Page 14 - Autumn 12

IAVH Newsletter
President’s letter
Dear friends,
In place of the usual President’s report, this letter comes from your Officers. We want to take a moment to review, what the Association is engaged in on your behalf. We feel, we have an impressive list of benefits, which we all gain from being members of IAVH. Of course, this comes at a cost, and at the moment our outgoings outweigh our income. But first let’s speak of some of the benefits.
Firstly of course the Association provides an arena, within which homeo- pathic veterinarians with an interest in homeopathy can contact each other and find support among like-minded individuals. This rather abstract con- cept has important real value, in that we can feel confident that we are not alone. The practice of homeopathy can leave us feeling very isolated, and just knowing, we have a network of colleagues engaged in the same work, can be a great comfort. Communication is an important aspect of this role, and this is why we created the quarterly Newsletter, which the Office emails to all members. Professional and personal support is also the function of our member organisations and regional branches of the IAVH, but the IAVH acts as an umbrella organisation to bring the Associations together, adding another dimension to the situation.
Another part of this mechanism is the forum, whereby anyone can post a query and benefit from the experience and knowledge of leading veterinar- ians in this field worldwide. This provides support in the academic aspect of our work and this is enhanced by the efforts made on your behalf by our sub-committees. Our Research subcommittee, headed by Mark Elliott, is in the process of creating a comprehensive data base of research, which can be accessed, not only by our members but by anyone else, who takes an interest in veterinary homeopathy. This is not only of value to us as a resource for our own use but will also provide a repository of information, which we can refer our colleagues to, should they question the existence of an evidence base for our chosen therapy.
In the form, which it is presented, the Materia Medica project not only enhances our knowledge of homeopathic remedies but also adds to the evidence base in the form of a collection of case histories. Edward de Beukelaer’s work on this project has set us on course towards the creation of a dynamic resource, which can be added to and improved as more infor- mation is submitted. Members receive an instalment, consisting of one or more remedies each time by email four times per year.
In the modern world, it is increasingly important to have a ‘web presence’, and this is provided firstly by the website, which has been extensively up dated by Marcus Mayer and his team in the Office. This work is ongoing but will provide us with a platform for access by anyone, who wishes to have more information on veterinary homeopathy. Furthermore, the website can be used by members of the public, who wish to find a homeopathic vet, another service provided by IAVH to our members.
The Office also performs a number of other functions for us and is largely responsible for bringing the Association into the 21st century from an administrative point of view. Our web presence is also important in terms of public relations and the sub committee, headed by Nick Thompson, is working hard on our behalf to maximise our profile and that of veterinary homeopathy generally. One of Nick’s projects is to produce a regular newsletter, which can be downloaded and printed off with your practice’s name on, for distribution to clients.
Many of you will subscribe to the ZGTM, published in German, and many others will subscribe to the ‘Mag’, published in English. These journals are of high quality and help us to keep up to date with our practice of homeop- athy. They also build into a resource, to which we can refer at a later stage.
The editors and contributors to these publications deserve our thanks, par- ticularly Malene Jorgensen, who works jointly on behalf of BAHVS and IAVH.
Last but not least, it is important for the standing of homeopathy to have some form of certification, and Stefan Kohlrausch has directed the work of the Education subcommittee to re-establish a protocol and standards for the IAVH Certificate, both in terms of requirements for students but also the requirements of accreditation of teachers and examiners. In the field of education, also we are active in supporting our National organisations in supplying speakers at conferences and in providing discounts for IAVH members at National Conferences.
Financial situation
Having discussed the situation at our Board meetings we realise, there are three main ways, we can increase our income:
1. Sponsorship
We would like everyone to consider, how we might gain income from spon- sors. These would most likely be homeopathic pharmacies but could also involve other firms associated with homeopathy. In return, we can offer advertising on our website. Any such organisations can be directed to the Office for further details.
2. Increase in membership
Our membership is increasing quite rapidly, but we could do more. I would urge everyone to do, what they can to introduce new members to the Association, or even to contact members of your National Organisation, whose membership has lapsed. We have members in 31 countries, so only a few new members from each would boost our membership greatly.
To help with this we have a flyer, which can be downloaded and printed off for distribution to prospective new members.
3. Increase the membership fee
The membership fee has remained the same for the last five years, while costs around have escalated, so it has actually fallen quite markedly in real terms. We have therefore decided to increase the full fee by 10 Euros. This is of course halved to 5 Euros for associations, who have group member- ship under the umbrella organisation. We believe that is a very reasonable increase and we hope, you will see that as acceptable.
Please consider carefully our proposals and if you have any comments please send them to us via the Office.
We wish you success in your practice and peace in your home.
Peter Gregory
Helene Widmann
Andreas Schmidt
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