Mailing to IFOS Representatives:
Notice of IFOS General Assembly and Proposed Revised Statutes

Dear IFOS Representatives,

This is official notice that the next General Assembly of the International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies (IFOS) will be from 16:00 to 17:30 on June 27, 2008 in Room 601 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Hong Kong.

Immediately preceding the General Assembly will be an ICO World Ophthalmology Roundtable on Leadership Development (WORLD), from 13:30 to 15:45, in Room 401 of the Convention Center. All IFOS Representatives are invited and expected to participate in the WORLD meeting. We will be presenting information there that we hope will be helpful to the leaders of ophthalmologic societies and asking for your opinions and feedback. Please plan to attend both meetings.

Attached is the draft agenda for the IFOS General Assembly, which will start with some presentations and discussions, followed by a more formal business meeting.

The main action item for the General Assembly is approval of proposed revised Statutes of IFOS. The proposed Statutes are attached, along with a version that shows proposed changes since the last IFOS General Assembly in 2006. There is more information about the changes below. The International Council of Ophthalmology has approved these proposed Statutes, and this is official notice that we will ask IFOS to approve them at the General Assembly in Hong Kong.

We will mail agenda books with a copy of the Statutes and other information to all IFOS Representatives the first week in June. The third attachment is our list of the addresses we have for IFOS Representatives. Please check this list to make sure that we have a correct mailing address for you.

If you have not yet named your IFOS Representative or we do not have correct information, please send it to ICO Secretary General Jean Jacques De Laey, MD, at mailto:Jean.Delaey@Ugent.be as soon as possible, but no later than the end of May.

Note that, for IFOS Representatives to participate in the General Assembly, their societies must have paid their 2008 Dues. Dues notices will be mailed within the next few weeks, and payment is due by June 1.

The most significant proposed revision in the Statutes is to change the official name of the organization from the “International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies” to the “International Council of Ophthalmology.” This was proposed by the Council in order to end the confusion that exists because the official name is IFOS, but the organization is best known as the ICO.

If the proposed Statutes are approved at the General Assembly, ophthalmological societies that are now members of IFOS will become members of the ICO. The current IFOS Representatives from members will become Representatives to the International Council of Ophthalmology. The current Council will become the Board of Trustees of the ICO. The Council will be modifying all Regulations of the ICO, World Ophthalmology Congress and Awards at its meeting in Hong Kong to reflect the change in the official name. The functions will remain as they are now, just the names will be changed.

Other proposed changes in the Statutes are mostly minor wording and technical changes, but they include:

• adding language to state the relationship of the organization to national and subspecialty societies
• deleting language that says the Regulations are included in the Statutes (as proposed by legal counsel)
• adding language that allows the Officers to function as the executive committee of the ICO (which makes it unnecessary to register each member of the Board officially in Switzerland)
• giving the Board authority to set the rate of dues for societies that can’t pay the full amount
• adding language on granting of signatory rights.

Since we were revising the Statutes anyway, we felt it would be a good time to clear up the wording and intent of some of the Articles.

Our legal counsel will submit the proposed Statutes for review by the Register of Commerce in Zurich, and the Council has reserved the right to recommend to the General Assembly changes in the proposed Statutes attached if requested by the Zurich Register of Commerce to comply with Swiss law and regulations.

We hope you will support these proposed changes in the Statutes at the General Assembly in Hong Kong.

If you haven’t already registered for the World Ophthalmology Congress in Hong Kong, we would encourage you to do that as soon as possible, at: www.woc2008hongkong.org/woc/index04_6.shtml. Registration is free to the official Representatives to IFOS. If you have questions about registration, please contact Professor De Laey or Carol Yeung at mailto:carolyeung@woc2008hongkong.org.

Please let us know if you have any questions with regard to the 2008 General Assembly.

We look forward to seeing you in Hong Kong.

With warm regards,

Bruce Spivey, MD
ICO President

945 Green Street
San Francisco, CA, 94133, USA
(1-415) 409-8410
Fax: (1-415) 409-8403
spivey@icoph.org
www.icoph.org