Natasha Pedersen, member of the EAPC Board of Directors, and Julie Ling, CEO of the EAPC, report on the first face-to-face meeting of the new board held in October.
Left to right: Julie Ling and Natasha Pedersen.
A new board was elected at the EAPC World Congress in Berlin in May this year. Since May, board members have been working remotely but met in person for the first time in October 2019 in Malahide, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Six members were re-elected from the last board: Danila Valenti, Josep Porta Sales, Sébastien Moine, Daniela Mosoiu, Catherine Walshe and, last but not least, the new EAPC President, Christoph Ostgathe. We were also delighted to elect Sandra Martins-Pereira, Jeroen Hasselaar and Sébastien Moine as Vice-Pesidents; Catherine Walshe as Treasurer and Gert Huysmans as Secretary.
The new board members: Sonja McIlfatrick, Sandra Martins-Pereira, Natasha Pedersen, Martin Loučka, Jeroen Hasselaar, Karl Bitschnau and Gert Huysmans were all keen to gain a better understanding of the everyday working of the EAPC. On the first day, some time was set aside to orient the new members to the organisation. Ex-President, Phil Larkin, presented by Zoom call from Switzerland and reflected on his time as president. Augusto Caraceni, chair of the EAPC Research Network, also joined the meeting to give the new board a presentation by Zoom and the opportunity to ask questions.
Taking time out (briefly!) from the EAPC Board meeting: board members at Malahide Castle, Co. Dublin.
Meet the EAPC Board of Directors 2019 to 2023
To find out more about our board members – what inspired their career in palliative care, their achievements and what they plan to bring to the board – read their personal statements here.
The success of the Berlin congress was discussed. It had attracted the most delegates of any EAPC congress with 3,039 attendees. More than 1,000 congress participants completed the evaluation giving generally positive feedback. All feedback, good and bad, is used in the planning of our next main congress. The 17th EAPC World Congress will take place in Helsinki, Finland, on 20 to 22 May 2021. In the meantime, we are busy planning the EAPC World Research Congress, which will take place in Palermo, Italy (14 to 16 May 2020). The board were pleased to hear that the scientific committee were already at a very advanced stage in the planning of the congress.
Board members were really interested in the work of the EAPC groups and want to help and support them in any way they can. Each task force and reference group has a dedicated board link to help with this. (You can find out more about all our groups here). The board also approved a proposal to review the 2009 EAPC Standards and Norms in Palliative Care paper. Work is to begin on this shortly.
The EAPC continues to participate in four European-funded research projects, one funded by Erasmus and three H2020 projects. View the list of EU-funded projects in which we are involved here. Some of these research projects have already contributed articles to our blog, which you can view here – we hope to publish more in the future.
Your voice matters…
The next board meeting will take place in Bologna, Italy, in March 2020. As always, the board are keen to hear from members about the issues that matter most to you. Please feel free to contact either the President or CEO if you have any issues you would like the board to address.
Join the EAPC palliative care social media community and keep up to date with our activities
- EAPC blog: www.eapcnet.wordpress.com
- Twitter: @EAPCvzw
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/EAPC.Vzw/
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/European Association for Palliative Care
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eapc.vzw/
- EAPC website: www.eapcnet.eu (For publications, membership, e-newsletter and much more).
Join us in Palermo for the 11th EAPC World Research Congress #EAPC2020
Please visit the congress website for full information. Don’t forget to join the EAPC as an individual or associate member for a reduced conference rate!
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