Dear BSCRS members, dear friends,

As every year we combine the General Assembly of our Society with our Winter Meeting.

As your President, it is my task to give a survey of our realisations during the past year and to reflect on opportunities to defend our collective interests in the future.

Our activities have spread over the organisation of a full day session for the general ophthalmologist at the OB meeting and a separate Winter Meeting with live (or nearly live ?) surgery, an initiative that has been widely approved by our members. A separate contact lens session will be added to our next Winter Meeting, as we do every two years.

The idea of combining our Winter Meeting with a meeting of other ophthalmologic societies from abroad has proven more complex than I expected, so it needs more study and preparation.

Regarding the communication with our members: thanks to the collaboration of our Webmaster, Wim De Jonghe, the quality of our website has improved tremendously in
matters of content as well as accessibility.

All members can log in now with their password and review the different presentations and surgery of our latest meetings. Of course we have to ask you to respect the copyrights.

You can also find information about similar meetings all over the world, thanks to the direct links to their websites.

In the coming year, we intend to publish an extensive list of intraocular implants for our members, with specifications about size, models and A constants you may need for calculation. The list will mention even implants not on the market any longer, in order to refresh your memory in case of lens exchange.

In matters of professional and legal defence, we continue our collaboration with the two other organisations (BBO/UOBMO and SOOS), in order to obtain a better reimbursement of the additional costs attached to extramural surgery.

Finally, I would like to thank all the speakers and surgeons of today for their much appreciated co-operation, with my special thanks to Jérôme Vryghem for the practical organisation of this great Winter Meeting.

Robert Van Horenbeeck
President of the BSCRS

Speech of the President at the General Assembly 2011.