October 2007

Leuven, October 9, 2007

To all members of the Belgian Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery

Dear Colleague,

It is with great pleasure that we would like to invite you to the 12th Meeting of the BACTS that will take place at the Sodehotel- Woluwe, Avenue F. Mounierlaan 5, B-1200 Brussels on Saturday, November 17 2007.

The scientific committee has created an interesting program based on the submitted abstracts. A flyer of the scientific program will be posted soon; the provisional program is already included in this mailing.

The General Assembly will take place from 8.30 - 9.30 hrs (registration starts at 8.00 hrs). The Assembly will be followed by the 12th Congress on Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (10.00 – 16.30 hours) organized by our Association.

During this General Assembly a new board will be elected. The list of candidate board members as well as a procuration form (ordinary members only) is included. According to the bylaws of our Association, every ordinary member (excluding junior, senior, corresponding, and honorary members), having paid the annual contribution, will have one vote and may carry one procuration. Please give your procuration form to a colleague if you can not attend the business meeting!

The different committees of the society will present their reports during the meeting. A milestone was achieved last year with the consensus by all parties to create a validated document to recognize the competence in Cardiac Surgery. The Belgian Surgical Commission of Recognition (Dutch and French speaking), The Belgian Professional Surgical Association, The Royal Belgian Surgical Society and the BACTS approved the creation of a “Certificate of Specific Competence in Cardiac Surgery”, to be signed by these 4 parties (but not by the Minister).

The Accreditation Committee created a document with guidelines, complementary to the existing document with criteria for recognition in cardiac surgery. This document and accompanying documents (demand for the certificate, logbook etc.) were approved by the BACTS Board and will be presented during the General Assembly.
After the General Assembly, you will find these documents on our website. You will be able to download the necessary documents in order to apply for this certificate with the Accreditation Committee. The Accreditation Committee will examine the applications. It is our intention to deliver the first certificates in May 2008, during the Belgian Surgical week.

Following the creation of the new bylaws last year, the new internal rules of the society will be submitted for approval to the general assembly.

You will find enclosed:

• The agenda of the 12th General Assembly
• The minutes of the 11th and the special General Assembly
• The list of candidate board members
• A procuration form (only ordinary members)
• The new internal rules of the society
• A flyer of the scientific program
  

Please remember to register for the scientific meeting via the website.

Looking forward to see you all on November 17 for an interactive and interesting meeting,

Yours sincerely,