 2014-15) which
was filed with the IT department. The IT return of AY 2014-15 was
projected which was claiming a refund of around Rs 540000. The
consolidated balance sheet of IACTA and ACA, the individual balance
sheets of both along with their receipts & payments were explained. The
balance sheet of the 7th TEE conference was also shown. Furthermore, the
treasurer presented the provisional receipts and payments of IACTA of
the current financial year (FY 2014-15). He pointed out that the
expenditure was the tune of Rs 19 lakhs which included an advance of Rs
5 lakhs for the Jaipur conference.
The treasurer also projected the details of the bank accounts of both
IACTA and ACA as on January 2015. Further he showed the IT refund of
Rs 87390 towards IACTA which was as a result of the IT refund claim of
Rs 79813 filed in 2013. This was the first time IACTA was getting a refund
from the IT department. The printed copies of the audited accounts and IT
returns were given to all attending the GBM.
The details of the case running in the IT department was presented. The
treasurer stated that the case was entrusted with Mr Rahul Khare and
associates. There was also a personal hearing with the IT officer in Delhi
in which Dr Thomas Koshy and Dr Poonam Malhotra represented IACTA.
The final verdict is yet to come.
3. IACTA Education and Research Society.
The IERC will be re-named as Indian College of Cardiac
Anaesthesiology. This will be effective from June 2015. The tenure and
the posts of this new college will be informed through the website as well
as through newsletter to all the members. The selection of the members
to the new posts will be completed by the end of the conference (EC
meeting on Feb 22nd). The new members will be invited to take over the
function by June 2015 ICCA meet. A proposal was also made to coincide
the selection to the ICCA posts with the national conference every year.
This suggestion was accepted by the GBM. This process will have the
senior members elected to ICCA at the National Conference in 2018.
4. Elections 2015: President Secretary and Treasurer.
Applications to these senior posts were only one each and hence there are
no elections. Dr Rajiv Tiwari is now elected as the new Associate Vice
President, Dr Thomas Koshy the new Secretary IACTA and Dr Abraham
Cherian the new Treasurer.
5. Elections 2015: Executive Committee
Elections to the EC are based on zonal basis. This year there were 4
members completing their tenure from the South and one from the East.
The posts vacant were 3 from the South and one each from the East and
Central zones. The IACTA office received one application from the North
and two from the East zone. The application from North was discarded,
as there is no vacancy from this zone. One application from West was
discarded as it did not fulfill the criteria for application. Dr Navneet
Mehta, who had applied from West was considered, as he could step into
the vacancy left by Dr Rajiv Tiwari (now Associate Vice President).
However, this is only for one year. Since there were only two applications
from the South (available seats 3), the President suggested the name of Dr
Jayaprakash K (Karnataka) as the third member from the South to the EC.
Other members from south are Dr Jacob Abraham and Dr Kumar S. Dr
Saibal Chowdhury who had applied from the East was automatically
elected. Dr Yatin Mehta suggested the name of Dr Poswal from Indore
(Central zone) as the EC member from the Central zone.
6. Travelling Fellowship.
The only applicant for the Travelling Fellowship this year is from Dr
Deepanwita Das from Calcutta. She has submitted all requisite certificates
along with her application. The Travelling Fellowship is awarded to her
for the year 2015-16.
7. Website update.
The Secretary mentioned when he took over that he would make a very
vibrant website. Unfortunately, this did not materialise in the first two
years as the website manager was found lacking in imagination and
support to IACTA. In 2014 August-September, a new web manager has
been consulted and since then we have a very active web site and more
activities are now promised on the website soon. This includes:
a) Breakfast with IACTA managed by Dr Shreedhar Joshy and Dr Deepak
Borde, two active youngsters. The members were requested to visit
the site and give their opinion.
b) Case discussion corner. Members could post difficult cases in this
corner and get inputs to the management from members of IACTA
c) ECHO library. A ECHO library has been in our vision for many years. Dr
Murali Chakravarthy now informed the GBM that he would now be a
coordinator for the website and will have a group of 8 members who
could help as peer reviewers, going through the submissions before
posting it on the website. This would be functional in another month.
All members and non-members can download echo from the site for
the present.
d) Online payment. The website now has the details useful for all
payments to IACTA including FIACTA, TEE or Life Membership fee,
making it easier for members to interact with the society.
e) Others. The web manager has also mentioned that the website will
now be used for various notifications including alert messages
whenever a new item is posted on the website.
8. TEE New training Centers.
Guidelines for New TEE training centers are now ready. Dr Rajesh Arya
has prepared this with inputs from Dr Gopinath and Dr Muralidhar. Dr
Muralidhar is selected as the National Coordinator for TEE. The final
guidelines and teaching centers will be available on the website after
approval by Dr Muralidhar.
9. City and State Branches.
Guidelines for the city and state branches also ready and will be soon
available on the website.
10. Amendments to by laws.
Past President’s who are above the age of 70 years will be given a waiver
of registration fee for the National Conference. This amount will be borne
by the Organizing Committee. It was also brought to attention that the
The Secretary and the Treasurer will be carrying out significant IACTA
official work during the conference. Hence IACTA would pay an amount of
Rs 10,000 each for meeting the expenditures towards accommodation
and transportation for participating in the National Conference.
11. Venue for future conferences.
The 2016 conference will be held in Chennai. There was a discussion
regarding 2017 conference. Both Lucknow and Pune contested for the
2017 venue. A voting was done and it was decided that Pune would be the
venue for the 2017 conference. Both Hyderabad and Ludhaina wanted
the conference to be held in their city in 2018. A voting was called for and
the majority of the members voted for the Hyderabad venue. So
Hyderabad will be the venue for 2018.
The President, Dr Murali Chakravarthy then handed over the office to the
incoming President Dr Mahesh Vakamudi. The new members including Dr Rajiv
Tiwari, Dr Thomas Koshy,Dr Abraham Cherain, Dr Jacob Abraham, Dr Kumar S,
Dr Saibal, Dr Poswal and Dr Jayaprakash K came on the stage. The new President
gave a promise that he will ensure the progressive growth of the society and will
work for the society. He called the meeting to an end.