Veterinary Cardiovascular Society (Click here for pdf of minutes)

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting 2024

 

4pm-5pm 8th November 2024

Chesford Grange Hotel, Warwickshire

 

Present (88): Adrian Boswood, Alastair Hill, Amie Nugent, Angela Bodey, Anne French, Babs Ingram, Brian Love, Caroline Cuttler, Carlos Agudelo, Chris Fellows, Chris Linney , Claire Denny, Claudia Rosa Valverde, Dan Andrews, Dave Fisher, David Hurley , David Sewell, Emily Dutton, Emma Cottrell, Emma Murphy, Fabio Sarcinella, Fiona Sykes, Gavin McAulay, Geoff Culshaw, Geoff Holt, Hanna Selfelt, Hannah Stephenson, Henry Fan, Ian Johnson, Illaria Spalla, Jane Marshall, Jane Pigott, Jo Arthur, Jo Dukes McEwan, Jo Harris, Jodi Burgess, John Keen, John Sauvage, Joséphine Dandrieux, Julie Hamilton, Julie Todd, Karen Blissitt, Katie Howell, Katya Potter, Laura Korenchy , Laurence Doddy, Lesley Young, Liz Bode, Lukasz Jaworski, Maria Iole Giannitrapani, Mario Vastano, Matthew Keane, Mattia Basili, Melanie Norris, Michelle Weaner, Mike Martin, Monika Czerwinska, Neil Walmsley, Nekesa Morey, Omri Belaschen, Paul Wotton, Phil Tricklebank, Rachel Blake, Rachel Farrington, Riccardo Minelli, Ruth Willis, Saiorse Kennedy, Sara Hickling, Sara-Ann Dickson, Sarah Dallinger, Selena Brownlie, Sharon Dobson, Sheena Lewis, Sheena Milne, Sid Sudunagunta, Sophie Goodrich, Stuart Drewrey, Sue Roberts, Tim Bradbury, Tobias Wagner, Tom Mullany, Tom Robertson, Vicky Ironside, Virginia Luis Fuentes, Warwick Payne, Xavier Navarro-Cubas, Xiang Jun Lam, Yi Lin Lam, and

 

Apologies for absence: Peter Darke

 

  • Matters arising from minutes of the AGM held on November 10th 2023. 

No matters arising from AGM 2023

 

VOTE: Are the minutes a correct reflection of the AGM 2023

Proposed Geoff Culshaw, seconded Vicky Ironside

Everyone in the room voted yes. 

 

  • Constitutional Reform 

Currently the constitution only allows veterinary surgeons to vote on VCS matters, Geoff Culshaw proposed a vote to change this to include any member. The Constitution requires some updating, the new committee will review and put proposals forward for any amendments by email prior to, and for voting in at the AGM in 2025. 

 

VOTE: All members are to be entitled to vote on VCS matters regardless of profession

Proposed Dave Sewell, Seconded Hannah Stephenson

Everyone in the room voted yes, motion carried, constitution to be updated

 

  • Chairperson’s report
  • Clinical interventional audit

Meeting held on 7th November, chaired by Mike Martin, with discussion on how to create an online audit, and defining procedural success for PDA, BVP and pacemaker implantation. It is hoped many centres will contribute to this audit. Further details to follow. Equine clinical audit is being managed by John Keene. Mike Martin hoping to present results at the next Autumn meeting. 

 

  • BSAVA proposal for moving Satellite Meetings 

 

Geoff Culshaw provided pre-reading material regarding a proposal from BSAVA to move satellite meeting into the new standard BSAVA programme for Thursday-Sunday main meeting. Initially the plan was to implement this as a pilot in Spring 2025, but BSAVA is deferring until 2026 at this time. Advantages and disadvantages given by Geoff in pre-reading for meeting, but to recap main points: joining BSAVA mainstream will allow all lunches and AV recordings to be paid for by BSAVA with access to the exhibition for all delegates. Concerns included one less day of CPD hours by removing the Wednesday VCS meeting, sponsorship of satellites may reduce as the sponsors may concentrate on the  support of their main exhibition space and that there may also be constant, disruptive movement of delegates in and out of the hall to attend the talks that they find more interesting. If BSAVA presentation format required, it may not suit the VCS programme and more BSAVA might potentially reduce large animal content. 

 

Member comments:

  • It must be clear that the satellites retain autonomy for their programmes with no stipulations from BSAVA. 
  • There needs to be a clearer understanding of the driving factor for this move and members requested more clarification. 
  • Why not continue a higher-level satellite meeting and alongside, run a VCS GP stream within the content of the main BSAVA programme. 

 

Further exploration planned for Q4 2024 via Teams Meeting between satellites and BSAVA and so further information may come to light at this stage. 

 

VOTE: Do VCS members wish to take part in the trial integration of the Spring Meeting into BSAVA Congress in 2026

Proposed  Geoff Culshaw, seconded Chris Linney

Vast majority NO, YES (3)

Decision made to review again next AGM when further information has been made available by BSAVA. 

 

  • Society website

We now have a provisional live date 18th November. This will be confirmed by email to all members if this goes live. Members will receive an update from the VCS Secretaries, and for those who have an active membership (defined as renewed  since September 2023), they should also receive an automated email from the new website to log-in and check details. 

 

A large amount of work has been done behind scenes by Ursula Lannigan and Vicky Ironside with Staxo (website developer) and setting up has been very labour intensive. Provisional live date is 18th November with vigilant support from developers in the first week. Migration of membership will occur, and all members will need to log in and confirm their details. In the future, the links for registrations will only be available in the members’ area, although it is intended that anyone will be able to see the programme without being a member. 

 

All members who joined renewed from September 2023, will automatically be migrated, members with lapsed membership will not be automatically migrated. Membership will last 1 year from payment and will need to manually renewed individually on the anniversary of the payment as per website notification. 

 

All members on a standing order will need to cancel this with their bank once the site goes live, as all payments will be made via the new website. Unlike Direct Debits, standing orders can only be amended by the owner of the bank account. Failure to stop the standing order will result in double payment. This system follows similar membership renewals and will allow better visibility of membership numbers and an up-to-date register.

 

Members will need to email treasurer@vet-cardio.co.uk if:

  • you do not receive an automated email
  • you are being told your membership is out of date when you believe it isn’t  
  • or you do not have an account

 

Please pay your membership if it is out of date, until this is updated, you will not be able to access the members section and will not be able to register for the meeting. 

 

  • Affiliate society meeting 5th December to decide on Petsavers jointly funded grants

There will be a change to joint funded grants by Petsavers in 2025, implemented by BSAVA. From 2025 there will be fewer grants awarded to Joint initiatives between Petsavers-satellite. VCS has historically held one of these. From hence forth,  applications from the individual Satellites will be assessed by Petsavers and Petsavers will choose who to partner with, changing every 1-2 years through the different satellite groups.  This will result in fewer large grants unless these are fully funded by VCS. The new committee will attend upcoming meetings and report back to the members with any updates over this next quarter, and whether a fully funded, as yet unknown amount, would be provided yearly from VCS.

 

  • Next year’s AGM is 50th anniversary

Request made for suggestions for our 50th anniversary and survey will be sent with the meeting feedback questionnaire. A vote was initiated for whether partners would be allowed, there were 8 against, 24 for the motion, the rest were abstentions. 

Chris Linney, as secretary and events organiser, advised we already allow non-VCS guests to attend the gala dinner, so a vote is unnecessary as we do not intend to change the current offering. Members are encouraged to provide suggestions for our 50th anniversary meeting and celebrations. 

 

  1. Thank you to VCS and fellow committee members. 

Geoff Culshaw highlighted the work done by this committee to the AGM including: 

  • Webpage – once up and running will serve society needs (organisation, accounting and information sharing) much better
  • Poster sessions – there is a hope that more practitioners will submit posters, and this session allows accessibility to present at the meetings by different methods and not just on stage. 
  • Nurses stream – went well and plan to run again in 2025, consider if this should be recorded like the main stream 
  • Conference programmes of high quality, variety and interest
  • Accounts – much better organisation and tracing of monies, and accountant happy with the changes and implementation of Xero

 

  • Committee privilege (see honorary lifetime membership award later in minutes)

 

  1. Secretaries’ report 
    1. New members voted in (59): this includes previously lapsed members with the current membership system

Election of new members; Durshant Somaskantha, Joao Salvado, Isabella Harding, Fiona Sykes,  Alicia VanCasteren, Yi Lin Lam, Lukasz Jaworski, Nina Siriwardena, Phoebe Crawford, Xiaoxiang Zheng, Marc Verrall, Laurence Doddy,  Styfianos Skoufos, Tereza Nemanic, Simon Weir, Lysbeth Fowler, Martynas Pleskys, Nagella Naveen, Rachel James, Karina Sherozia, Claudia Rosa, Sarah Carey, Anne Overgaard, Rajat Mukherjee, Jimm Starks, Olga Kucinska, Nathaniel Hind, Daniel Jones, Tara Marsh, Teresa Park, Cathereine Stowell, Marta Salvati, Jelena Ristic, Hannah Packham, Sharon Mitchell, Joana dias, Caroline Taylor, Elizabeth Power, Miguel Perez, David Connolly, Hannah Selfelt, Callan Ferneyhough, Manasa Bharadwaj, Sarah Dallinger, Anna Samorodnitskaia, Riccardo Minelli, Gemma Tyner, Bharadwaj Palani, Aaron Hunt, Steve Gosling, Elliott Ward, Henry Fan, Ioana Tescoveanu-Kreb, Michelle Weaver, Katherine Measures, Kate Finnegan, Ina Cojoaca, Gregory Van den Noortgate, Ciara Docherty

 

First and seconded by Rachel Blake, and Vicky Ironside 

All new members voted in by majority. 

 

  • Congratulations to this year’s successful Diploma and Certificate candidates:

 

Newly awarded CertAVP(VC): Rui Miguel de Oliveira Gomes Maximo, Amanda Ford, Emma Riley, Marianne Stabaek Martin, Zuzanna Uljanowska, Philippa Gould, Daniel Jones, Matthew Keane, Eleri Parfitt, Jessica Sage

 

Newly awarded Advanced Practitioners in Veterinary Cardiology: Anna Beber, Kyriaki Tsikala, Emma Louise Riley, Hannah Clare Packham, Emma-Louise Karen Waller, Karl Roland Bovenizer, Mark James Taylor, Hiu Chung Cheryl Chan

 

New ECVIM Diplomats:  María Mateos Panero, Elżbieta Mederska, Íñigo Sanz González

 

New ACVIM Diplomats: Joshua Sandeman Hannabus, Luke Dutton 

 

New Veterinary Technician Specialists (Cardiology) : Emma Hudson

 

  • Grants and Bursaries 

Reminder of grants available

 

Joint Petsavers/VCS Research Grants (see above): 

This grant will be changing for 2025 with potentially no support from Petsavers, this may therefore not be available in 2025. Other grants are being considered, potentially of lower amount from the VCS only. 

Historically Petsavers/VCS research grants have been 2 grants: £10,000 per grant. This is under review and the new committee will inform members of the outcomes of meetings by correspondence. 

 

Joint Horse Trust/VCS Small Project Grant: 

1 grant: £10000 per grant 

Applications: 

How to apply: https://horsetrust.org.uk/research/research-funding/ 

Deadline: Applications open all year round, considered on a quarterly basis

 

Alistair Gibson memorial fund/BreathEazy Ltd Bursary 

1x Bursary: £1200 for a member to pursue further education 

Application form available from VCS Secretary 

Applications open soon. Deadline 28th February 2025

Successful applicants to be announced at VCS Spring meeting 2025

The successful applicant will be expected to provide a short presentation on their course/training activity and the benefits at the VCS Spring meeting the following year (2026)

 

ACVIM/ECVIM Travel Bursaries

2 x ECVIM travel bursaries: £800 each

2 x ACVIM travel bursaries: £1000 each

In person attendance amounts (reduced by 50% if on-line attendance only)

Applications open soon, deadline 28th February 2025

Successful applicants announced in March at VCS Spring meeting 2025

Expected to present findings in November at VCS Autumn meeting 2025

Applicants must be a VCS member

 

  • Treasurer’s Report

 

  1. Accounts presented for 2023-2024. A small surplus was in the accounts for the past three years. Currently £160,037 in the account but reasonable expenses for 2025 with 50th anniversary upcoming, ongoing costs of web maintenance and potentially a solo VCS funded grant.
  2. Last meetings (Mar 24 and Nov 23) were run with an overall loss £6500, based on total revenue from registrations, although this excludes sponsorship, and the latter buffers the meeting to mean no overall loss. The accountants have suggested that the registration costs should ideally cover full cost, but as a society, the sponsorship supports the running of the meetings. Sponsorship therefore means there was no overall loss from the meetings; the expense of meeting rooms, increase in audiovisual (prior to COVID there was no recordings, and this is an additional expense of several thousand). 
  3. Surplus from meetings helps to allow issuance of our annual grants and memorial grants, so whilst there has been small surplus, there has not been a joint VCS-Petsavers grant awarded in the last 2 years.
  4. Overall costs of running meetings have increased considerably and continues to rise above inflation, addition of recorded content allows members to access content after the event and also online registrations for the recordings.

 

VOTE: Approval of accounts by members

Proposed by Vicky Ironside Paul Wooton

Approved with vast majority

 

Summary of main figures for last few years’ meetings:

2024 (Nov 23 & March 24 meeting) 2023 (Nov 22 & March 23 meeting) 2022 (Nov 21 & March 22 Meeting)
Total Registration for both conferences (excl sponsorship) £91,707 £62,568 £63,586
Total Venue and Speaker Costs for both conferences £98,305 £56,764 £51,196
Net assets for the year £160,037 £157,981 £155,279
Surplus for the year £2056 £2702 £3474

 

As of 8 Novemebr 

Nat West Current Account – £18,000

Nat West Reserve Account  (1.35%) – looking to be moved  – £86,150.60

Monmouthshire Building Society (2.4%) – looking to be moved  £72,094.58

Website – Currently tangible asset (recent accounts) at £11,144

 

  1. Plan.

Move all money from Monmouthshire Building Society to a long-term savings account with better interest rate & one that is easier for successive treasurers to manage.  Move money from NW reserve into this new account (3-6m reserve account) leaving enough in both NW accounts to cover expenses in the next 10 months and the cost of a failed meeting.

At last November’s AGM it was agreed that the membership fees would increase to £35 for new members and £30 annually for renewal.

This is now in force but has not been efficiently applied yet; it required all standing order members to update the standing order, and very few members have done this, in any case, the next membership fee will be via the website. 

 

Today (9/11/24) records are indicating 310 members whose membership is currently in date.  

 

  • Breed Related Subcommittee Update Cardiac screening advisory group 

 

  1. Ongoing liaison between VCS and Kennel Club regarding screening. KC very keen to support the schemes and make official KC schemes. To that end, cardiology development days have encouraged several breeds to help develop these new screening schemes in 2024: Chihuahua, Newfoundlands, Irish Wolfhound, Great Danes, Boxer, English Bull Terrier. 
  2. It has been suggested/noted that the French bulldog and Whippet may have increased incidence of pulmonic stenosis. Hannah Stephenson requested that all Kennel Club registered animals provide their KC Reg number and submit this to the Kennel Club on the following email: Vet must have owner permission to share this with the Kennel Club from the owner and members were advised to check with their own institution if written consent required from owners. 
  3. VCS screening guidelines for selected breeds are in development and will be posted on the website to help those breed screening and standardise approach to heart screening. 
  4. Development of screening guidelines for cats (HCM) ongoing, almost ready to share with society. CSAG aim to take responsibility for HCM negative register. 
  5. Development of online forms for data entry is ongoing to reduce paper copies 
  6. Development of standardised assessment for cardiologists echo screening prior to breeding
  • Trial run performed November 7th which worked well and there is an aim to roll this out and expect all currently listed to attend this within 5 years of the first assessment to remain on the register. New applications and registering from the exam will go live later this year for the first cohorts of 2025.
  • Proposal:
    • 2 sessions per year – COST: £4300 per session
    • 8 candidates per session – COST £530 per candidate and reaccredit every 5 years 
    • All members of screening lists ultimately to be assessed, continually assessed and adjusted/reviewed 

 

 

  • IT Update
  • Provisional live date 18th November 
  • All members will need to register, those who have active membership, since September 2023 will automatically be transferred. See instructions above for further information. 
  • Committee will send detailed instructions at the time this is ready to be launched.

 

  • Lifetime Honorary Membership was awarded to Mike Martin for his services to VCS, UK and worldwide advancement of cardiology. Lifetime members do not have to pay yearly membership. 

 

 

  • AOB

None

 

  • Your New Committee 2024 – 2028

Chairperson: 

Gavin McAulay

Treasurers

Vicky Ironside 

Claire Denny 

Website/proceedings:

David Hurley 

Secretaries

Julie Hamilton-Elliott

Sid Sudunguntha 

 

Next meeting: VCS Spring Meeting, Manchester 19th March 2025

Next AGM: Autumn Meeting 7-8th  November 2025