ANMF
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 ANMF Private
MINUTES OF THE
AMERICA NEPAL MEDICAL FOUNDATION
MEETING OF THE MEMBERS
BY TELECONFERENCE
9:00 PM ET, SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1997

 

Executive Committee Member Participants
Gaury Adhikary Sanjaya Khanal (minutes) Roshan Shrestha
Don Blair Janak Koirala Vijay Sigdel
Pradeep Dhital Tara Niraula Kristin Stueber
Arjun Karki (moderator) Sunil Sharma

 

Minutes

Proceedings:

After introduction of all those present, Dr. Karki started the meeting giving the background of ANMF and what it had achieved so far. He informed that ANMF had been registered in NY State as a non profit organization and the tax exempt status would be pursued when the leadership structure is finalized in the Boston meeting on July 5th 1997. He also mentioned the interest of other groups in the ANMF like the Harvard group (who are trying to establish radiation therapy in Nepal) and the New Hampshire group (involved in Internet access development in Nepali hospitals).

The various ANMF organizational issues were also discussed. There was general consensus on the following:

  • A three tier system will be established.
  • The Board of Directors will act as the guiding body for the organization and meet infrequently.
  • The Executive committee will conduct day to day activities of the organization.
  • The first batch of Directors and Executive members will be hand-picked according to their involvement with the organization and ratified in the Boston meeting.
  • The general membership will be open to anyone interested initially.
  • The option of introducing a nominal membership fee versus no mandatory fees for membership will be discussed in Boston.
  • Donations will be strongly encouraged from members and supporters to run the organization.
  • Information about the ANMF and the Boston meeting will be widely circulated for anyone interested to attend (meeting is being held as a part of the ANA annual meeting in Brandeis University, Boston, MA on July 5th, 1997 at 3-6 PM).
  • The preliminary bylaws will be drafted and presented in the Boston meeting.

The following activities for ANMF were discussed:

  1. Sending education materials and equipment to Nepal: Various members have already contributed in sending books and journals to the TU library in Kathmandu. It was agreed upon that people in various specialties should try to get in touch with their various specialty organizations and encourage them to donate journal subscriptions to the medical library in Nepal. The ANMF will coordinate and try to fill in the gaps where any specialty is not covered.
  2. CME program in Nepal: Although the details about the topic, size and the target audience has to be worked out, a CME program in Nepal will be planned for November 1998 under the leadership of Dr. Roshan Shrestha. There was general support given and examples given to this respect with emphasis that the program should be of a high quality.
  3. Internet Consultations: all the members agreed to support the New Hampshire group in sorting the various consultations sent through the Internet from Nepal in their respective specialties and ask the help of their colleagues if the expertise is not available among ANMF members.
  4. Secretariat: the group expressed sincere thanks to Dr. Blair for letting the ANMF use his office as the unofficial Secretariat.
  5. Official status: will work on getting ANMF listed in the annual listing of medical organizations in the United States of the Journal of American Medical Association.

Other issues that were discussed:

  • The representatives of affiliated organization will be allotted time to speak at the ANMF meeting in Boston.
  • Dr. Karki and Dr. Adhikary will speak on the broad agendas of the ANMF in the Nepali perspective while Dr. Stueber will speak on the American perspective.
  • The ANMF web site will serve as the source of information to the public and electronic mail with a mailing list will be used to communicate with the members.
  • The importance to focus on using telemedicine in the future was stressed.

The meeting was finally concluded after summarizing the minutes and a vote of thanks to all the participants at 11:30PM ET.

 

2/8/09