Save the date: EOA Conference 2020 in Italy

Dear friends.

I hope that all of you have had a nice summer so far and a good vacation. But I am very pleased to ask all of you to set aside the dates of 15-19 of April 2020. These are the dates for the next EOA conference which will be held at Garda, about 35 km from the city of Verona in northern Italy. The board of the Italian Ostomy Association FAIS has begun preparations for the conference and me and more members of the EOA-EC will meet with them in October for more planning.  I look very much forward to see as many of you in April 2020 in Italy. Further information on this important conference will be published on the EOA website in time.

But now would also be a good time for those who are interested in becoming members of the EOA-EC to start thinking whether they are ready to give their possiblity a test. There will be one open spot on the EC and the other four current EC members will be voted on if there are more candidates than vacant seats. So, those of you that are interested, you have been „warned“. Concerning the procedure of the nomination: Please wait for the official e-mail on this issue. The e-mail will be sent this autumn by the Nominations Secretary Susanne Deimel (ilco Austria). There you will find all needed details.

Also this autumn you will receive an e-mail with information and details concerning the procedure of possible amendments to the EOA Constitution.

Recently we sent out an e-mail asking for updates on information about leadership, adresses and more to all member organizations.  It is nesseccary for us to know if anything changes, especially with an upcoming conference, so swift replies would be very much appreciated.  

The EOA-EC has had a lot of work on their hands in the last year or so.  I myself have attended various events in The Czech Republik and Poland, other members of the EOA-EC have attended the ECET conference in Rome last June and a conference with French nurses in Paris.  One EC meeting was held last autumn in Copenhagen and the next one will be in Bucharest in October 2019.  The Kock´s pouch project is still being worked on (we are still waiting for some details of one association) and it also seems that doctors and nurses from different countries are getting interested in this kind of surgery again.  We also have some new members and hopefully more will join us in the near future..

And there is more on the horizon.  Ilco Switzerland has sent out invitations for its 40th anniversary which I will attend. And then in late September me and EC member Marie Stéen  will go to Zimbabwe to work on a project with local ostomates. This project is paid for with a grant from the Icelandic Foreign Ministry.  Both of us look forward to that.

But like I said at the beginning of this message; me and all the other members of the EOA-EC look very much forward to seeing you all next April in Italy.

Best wishes from a relatively warm Iceland,

Jon Thorkelsson.