Agenda draft cavtat

Minutes: Full Board Meeting: Newcastle: 24 January 2015

Venue: The Hilton Hotel
Abbreviations of names:

Banu Anlar	BA	Lieven Lagae	LL
Nina Barisic	NB	Jean-Pierre Lin	JPL
Peter Baxter	PB	Alla Nechay	AN
Günther Bernert	GB	Finbar O’Callaghan	FO
Francisco Carratala	FC	Barbara Plecko	BP
Coriene Catsman-Berrevoets	CC	Heikki Rantala	HR
Dana Craiu	DC	Raili Riikonen	RR
Linda DeMeirleir	LdM	Thomas Sejersen	TS
Isabelle Desguerre	ID	Maja Steinlin	MS
Colin Ferrie	CF	Biayna Sukhudyan	BS
Rob Forsyth	RF	Michel Willemsen	MW
Florian Heinen	FH	Dimitrios Zafeiriou	DZ
Katalin Hollódy	KH	Sameer Zuberi	SZ
Sue Hargreaves	SH

Committees:

Research and Scientific: LD (Chair), NB (Secretary EPNS), GB, DC, ID, RF, LL, JPL, BP, RR, MW, DZ, SZ

Education and Training: CC (Chair), FO (Secretary EPNS), BA, PB, CF, SH, FH, KH, AN, HK, TS, MS, BS

Finance: PB (Chair), NB (Secretary EPNS), CC, DC, LD, RF, FH, KH, LL, AN, HR, TS, DZ

Membership & PR: SZ (Chair), FO (Secretary EPNS), BA, GB, FC, ID, CF, SH, JPL, BP, RR, MS, BS, MW

Webmaster: FC

TAB: DC (Chair)

CNA representatives: HR, CF
Summary of Action Points from EPNS FULL BOARD MEETING

Actions	Person responsible	Deadline
Constitution and Byelaws: make final amendments and send to all ordinary members	LL/SH	1 February 2015
Honorary Members – invite 5 nominated doctors to EPNS Congress and request CV and photo	LL/SH	21 February 2015
Honorary Members – make arrangements for award ceremony	GB	1 March 2015
Honorary Members – make amendment to byelaws regarding process for appointing	LL/SH	1 February 2015
Safety of Money – look into opening bank accounts in other banks to spread the risk and take advantage of the statutory deposit insurance.	FH	next meeting
Income and Expenditure: balance each year.	PB	next meeting
World Bank classification: review and investigate whether there is an alternative classification, which can be used.	PB & the Finance Committee	next meeting
Fellowship 2015: send second call and arrange for selection in Vienna. Communicate that applicants must submit a detailed cost calculation and the Fellowship offered may vary between 2500 and 5000 Euros. Communicate that successful candidates provide a written report to the committee after their stay.	CC/SH	1 March 2015
Visiting Professor – consider concept further so it can be discussed at the next meeting.	CC	next meeting
New East European training course: contact Richard Newton and Colin Kennedy. BA, BS and AN to consider location.	CC/BA/BS/AN	next meeting
Congress 2015: abstracts - send a list of the main topics to the full EPNS Board urgently. All members of the Board need to reply to GB with a decision on the subjects which they will review.	GB / all	26 January 2015
Congress 2015 and International Symposium on Advances in Neuromodulation in Children: members of the Board to promote in their own countries.	all	28 February 2015
EACD annual meeting – 27-30 May 2015 – Copenhagen. communicate dates of future EPNS meetings to the president of the EACD in order to avoid any future clashes.	LL	next meeting
Research Conference 2016 – contact possible locations: Gottingen and Essen. Scandinavia?	LdM / FH	as soon as possible
EACD 2016 Stockholm: make contact	TS	next meeting
Congress 2019: invite candidates to give presentations at the EPNS Board meeting in Vienna	LdM/ SH	28 February 2015
New Trainee members – embark on a marketing campaign via the members of the CNA	SZ / SH	28 February 2015
Twitter – send messages which can be ‘tweeted’ to Sue	All	ongoing
New website – banner photo – change to something more representative of the EPNS.	FC / RF	28 February 2015
New website – take ownership of own page to ensure up to date and relevant.	Chairs of Comittees	ongoing
Hosting of website, database and abstract tool to be moved to Spain starting 1 March 2015	FC / SH	1 March 2015
CNA – look at improving participation from all countries / agenda items for next CNA meeting in Vienna	DC / All	1 March 2015
European Examination in Paediatric Neurology: review results of questionnaire and feedback findings to the EPNS Board	DC	next meeting
Next meeting: 26 May 2015 in Vienna – now at 8pm!	All / SH	21 February 2015
EPNS Board Meeting: December 2015 in Athens – fix date and send to all members of the Board	DZ / SH	1 April 2015

Minutes:

Present: BA, NB, GB, FC, CC, DC, LdM, RF, SH, FH, LL, JPL, FO, HR, RR, TS, BS, MW, DZ

Apologies: PB, ID, CF, KH, AN, BP, MS, SZ

Opening: LL welcomed everyone to the meeting and the minutes from the previous meeting were approved.
President’s report: LL

• 
  Constitution and Byelaws - amendments are required in order to bring the document in line with the current operation of the Society, e.g. Committee names have changed, we now have 2 secretaries and we have a membership secretary. The environment has also changed, e.g. the website and email possibilities for ballots. A set of proposed amendments have been approved by the Executive Committee. The full EPNS Board has been sent a copy of the proposed amended document. This was discussed and it was agreed to add ‘by electronic means’ to the items in the document which refer to voting – this leaves the option open for future technological developments. In addition, PB suggested the date when the revised version is to be approved should be added to the second sentence in the prologue and 'membership committee' be changed to 'membership, PR and website'. All at the meeting agreed these changes should be added to the proposed Constitution and Byelaws and confirmed their approval for this new proposed document to be implemented. This means that the required minimum of two thirds of the Board have given their approval to move towards implementation. The next step is to send the proposed changes to all ordinary members of the Society at least 3 months prior to the General Meeting which is taking place on 30 May 2015. ACTION: SH
  
• 
  Honorary Members – In June 2014 the full Board were asked to submit nominations for honorary members to be awarded at Congress 2015. The Executive Committee have reviewed and the following list was presented to the full board:
  

John	Stephenson
Orvar	Eeg-Olofsson
Ilona	Gyorgy
Eugen	Boltshauser
Mark	Tardieu

The list was approved and LL will write to invite them to join the ceremony on 27 May in Vienna. Photos and CVs will also be requested. Need to consider if any registration fee and travel costs will be covered by the EPNS. ACTION: LL/GB/SH

The process for nominating future honorary members was discussed and it was agreed that the byelaws would be amended to say that at the discretion of the Executive Committee, up to a maximum of 4 honorary members may be appointed by the Society every 4 years at the annual scientific meeting. Members of the Board will be invited to nominate suitable candidates. Successful candidates must receive at least 2 nominations and must be a member of the Society. Honorary members will be entitled to free membership. A protocol detailing how in future honorary members will be elected and what are the criteria for nomination will be formulated and circulated tot he Board for approval. ACTION: LL/SH

Treasurer Report: FH

FH reported that the EPNS finances are in a healthy state. The final audited figures for 2013/2014 are not yet available, but will be presented in Vienna in May 2015:

• 
  Bank balances – currently total of 379kEUR held in EPNS bank accounts. 201kEUR of this is held in a fixed deposit account amd 4.6 kEUR relates to the CNA. The bank balances show a growing trend year on year, leaving the EPNS in a good position to support activities in education, grants, etc.
  
• 
  Membership fees 75% of the total membership paid their 2014 annual subscription fee.
  

• 
  CNA – the number of national paediatric societies that pay their 100EUR contribution has continued to increase.
  
• 
  Board Meeting – average cost per meeting is 10kEUR – 12kEUR. FH reported this is a big improvement from previous years and he is pleased with this level of expenditure. The biggest variant is the travel cost, which makes choosing the venue for future Board meetings important from a cost perspective.
  
• 
  Education and Research – is the primary goal of the society and in 2014 significantly more has been spent in this area, including research prizes, bursaries, Sarajevo training courses and purchasing more copies of the 'Principles and practice of child neurology in infancy' publication from MacKeith.
  
• 
  Miscellaneous Expenses – secretary, administration, internet related costs.
  
• 
  Tax-law situation - according to a report of the French tax adviser – Frédéric Duthilleul:
  
  • 
    the society is from the French tax-law view non-commercial.
    
  • 
    No taxes on economic operations is owed by EPNS.
    
  • 
    the only possible taxation is the taxation on wealth – need to ensure we turn our bank balances into education and research investments in the future.
    
• 
  Safety of Money – utilisation of statutory deposit insurance. It was agreed to investigate opening new bank accounts at different banks, so that society’s liability is spread between possibly three banks (i.e. each bank account is thought to be guaranteed up to total of 100,000 euros – this will need to be clarified). ACTION: FH
  

Finance Committee: FH (in the absence of PB)

• 
  Current Financial Status: Income
  

Total regular income is approximately €80000/yr, with additional unpredictable income every 2 years from the Congress:

• 
  Membership Subscription: approximately €50,000 per year.
  
• 
  Sponsorship: Only received via Congresses.
  
• 
  Journal Royalties: this is slightly unpredictable but usually around €25k-€30k per year
  
• 
  Bank interest: Minimal amount received.
  
• 
  Congress: The most recent Congress was very successful. However as shown by past experience this is unreliable.
  
• 
  Workshops: The final accounts for Sarajevo were in negative balance, with additional expenditure of approximately €13,000.
  
• 
  CNA: approximately €2,000 received last year.
  

• 
  Current Financial Status: Expenditure
  

Total regular expenditure is approximately €130,000 per year:

• 
  Journal subscription: €20,000 basic payment for on-line access, plus an extra payment for printed copies approximately €38,000 per year
  
• 
  Board costs: approximately €10,000-€12,000 each time
  
• 
  Admin inc BPNA contract for secretariat services, website etc: This will increase as we purchase more hours. It is currently approximately €29,000 per year
  
• 
  Reduced subscriptions for Class 1 &2 countries: At present income is approximately €4,000 per year; if paid in full would be €16,000 per year, so the ‘cost’ is €12,000 per year; if consider reducing further we would lose approximately €1,000-€1,500 per year
  
• 
  Education and Training committee: Training courses approximately €13,000 per year. Four Fellowships @ €3,500 each = €14,000
  
• 
  Scientific committee: €17,500 per year
  
• 
  One-off items: Cambridge Master Class 2015: €15,000
  

• 
  Income and Expenditure: intention is to balance income and expenditure each year. This is achieved at present: the income from subscriptions roughly balances expenditure on administration, Board costs and net cost of the Journal. We also spend approximately €50,000 each year on educational and scientific activities, which as planned is covered by Congress income. ACTION: PB
  
• 
  Reserve fund: If a Congress does not make a surplus we need at least 2 years worth of excess costs to cover current activities, i.e. €100,000. In addition it seems sensible to have sufficient reserves to pay our expenses over a 12 month period. It was therefore agreed to keep €250,000 in reserve for these eventualities.
  
• 
  Extra Capital: approximately €100,000 It was agreed this should be used over the next few years to support the educational and research aims of the Society.
  
• 
  World Bank classification: debated- is it a realistic indication of what countries can afford? The Finance Committee should review the World Bank Classification list and investigate whether there is an alternative classification which can be used. ACTION: PB and the Finance Committee
  
• 
  Membership Subscription fees for 2016: For the Journal, the Society pays a fixed cost of €20,000 for up to 1,000 members to have on-line access to the Journal, plus €40 extra for each member who opts to receive a printed copy as well. It was agreed to reduce the membership fees for next year as follows:
  

	electronic-only EJPN	printed copy of EJPN
Member from World Bank Class 4* nation	120 Euros (Same as 2015)	150 Euros (Same as 2015)
Member from World Bank Class 1, 2 or 3* nation	30 Euros (50 Euros in 2015)	60 Euros (80 Euros in 2015)
Trainee member from any nation	20 Euros (Same as 2015)	50 Euros (80 Euros in 2015)

Education and Training Committee: CC

• 
  Teaching Course - Georgia: 9-10 October 2014 – generally well attended and appreciated by particpants, although some regretted that there was not a translation system.
  
• 
  Training Course - Sarajevo : 2012-2014
  
  • 
    171 participants from more than 40 countries representing 6 continents
    
  • 
    EPNS: 83 bursaries, CNSHB: 25 bursaries
    
  • 
    26 Faculty members
    

• 
  Topics:
  

• 
  2012: acute neurology and neuro-oncology, immune-mediated and infective central nervous system disease,
  
• 
  2013: seizures and movement disorders, developmental disorders
  
• 
  2014: perinatal neurology, neuromuscular disease.
  

• 
  Training Course - Budapest 2015– beginning of a new cycle:
  
  • 
    24-25 March: Infections and Immune mediated diseases Mediator BA
    
  • 
    26-27 March: Acute Neurology and Neuro-0ncology Mediator MS
    
  • 
    Max 50 participants – so far 24 registered.
    
  • 
    Registration fees have been slighted increased due to an extra night at the hotel:
    
    • 
      2 days: has been increased from 250 to 285 EUR per person.
      
    • 
      4 days: has been increased from 450 to 500 EUR per person.
      
  • 
    Bursaries available covering course and hotel costs (not travel): so far 10 applications received.
    
• 
  EPNS Fellowship
  
  • 
    3 Fellowships awarded in 2014: Carmen Sandu, Adriana Ulate Campos & Mila Yepiskoposyan.
    
  • 
    Fellowship 2015:
    
    • 
      Decided to offer 4, but only 2 candidates applied, both of whom have been successful
      
    • 
      Still 2 Fellowships available – will send a second call and review the applications at the Board meeting in Vienna. ACTION: CC/SH
      
    • 
      Agreed that the cost covered may be acting as a barrier for some potential applicants, therefore in future, candidates must submit a detailed cost calculation and the Fellowship offered may vary between 2,500 and 5,000 Euros. ACTION: CC/SH
      
    • 
      Agreed that it must be a prerequisite that successful candidates provide a written report to the committee after their stay has been completed, for the committee to review and assess whether exercise has been successful. ACTION: CC/SH
      
• 
  Visiting Professor: This is a possible future initiative for the EPNS which was discussed. A volunteer Professor visits a nominated hospital for a stay of 4-7 days of intense teaching. Board members (or others) could volunteer. Travel and stay would be supported by EPNS. Should be put on the budget for 2016. The visits would take place possibly twice a year. This has been carried out successfully in Romania and Armenia. Concern was expressed that the visits must be informal to make the exercise worthwhile, and both hosting hospital and visiting Professor must be highly motivated. This concept is to be considered and discussed at the next meeting as a possiblilty for 2016. ACTION: CC
  
• 
  E&T Committee budget: exceeded budget in 2014 due to extra fellowships being awarded and extra cost of Sarajevo training course. 2015 budget still on track although ideas are still evolving.
  
• 
  New East European training course:
  
  • 
    AN suggested Ukraine
    
  • 
    BS expressed that if the training course were to be held in Armenia then participants from Azerbaijan would not be able to attend, and vice versa, because of the political situation
    
  • 
    BA suggested a city in East Turkey which would be accessible for all
    
  • 
    CC will contact Richard Newton and Colin Kennedy about this plan. ACTION: CC
    
• 
  EPNS Advanced MasterClass 2015, Cambridge – FH reported:
  
  • 
    17-19 September 2015 at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
    
  • 
    Being organised by FH, PB, RF and CC.
    
  • 
    3 components:
    
    • 
      Clinical challenges Discuss topics which are beyond the text books. Focus on in depth knowledge AND practical strategies
      
    • 
      Personal development and skills For example: breaking bad news and how to teach this skill
      
    • 
      Fireplace talk: alternative speaker to place PN and life in a different perspective
      
  • 
    Considering 40 - 60 participants, i.e. 20 - 30 mentor/mentoree couples
    
  • 
    Clear programme to be finalised within the next 2 weeks, and registration will then open on a first come first served basis.
    
  • 
    Bursaries – will await budget figures and then calculate is bursaries may be a possibility.
    
• 
  'Principles and practice of child neurology in infancy'– LL reported that he had spoken to Colin Kennedy and it had not been possible to find a publisher in Russia to tanslate the publication. Maybe a publisher will be located in the Ukraine.
  

Research and Scientific Committee: LD

• 
  Research Meeting
  

• 
  Feedback from DC:
  
  • 
    106 Participants.
    
  • 
    Good programme.
    
  • 
    Late response for participation; need tighter deadlines in the future.
    
  • 
    Need better structure from the subgroups in the future.
    
  • 
    Need a summary from the different groups to appear on the website
    

• 
  Congress 2015 – Vienna – 27-30 May 2015
  
  • 
    Congress 2015 Programme presented by GB
    
  • 
    Academy of pediatric neurology programme:
    
    • 
      Advanced MR neuroimaging in children, pitfalls and special demands  Prof. Dr. Thierry A.G.M. Huisman accepted 
      
    • 
      Clinical pediatric fMRI and MR tractography Martin Staudt accepted
      
    • 
      Brain Malformations Daniela Pilz cardiff TBC
      

• 
  10 bursaries on offer
  
• 
  Abstracts – GB will send a list of the main topics to the full EPNS Board urgently next week. All members of the Board need to reply to GB with a decision on the subjects which they will review. ACTION: GB / . ACTION: All
  
• 
  Abstracts – it was agreed that there should be no competition between presentations and the same topics must be shown at different times. Abstracts must be based on true science, and we must not accept unethical abstracts or those which have not been based in scientific evidence. One case studies can be accepted. Minor spelling/language errors may be edited by the reviewer without going back to the author. The abstracts are not anonymous.
  
• 
  Final decision for free presentations dates to set.
  
• 
  Promotion – the members of the board have been sent promotional materials for the Congress and were urged to advertise the meeting in their own countries. ACTION: All
  

• 
  International Symposium on Advances in Neuromodulation in Children: 25-26 May: JPL presented a summary and all agreed sounds very interesting programme, which will be of interest to paediatrians in many fields. Looking at shared partnership and JPL urged members of the Board to encourage their colleagues to attend.
  
• 
  EPNS Board meeting in Vienna: as a result of the members of the Board wishing to attend the symposium, it was agreed that the next EPNS Board meeting should take place at 8pm on the evening of 26 May. ACTION: GB/SH
  
• 
  EACD annual meeting – 27-30 May 2015 – Copenhagen. LL will communicate dates of future EPNS meetings to the president of the EACD in order to avoid any future clashes. ACTION: LL
  
• 
  Research Conference 2016 – possible locations:
  
  • 
    Gottingen is a possibility. LdM to contact Jutta Gardner to seek confirmation. ACTION: LdM
    
  • 
    Essen is a possibility. FH will make enquiries. ACTION: FH
    
  • 
    Scandinavia would also be a good possibility.
    
• 
  Congress 2017: Lyon - Alexis Arzimanoglou has reported that the local committee met in early December. Each member is responsible for a given topic and they are now working on proposals for Main and Parallel sessions per topic.A face to face meeting is programmed in Lyon on Friday March 3rd to finalize our proposals and then they will be able to submit this to the EPNS Scientific Committee for approval and/or enrichment.
  
• 
  EACD 2015 there will be a combined EPNS session via video.
  
• 
  EACD 2016 Stockholm: TS will contact them. ACTION: TS
  
• 
  Congress 2019: candidates will be invited to give presentations at the EPNS Board meeting in Vienna ACTION: LdM / SH Bids have been received from:
  
  • 
    Athens
    
  • 
    Bucharest
    
  • 
    Essen
    
  • 
    Prague
    
• 
  Budget – has not changed, but maybe a little more funds will be required in the future.
  

Membership, PR & Website Committee: FO (in the absence of SZ)

• 
  Memberhip – total 860 members. 75% paid their 2014 annual subscription fee.
  
• 
  Trainee fee – has been reduced to 20Euros for on-line only access to the Journal for trainees from all nations. In the past trainees from World Bank low income categories have paid the same fee as their qualified colleagues. We should now be able to get a clearer picture of how many trainee members we have in the EPNS. SZ plans to undertake a marketing campaign to target new trainee members. An email will be sent to all the members of the CNA to ask whether they have a training group of either specific paediatric neurologists or general paediatrics so that we can send a communication to them. ACTION: SZ / SH
  
• 
  Two Year for the price of One offer for new members - The EPNS is offering this deal exclusively to national societies who approach us, and where the national society has agreed to reciprocate by promoting the EPNS amongst its members. It is not open to all new members who join the EPNS. So far there are 6 national associations who are formally participating in the scheme:
  

• 
  Norway
  
• 
  Ukraine
  
• 
  Finland
  
• 
  Denmark
  
• 
  Croatia
  
• 
  Austria
  

As a result 12 new members have been welcomed so far. If these members pay their 2015 annual subscription fee for on-line only access to the Journal, they will receive access to the Journal for free in 2016. This deal has been promoted via the members of the CNA

• 
  New Members - 171 welcomed in 2014. Up until 23 January, 43 have joined in 2015. Averaging 2 to 3 new members per day. Total membership has doubled in the last 4 years and it is expected a high level of new members will join in 2015 due to the Congress.
  
• 
  Reasons why new members join us – a survey of new members has been taken and the main reasons are the new members were encouraged by a senior colleague, to attend a training course or scientific meeting.
  
• 
  Target for number of members – we seem to be on track to reach 1,000 members. There was concern that the contract with Elsevier is for up to 1,000 members, however LL said that Elsevier have expressed they will be able to amend the contract favourably because they are keen to see the membership numbers increase. A question was raised ‘how do we compare with other societies? It is estimated that the USA society CNS has 1,800 members. ICNA has about 4,000 members, but membership is free.
  

• 
  Demographics – a breakdown of membership by country has been studied and clearly there is an uneven spread of membership. Membership is high in many European countries (e.g. Netherlands, Belgium, UK) but relatively low in France, Germany and Italy. The joint meeting in Palma together with FC’s encouragement has seen an increase in the numbers of members from Spain. It is felt that Congress 2017 in Lyon will encourage more members from France to join us. ICNA 2016 in Amsterdam will also provide a good opportunity to recruit new members.
  
• 
  EPNS Flyer – 3,000 flyers were used in 2014. Sending the flyer to the ICNA meeting in Brazil did not prove to be successful. 2,000 flyers have been printed for 2015. Members of the Board may send Sue a request if they would like to distribute them at any national meetings.
  
• 
  'Principles and practice of child neurology in infancy' - At the EPNS training course in Georgia, it was agreed to set aside 100 more copies of the ‘free publication’ to accommodate demand from the Georgia course attendees and to attract more new members. This means we have reserved 500 copies. We have about 90 left in stock.  (MacKeith charge the EPNS £16.47 (about 20EUR), plus £5 (about 6EUR) postage and packaging per book. The recommended retail price is 37.44EUR. EPNS members pay 6EUR postage, and therefore the cost to the EPNS is about 20EUR per book.
  
• 
  The Journal Insert - continue to include a 4 page insert in the Journal which advertises the benefits of joining the EPNS and gives details of forthcoming events. This includes an application form.
  
• 
  EPNS monthly email - This continues to be sent. A table of contents will be included in the future, to make reading easier. This form of communication means that the EJPN newsletter is no longer required because most readers of the Journal are EPNS members, and those who are not will see the 4 page insert.
  
• 
  Database tidy-up - All members who have not paid for at least 2 years, if at all, have been removed from the EPNS database
  
• 
  Membership Certificate - This can now be requested by an EPNS member who has paid their 2015 annual subscription fee.
  
• 
  Twitter – 81 followers. Agreed to keep pushing with regular tweets. Some members of the Board pledged to start using Twitter! If a member of the Board has a message they would like ‘tweeting’ they can send a quick email to Sue who will tweet on their behalf. 140 characters can be used on Twitter. ACTION: All
  

• 
  Website – presented by FC
  
  • 
    The draft new upgraded website presented to the Board. Some changes to the layout of the first page were suggested which FC will take forward, e.g. the size of the banner, the location of the ‘join us’ icon, the need to scroll down, add an alert to say when changes have been made. It was also agreed that the banner illustration was not representative of the children seen by Paediatric Neurologists. FC to consider using illustrations instead because they do not cause problems regarding permission. Also RF has a collection of photos which may be able to be used. FC would like to change the banner photo on a regular basis. ACTION: FC / RF
    
  • 
    Ownership : It was announced that the Chairs to be given ownership of their own page to ensure it is up to date and relevant. ACTION: Chairs of Committees
    
  • 
    Move hosting to Spain (to help with language barrier) to become effective on 1 March 2015, when German contract expires ACTION: FC / SH
    

EJPN Editor’s Report: FO (in the absence of SZ)

• 
  Following LL’s term as Editor of the EJPN coming to an end, a new EJPN Editorial team has been finalised. A team of 5 Editors have been appointed, each having special areas of responsibility within the Journal. SZ will take the role of Editor-in-Chief. The Associate Editors will be FH, FO, DZ and Alexis Arzimanoglou.
  
• 
  Due to a changing environment, there is no longer the need to a Book Review Editor or Newsletter Editor.
  
• 
  The Editorial board will be renewed and increased from 15 to 30 individuals. Responsibilities will be defined and the term will be for 5 years, with a 2 year informal review. It is planed a psychologist will join the Editorial Board and also consideration to include a statistician. Members of the existing board will be contacted. Please let SZ know if you are aware of a colleague who would like to join this team.
  
• 
  There will be a special issue on Neurostimulation linked to pre-congress symposium, and possibly some allocation of special pages to Neuroinflammation in Childhood, linked to the Masterclass.
  
• 
  Elsevier would like to be visible at the Vienna Congress and may share a table with the EPNS, if the book branch of Elsevier is not exhibiting.
  
• 
  The Editorial Board will be meeting in Vienna and members will be given business cards.
  

CNA Report: DC

• 
  The database of CNA members has been recently updated following the meeting in Bucharest. New representatives from Spain and Portugal. Moldova has just joined.
  
• 
  The meeting in Bucharest was attended by 22 participants including EPNS Board members. Whilst all countries have a member of the CNA, some of these representatives do not get involved.
  
• 
  DC asked members of the Board to let her know how to imporve particpation and what they would like DC to discuss with the CNA at the next meeting so we take advantage of the committee. ACTION: All The following ideas were discussed:
  
  • 
    Ask for a report from each member of the CNA.
    
  • 
    Ask for data to be presented at the meeting.
    
  • 
    It is felt that it is often difficult to find a CNA representative, and often the president of the society has to volunteer. Some countries do not understand the role of the committee. DC advised that there was a definition on the EPNS website, but please feedback if this is not clear and she will redefine. DC stressed that any issues raised by the CNA are taken to the EPNS Board and dealt with. DC to consider sending a letter to the national socieites explaining the role and importance of the CNA. ACTION: DC
    
• 
  European Examination in Paediatric Neurology: a questionnaire was sent to members of the CNA and a number have been returned. DC will make a report and feedback her analysis. ACTION: DC
  

TAB Report: DC

• 
  The members on the website need to be updated. ACTION: DC
  
• 
  New visits planned for Armenia and Hungary.
  
• 
  All visit reports are available on the website.
  
• 
  Need feedback on previous visits. The new TAB team need to start this review process before May.
  

AOB

• 
  Liaison EPNS/EAP: BA and DC. LdM attended most recent meeting.
  

• 
  Neurology Board: CC
  
• 
  UAMS: due to other committments, MW has not been able to attend so far. Next meeting in Berlin in May, and MW will attend this.
  

Next Board Meeting:

26 May 2015 at 8pm in Vienna ACTION: all / GB / SH

?? December 2015 In Athens to coincide with the national society meeting ACTION: DZ / SH