2st GENERAL ASSEMBLY,
3 July 1994, Halifax Novascotia

Present:
J Hazell (VR) United Kingdom H Verschuure (VR) The Netherlands
C McKinney (NVR) United Kingdom J de Laat (NVR) The Netherlands
P Chalmers (NVR) United Kingdom T Kapteyn (NVR) The Netherlands
S Arlinger (VR) Sweden A Parving (VR) Denmark
L Tell (NVR) Israel Z Szmeja (VR) Poland
H Kristensen (NVR) Denmark E Genovese (NVR) Italy
E Crafoord (NVR) Sweden J Attias (NVR) Israel
J Kießling (NVR) Germany E Laukli (VR) Norway
E Arslan (VR) Italy O Dias (VR) Portugal
C Larsen (NVR) Denmark K Welzl-Müller (VR) Austria
J Barajas (VR) Spain

Apologies for absence:
R Dauman France J Bonnici Malta
M Bergman Israel P Govaerts Belgium
I Jedlicka Czech Republic T Lenarz Germany
Z Skvor Czech Republic A Pascu Romania
J Prihodova Czech Republic J Pytel Hungary
T Spillmann Switzerland M Simonovic Yugoslavia
P Mathis Switzerland K Daemers Belgium
E Sindrason Iceland W Sulkowski Poland
M Sorri Finland G Gavalas Greece
P Cooke Republic of Ireland G Tavartkiladze Russia

1. Report from Chairman (Arlinger):
Representatives were welcomed to the meeting and informed that the officers have been interacting through Email although they had not all met since the meeting in Hannover.

2. Report from Secretariat (Hazell):
It was announced that Pippa Lofthouse who has been employed in the Secretariat since the beginning of EFAS is to leave in October. She is to be replaced shortly and her efforts were warmly acknowledged.

The financial position was presented showing a deficit to date of 1,441.56. The financial report is attached to these minutes. The following future proposals with respect to finance were made. Proposed by Kapteyn and seconded by Chalmers. They were accepted unanimously. There was some discussion about the financial position and Arslan indicated that countries without a Society would have problems collecting these dues.

Proposals
i) It is proposed that the secretariat will generate invoices to cover contributions from each member country.

ii) The proposed contribution is 150 sterling payable by Cheque, Eurocheque or Bank Draft.

iii) Invoices will be sent out in July 1994 for the preceding year and in March of each subsequent year.

iv) The secretariat will reserve the right to discontinue circulating information about EFAS to countries who fail to subscribe to the running costs of the secretariat. In cases of extreme economic difficulty, eg some Eastern European countries, these contributions may be waived.

v) In the event of any profits accruing from the running of the secretariat, these will be put towards the payment of dues from countries in economic difficulties and/or towards their travelling expenses to attend meetings and General Assemblies.

3. Report from Wissenraet (Verschuure):
HV had been in contact with Ullrich Schröder. A short report of just a few pages should be made from a summary of the reports of the Working Groups. Brussels is planning a new programme called Leonardo da Vinci in which vocational training can be funded for supra national purposes. It may include EFTA members as well as Eastern European countries. A summary will be prepared in July and Schröder will approach a colleague who was involved in an earlier similar programme. Once the people responsible for the programme are identified, a meeting will be arranged with Schröder and two members of EFAS (Verschuure / Hazell). After this meeting we will start writing a full proposal.

Verschuure stressed the following points:

i) We must show them that we have done all our enquiries.

ii) We must draw some conclusions.

iii) France and Germany must be represented (at present their reports are missing).

iv) In addition to the Leonardo da Vinci programme, there is a programme for Eastern European countries which needs to be investigated and a meeting organised to include these countries.

During general discussion Arslan indicated that in many cases audiology was considered a part of ENT and otolaryngologists would need to be consulted. Several representatives indicated the importance of EFAS as a multi-disciplinary group and there was lively debate. Parving indicated that the way in which services are provided is a political problem rather than a professional one.

4. Report from conference organisers:
i) Second ECA 1995 - Netherlands; report from de Laat.

500 leaflets of the first announcement was sent on 1 March. There has been much activity raising funds and the scientific committee has met every month over the last half year. The final announcement and call for papers booklet was published and some copies were distributed. More copies are available from de Laat. There would be two main topics; a) Audiology and Public Health Care, b) Methods and Approaches in Audiology. Each of these would be moderated by a panel and there would be a European review presented from different countries, prepared under the supervision of EFAS.

On each of three days there would be two key note speeches based on one of six themes:

Early Development of Hearing and Language Acquisition.
Diagnosis and Management of Diseases of the Ear.
Screening for Auditory Function.
Sound Perception and Speech Reception Capabilities.
Determination of Hearing Handicap.
Hearing in the Elderly.

Each key note speech would be followed by its own round table. In the afternoon, free papers would be presented in up to four parallel sessions. The main conference centre seats 400.

Satellite meetings:
18 March pm and Symposium on Paediatric Audiology (Epidemiological Aspects)
19 March am Moderated by Parving.
24 March Workshop on Otoacoustic Emissions (EEC Concerted Action Project).

Moderated by Ferdinando Grandori.

ii) Third ECA 1997 - Czech Republic. Written report from Prihodova.
Arlinger had visited her and discussed matters relating to the conference. Prihodova had requested help from EFAS members in planning the programme of the conference and it was agreed that a working group would be formed to help with this consisting of Verschuure, Kießling, Hazell and Arlinger. August had been proposed for this conference, but it was agreed that the first week in September would be better for everyone.

iii) Fourth ECA 1999
Proposals for a venue for this conference are requested from EFAS members and should be sent to the Secretariat before the Second ECA.

5. Reports from Working Groups:
Reports of the three working groups set up at the General Assembly in Hannover had been distributed to all voting and non-voting members. Short presentations were made by Chalmers with respect to a review of professional training and Kießling with respect to European cooperation. It was agreed that leaders of the working groups would meet during the conference (see below).

6. Subsidiary Discussion Topics Suggested By Members:
Agenda for next assembly.

The following suggestions and points were made:
i) What exactly was the usefulness of discussion of the working groups for those who were attending the conference (Kapteyn).

ii) There should be a general report of the working groups for attendees (Arlinger, supported by Parving, who indicated that what was begun at the Cambridge conference should be reported back).

iii) It was generally agreed that there was some overlap in data being collected by the working groups and the minimal requirements had not yet been identified (Verschuure).

iv) There was a need for a list of terminology and training (Parving) and it was too early to discuss minimum requirements.

v) Chalmers agreed that the worst problem was terminology. This was a very old issue, the problem of understanding each other and knowing what we have in common (Barajas).

vi) de Laat said that attendees at the conference should have a summary sent out a month before about EFAS and "what we are about".

The next assembly meeting would be at the conference in Noordwijkerhout, Holland and the following meeting during the international audiology congress in Bari, Italy (16-20 June 1996).

Future of EFAS:
Parving indicated that EFAS was more important than ever because of creating a correct balance with ISA. Verschuure suggested joining with Farkas (EFOS) with respect to courses in audiology and that we should write to him for cooperation.

Kapteyn indicated the commercial aspect and that we need to shield off the activities of some hearing aid groups / dispensers.

Dias underlined the importance of EFAS in defining minimum standards and this would be particularly useful with respect to Portugal.

7. Sponsoring Development of Audiology in Central and Eastern Europe.
It was agreed that this should be deferred until after the meeting with Schröder to make a plan for a meeting with Eastern European countries and working with them, discovering what they need and what they wish. Money would be needed for this programme and should be forthcoming from the EEC.

EFAS and otolaryngology:
Much audiology is done in ENT departments so there is a need to cooperate in developing strategies (Barajas) but Parving indicated that three countries have medical audiology and this was a political issue which was not going to be solved here.

Post-implant habilitation:
Tell said that this was a very popular issue and it was necessary to enlarge our knowledge in this field, particularly with respect to children. The issue of infant screening was thought to be covered by the pre-congress symposium in paediatric audiology being organised next year by Parving.

A MEETING OF WORKING GROUPS - HALIFAX NOVASCOTIA
Wednesday 6 July 1994: 07.30-08.30 hr

Present:
H Verschuure (VR) The Netherlands
S Arlinger (VR) Sweden
J Hazell (VR) United Kingdom
P Chalmers (NVR) United Kingdom
J Kießling (NVR) Germany
M Bergman (VR) Israel
A Parving (VR) Denmark

1.
The meeting began with a presentation of an analysis of the data by Hans Verschuure. This has been reduced to a clear visual presentation by one of his research students, but there is still much missing data. It was agreed to extract additional data from the other working groups and incorporate this into a single report.

2.
Leonardo da Vinci programme. This was discussed with respect to vocational training and the fact that it is applicable to Eastern European countries and EFTA countries.

3.
Training programme. There was a discussion about goals for training programmes with respect to:

i) minimal requirement.

ii) university qualifications.

4. Report to Wissenraet.

i) All unknown answers must be filled in and the information with Verschuure by August 1994 for the preliminary report to Wissenraet.

ii) All gaps must be filled in by the year end for the final report / EFAS proposal to Brussels.

5. Meeting with Eastern Europe.
This will be arranged by Arlinger with representatives from Eastern European countries in the early autumn. He would arrange money and venue for this.

6. Visit to Brussels.
It was agreed that a number of visits would be required and that a working group would be formed of Verschuure, Hazell and Kießling who would be prepared to go as necessary to meet the persons in Brussels identified by Wissenraet. Initially we would have to find our own funding, but ultimately Wiseenraet would find funding for the whole programme which would cover our expenses.

SUBSEQUENT MEETING OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY - HALIFAX NOVASCOTIA
Thursday 7 July 1994: 07.30-8.30 hrs

Present:
L Collet (VR) France H Verschuure (VR) The Netherlands
T Lenarz (NVR) Germany T Kapteyn (NVR) The Netherlands
J Kießling (NVR) Germany J de Laat (NVR) The Netherlands
O Dias (VR) Portugal J Hazell (VR) United Kingdom
E Salesa (NVR) Spain P Chalmers (NVR) United Kingdom
I Mair (NVR) Norway K Welzl-Müller(VR) Austria
E Laukli (VR) Norway M Sorri (VR) Finland
E Crafoord (NVR) Sweden A Parving (VR) Denmark
M Bergman (VR) Israel H Kristensen (NVR) Denmark
L Tell (NVR) Israel S Arlinger (VR) Sweden
A Joseph (NVR) Israel P Govaerts (VR) Belgium
S Özkan (VR) Turkey

1. Working groups report
A further presentation was made by Verschuure to the Assembly of the results of the working parties. He identified the problem of the status of Israel with respect to the EEC. Bergman to investigate this. He outlined a proposal for a two tier teaching approach with training being given in English in certain centres in Europe and those who are trained going back to their own country to provide training at a national level in the appropriate language.

2. EFAS Meeting in Holland 1995
A slide presentation was made by de Laat of the delights of Noordwijkerhout and the surrounding countryside in Holland. We were left in no doubt that the conference would provide an excellent opportunity for our interaction and recreation.

A further brief presentation was given by Parving encouraging participation by delegates in the meeting in paediatric audiology (18/19 March 1995).

3. Hearing International / ISA Interaction
Verschuure outlined the discussions which had been taking place in the Internatinal Society of Audiology council about its future. Verschuure is now Secretary-General of ISA council as well as council member of EFAS which should be very useful for the proposed interactions. It was explained that ISA now has only 120 members and is almost entirely concerned with organising the International Congress of Audiology. The rules of ISA are to be changed to adopt a more federal approach and also to provide adequate funding for dissemination of a newsletter, which would initially appear in Hearing International. It was agreed that the only way in which dues could be collected from members was through a single line of upward representation of individual members to national organisation to EFAS and then to ISA. This would probably require an additional 50 sterling to be added to the already agreed annual subscription to EFAS.

No decision will be made until ISA have progressed further with their future plans. It was agreed that cooperation and collaboration with ISA and Hearing International was extremely desirable but many problems still remained in raising dues from members, particularly in member countries where there was not a national society. This underlines the importance of EFAS members promoting national societies where this does not already exist.

4. New Delegates
Soner Özkan PhD was proposed as voting representative for Turkey:
Associate Professor
Hacet Tepe University
School of Medicine, Department of ENT
Div of Audiology
Ankara
Turkey
Tel: 90 312 310 4111 and 90 312 310 3545 ext: 1436
Fax: 90 312 311 3500

Jàn Lacok CSc was proposed as the representative for the republic of Slovakia by de Laat:
Limbova 2
83341 Bratislava
Slovakia
Tel: 07 377 940
Fax: 07 377 659

Their names will be added to the Committee of Reference.