Minutes of the XIIth General Body meeting of the Cochlear Implant Group of India, held at the Hotel Trident, Hyderabad on 25 November 2103 at 4 pm.
The General Body meeting of the Cochlear Implant Group of India was held at the Hotel Trident, Hyderabad, on 25th November 2013.
1. The president Dr E.C. Vinaykumar opened the meeting and welcomed the members.
2. Roll Call was taken by Dr Neelam Vaid. 32 members attended the meeting.
3. Elections. Dr N Vaid announced the nominations received for elections to the EC.
The following nominations were received
President – Dr K Mandke. Elected unopposed.
Vice President – Dr M Manoj. Elected unopposed.
EC members - Drs Rambabu, Girish Mishra, Dilip Raghavan, B Srinivas Rao, Ms Neelu Somani, Mr R Ranjith.
Dr B Srininvas Rao hasd contacted Dr Vaid expressing his interest in being considered for the EC, and that he had not received the email inviting nominations. Dr Vaid checked and confirmed that she had the wrong email address. The EC agreed to accept his nomination.
Dr Girish Mishra had to return home while on his way to the meeting on account of an urgent domestic issue. Dr D Raghavan’s flight was delayed and Dr B Srinivas Rao’s flight was cancelled and thus they could not be present for the meeting. It was agreed that their nominatins woud be accepted in absentia.
It was agreed that their nominations can be accepted in absentia in view of the circulstances. Proposed by Dr M Kameswaran. Seconded by Dr R Vishwakarma.
4. Installation of New Office Bearers. The new office bearers were invited to take over.
5. New President address. Dr K Mandke took over as the new president and addressed the General Body.
6. Minutes of the last GBM (XIth GBM held at Hyderabad) were circulated to all the members present. These were passed. Proposed: Dr M Manoj, Seconded Dr M Kameswaran.
7. Accounts for CIGI 2012 – 2013. A copy of the summary of accounts was circulated to all the members present. Dr Sunil Dutt explained the details of the balance sheet to the members. After discussions and clarifications the accounts were passed by the GBM.
The accounts were passed. Proposed: Dr Shankar Medikeri, Seconded: Mr Ranjith
8. CIGICON 2014. Dr Kapil Sikka invited all the members to the next CIGICON which is to be held at AIIMS in November 2014.
9. CIGICON 2015. Dr Vaid mentioned that the EC had received on only one proposal , submitted by Dr Mohnish Grover , from SMS Medical College, Jaipur. She appraied the GB that it was getting difficlut to obtain funding for CIGICONs. It was up to the local organising committee to decide how to run it. The alternate year events ( year of the APSCI) may be held on lesser number of days.
Mrs M Wadhera suggested the conferences should be every 2 years, OR one main conference and one small one. Dr N Vaid reminded the GB that it was mandatory to hold a GBM every year with audited accounts and elections. Dr K Mandke appraised that while it was not mandatory to have a CME every year, it is necessary to have an oration.
Mrs M Gore asked if the conferences were recognised fro CME credits. Dr K Mandke suggested that one can apply for credit hours. The CIGI will have to apply. Dr N Vaid and Dr S Dutt suggested that one should consider this for future CIGICONs. Dr K Mandke suggested that one should inform delegates about applications for credit hours as this woud encourage delegates to attend.
10. Ratification of new members. Dr Sunil Dutt called for 19 new members to be ratified. He read out the list of names.
Dr Prashant C. Sharma
Mr Ravindar Varakala
Dr Ashok Kumar Singh
Dr VVSS Vinay Kumar Y
Dr Shalini Balakrishnan
Dr Jignesh P Rajvir
Mr Rajesh S Nikam
Dr Mohit Agarwal
Dr Sudhir Bayya
Dr Deepak Dalmia
Dr Vijayakrishnan
Dr Senthil Vadivu
Dr Hetal Patel
Mrs Rashmi Deshpande
Dr Deepanshu Singhal
Dr Shama Kovale
Mr Nilambar Behera
Mrs Sreevidya Sherla
Dr Banumathy N
This was passed by the house. Proposed: Dr R Vishwakarma, Seconded : Dr S Medikeri.
11. Cochlear Implants International
Dr N Vaid announced that the access to CII is active. She mentioned that the EC considered to waive off the Rs 1000 membership contribution. The subscription will carry on for another year and she encouraged all members to use it. All members were requested to send an email to Dr Manoj for the password access. Dr Manoj also circulated a document requesting members to update their membership numbers and email IDs.
Dr K Mandke reminded everyone that Rs 3 lacs is a significant amount and the CIGI will try this for another year before deciding whether to continue further, as it is valuable CIGI money.
12. Dr Vaid announced that based on the profits of the last CIGICON (Rs 13 lacs), Dr R Vishwakarma and his team can use 60 % of the profits for increasing awareness of hearing impairment. She mentioned that they have submitted an application for obtaining neonatal hearing screening equipment. This was agreed. Proposed by Dr S Medikeri. Seconded by Dr M Kameswaran.
13. Derogatory Emails circulating regarding CIGI.
Dr N Vaid appraised the GB of the numerous emails by Dr Prahalad that were posted on facebook and sent to various professional organisations slandering he workings of CIGI and the fact that Dr N Vaid and Dr SN Dutt were personally victimised. She invited suggestions from the house on how to respond to this.
Dr N Vaid mentioend the thoughts of the EC on this.
If one was to reply, it would lead to a never ending dialogue that may continue indefinitely.
An alternative was to tabulate the achievements of the CIGI and its members over the last
10 years and post it on the CIGI website. Dr Manoj had prepared a rough draft of this.
In response to the latter, it was felt that many of these were individual success stories and that some membes may feel disguntled about it. Thus it was best to stay calm.
Mrs M Wadhera mentioned that similar material had been sent in the past and assumed that everyone was ignoring it. She suggested that legal opinion be sought and that the allegation was to the body (CIGI) rather than individual.
Dr SN Dutt felt that the issue was the guidelines that are being dissected, and also mentioned the names of all the professional bodies to which these emails have been sent (and that he was copied in each one of these).
Mrs M Gore suggested the CIGI should repsond. Dr K Sikka aired the fact that many junior colleagues and other doctors feel that CIGI may be doing something wrong , and thus should not remain silent, in order to disprove that.
Dr Manoj mentioned that his lawyers suggested to ‘deal this with callous indifference’ ; ie ignore it.
The legal opinion is that If the letter is directed to a specific individual or to the CIGI directly, only then one would consider to respond. Mrs N Mohandas reminded that these posts are on facebook, which is only a social networking site.
Dr K Sikka asked Dr M Kameswaran for his opinion. Dr Kameswaran suggested that CIGI and its members should maintain their own level of prestige, any unbiased person will feel that the author of these letters probably has his own hidden agenda, CIGI is not a statuatory body that can either start or stop any CI programme and that we should ignore this.
Dr K Mandke reassured Dr SN Dutt and Dr N Vaid that all the members were with them; and that as a non member, he cannot challnge CIGI. She also suggested that maybe someone could have a dialogue with him to understand his grievances.
The conclusion of the discussion was to ignore these emails as of now.
14. Dr N Vaid thanked all the members for attending the General Body meeting and thanked Dr E.C. Vinay Kumar for his contribution as the President and wished him and his team the best for the APSCI. The meeting was brought to a close.