As you read this, you will probably be sitting at the 2007 Australian Military Medicine Association Annual Scientific Conference in Melbourne. Over the last 12 months, and in the follow-on from the highly successful joint Defence Health Services/AMMA Conference in Brisbane last year, the Association through its Council has been working to improve the way we plan and manage our conferences. As with the 2002 joint conference, the 2006 event has given us the opportunity to build on a huge level of interest in the Association and its professional and scientific activities.
This has been aptly demonstrated through the requirement at relatively short notice to change the venue of this year’s conference to one that is significantly larger and better equipped for a conference of the scope that we are now able to produce.
There was an amazing level of interest in presenting papers this year, and the significant sponsorship that we have been able to attract demanded the change.
It is clear that the hard work of the Conference Organisers, Nader Abou-Seif, Peter Habersberger, Helen Kelsall and Bob Stacy, ably supported by our Secretariat, Leishman Associates, has well and truly paid off. On your behalf, I congratulate them on their success.
Nevertheless, there are some key areas of improvement that Council is determined to work on to ensure that future conferences are even better. Foremost amongst these is the need for significant forward planning, and in this respect it has become clear that our conferences must be planned at least two years in advance. I am pleased to report that the DHS has agreed to come on board for the 2009 Conference, and this is likely to be held in Brisbane. The determination of this location is largely brought about by the need for a large venue and one which facilitates the movement of DHS personnel to and from the Conference. DHS has also agreed to work around a three-year rotation for joint conferences, which is an approach that Council considers best meets the needs of the Association. More frequently would dilute the Association’s ability to grow as an independent body, whilst less frequently would risk the events becoming less embedded as a part of the overall military health and medical professional program. Council has also decided that the 2008 Conference will be held in Hobart. Venues for future Conferences will be determined as a minimum two years out from the date.
In closing, I wish to personally acknowledge and thank the Head Defence Health Services, Air Vice Marshal Tony Austin RAAF, for his support and commitment to the Association and its activities, in particular both our Conferences and our new Journal. His determination to support the Association as an independent professional and scientific body is gratefully appreciated.
Russ Schedlich President, AMMA
