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Chapter 5 The Foundation
Chapter 5
The Foundation
The IAOMS Foundation was established in September 1996 with the first meeting of the board of trustees held on September 18th in Miami Beach, Florida. This final step was preceded by many discussions within the IAOMS Executive Committee. It was generally felt desirable to establish such a Foundation to support the educational activities initiated by IAOMS.
The Executive Committee decided to appoint an independent board of trustees, very much along the lines of the AAOMS board of trustees for their Foundation. There was some opposition to this model, notably from Rudi Fries, who favored a model in which officers of the Executive Committee would form the board of trustees, so as to be assured that the plans of IAOMS would not find opposition from an independent board. However, this proposal was rejected and the first board of trustees was formed, consisting of Bob Cook, Andrew Linz, Bob Walker and Dieter Pape, together with an independent lawyer from New York, Arthur Brill. This board formulated its own constitution and bylaws and chose Bob Cook to serve as its chairman. Andrew Linz was chosen as treasurer and Arthur Brill, vice chairman.
Financial challenges
To begin its operations, the Foundation received a loan from the IAOMS of $250,000. The intention was to tap other sources of money for a corpus of money from which the interest only would be used to support the educational activities. The first attempts at fundraising were very successful with several affiliated national associations providing generous donations and the donations of individual members surpassing all expectations. In a matter of just two years, almost $150,000 was received.
With the move to the first permanent office, however, the Foundation was expected to finance about 20 percent of the costs of the administrative services provided by the new office. This bled the Foundation coffers as the projected interest income of $20,000 on $400,000 in investments, was hardly enough to cover the 20 percent charge.
In 2000, Bob Cook wrote a rather bleak report on the future of the Foundation, noticing that the expenses needed to run the Foundation were significantly exceeding the Foundation’s income. While various suggestions were made for increasing the income, including approaching industry, it was felt that a tangible project needed to be defined before this could be done. By this time, Dieter Pape had retired and had been replaced by Marsden Bell, while Vic Moncarz had been added to the board as executive director.
The first Foundation Luncheon was held at the 14th ICOMS in Washington to raise funds for a “Foundation Fellowship.” This luncheon honored the founders of IAOMS, Fred Henny and Terence Ward. Bruce MacIntosh and Peter Banks, disciples of these great characters, presented details of the respective contributions of these former presidents.
Not too much happened in the years between 1999 and 2001, apart from incidental sponsoring of trainees from developing countries to attend the ICOMS in Durban, where a special trainee workshop was held. The sheer fact that the board of trustees met only once during this period illustrates the operational difficulties that were beginning to show.
Meetings for the board were expensive events and, thus, continually postponed to save money. As a result, decisions were not made, nor was there progress in sponsoring any educational activities. At the 2001 ICOMS, Marsden Bell took over as chairman of the Foundation, while Peter Banks was added to the board to replace the deceased Andrew Linz.
The novelty of the Foundation Luncheon that Bob Cook introduced for the Washington meeting was altered to feature an invited speaker from the organizing country as an ongoing fundraising event. The luncheon was a huge success in Durban, due in large part to the impressive presentation of Professor Philip Tobias of Johannesburg,
Marsden Bell, foundation chairman, 2000–2005 a paleoanthropologist who talked about the hominid fossils of Africa, with special emphasis on their facial and dental features. The luncheon was sponsored by a generous donation from Walter Lorenz Surgical, which would also sponsor several successive Foundation Luncheons. The purpose of raising a substantial amount of money was easily achieved. Together with John Helfrick, Marsden Bell wrote an ambitious working paper on how the board should be structured to involve all areas of the world. The paper stressed the necessity of adopting the concept of “Regionalization,” as the IAOMS Executive Committee had already done for the association itself. Marsden also developed an attractive brochure to promote donations to the Foundation. Most importantly, however, an educational program in Thailand became the first tangible project, with intentions for the program to serve as a pilot for further activities. This foray into producing educational programs appeared not only to be beneficial for all attendees, it was also fruitful money-wise for the Foundation as several companies sponsored part of the educational modules, A check in the amount of $250,000 was presented by President Rudi Fries to Bob Cook, the Foundation chairman accompanied by John Helfrick, secretary general.
while many teachers donated their time and often also their air ticket expenses. This three-year educational project, with 10 modules each of one week covering essentially the whole scope of oral and maxillofacial surgery, was a huge success.
Participants came not only from Thailand; they also attended from neighboring countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Singapore and a few others. Between 100 and 120 very enthusiastic trainees, together with established colleagues, followed the whole course. Participants who attended 80 percent of all of the modules were eligible to take an exit test. The project set an example for the many courses to be held in the coming years in various parts of the world.
Structural changes
Within the Executive Committee of IAOMS, however, opposition was growing regarding the way the Foundation was managed. The IAOMS administration fee was particularly thought to be unreasonable and the disconnection between IAOMS Executive Committee and board of trustees additionally appeared to be a distinct disadvantage.
In February 2001, the Executive Committee accepted a motion to eventually regain control over the Foundation and to reorganize its management. It was also felt to be desirable to put the $250,000 loan back into the accounts of the IAOMS and the formulation of a business plan was recommended. Despite Marsden’s hard work and many attempts to organize money for the planned projects, little money had come through.
In the meantime, the assets of the Foundation were dwindling and the board of trustees was essentially paralyzed, as no meetings were being held in order to save travel expenses. For these reasons, it was decided in 2004 to change the structure whereby the Foundation would be run by the officers of the Executive Committee with the past-president normally serving as the chairman of the board of trustees. The main advantage of this change was the Foundation board from now on would meet in conjunction with the board of IAOMS, while the treasurer of IAOMS also would oversee the Foundation’s finances. This turned out to be a cost-saving maneuver and there was a direct link to the educational activities of IAOMS, which facilitated action. This is the situation as it currently exists. After all these years, Rudi Fries appeared to have been right when he opposed the original form of the Foundation’s establishment.
It is only fair to mention the very successful Foundation Luncheon held at the 15th ICOMS in Athens in 2003. The guest speaker was professor Stefanos Geroulanos, a professor of surgery and ancient medical history, who gave a dramatic presentation on ancient medical practice in Greece. Again, this sponsored event raised a fair amount of money as it was completely sold out.
Paul Stoelinga took over as chairman of the Foundation in the spring of 2005 and would stay on until the 17th ICOMS in Bangalore in 2007. The assets of the Foundation needed a boost and an appeal was made again to the various national associations to consider yearly donations, whereas the Executive Committee also was asked to donate generously, thereby setting an example for the membership at large, which indeed was followed by many IAOMS fellows.
The IAOMS received its loan back but decided to donate $15,000 on an annual basis to the Foundation. Another move was the appeal to industry to apply for
Hat-Yai, Thailand in 2001 on the occasion of completion of an agreement for an IAOMS sponsored educational program. Seated left to right: Thai Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery President, Vacharee Changsirivatanathamrong and IAOMS President Paul Stoelinga. Standing, second from left: Henk Tideman, OMS department chair, University of Hong Kong.
The signing of the “Memorandum of Understanding” between the IAOMS, Prince Songkia University and the IAOMS Foundation to produce an educational program in Thailand. Shown left to right: Marsden Bell, IAOMS Foundation chairman; IAOMS President Paul Stoelinga; Prasert Chitapong, president of Prince of Songkia University and Narong Suksu-art, dean of faculty of dentistry at the University.
Attendees of the final module of the Lima, Peru education program in 2006.
corporate membership. The first company to join was KLS-Martin/S.O.R.G., later followed by W. Lorenz Surgical. Their status would be changed into “Patrons” of the Foundation in 2007. Based on a reliable source of income, a proper budget could be prepared and the expenses could be matched against the planned income, without having to dig into the corpus of money. The bleeding had stopped!
Educational projects
As the years went by, several new projects emerged modeled on the Thai program. In his term as president, José Ferreria initiated a program in Peru, in conjunction with ALACIBU, and partially sponsored by the AAOMS Foundation, with voluntary support from mainly Spanish speakers. As with the Thai project, this again was highly successful and much appreciated by the participants.
At the initiation of John Williams during his presidency of the European association, EACMFS was instrumental in establishing a similar course in Iasi, Romania, which was subsequently led by John Lowry, the EACMFS secretary general at that time. The EACMFS, however, took on the financial responsibility for these courses. Programs in Indonesia and Africa were then developed, both of which would apply for financial support from the IAOMS Foundation.
At the 16th ICOMS in Vienna in 2005, the guest speaker at the Foundation Luncheon was Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz, assistant director of the “Vienna Volksoper,” who spoke on “Music in Vienna.” This again was a marvelous presentation on a topic perfectly fitting for “the Capital of Music.” Rolf Evers can be rightly proud of his choice of this speaker.
African service
Between the years 2003 and 2009, the attention of the IAOMS turned to Africa as one of the target areas for assistance. Under the presidency of Pino Ferreria, the African Regional Association was established. After that, the next step in assistance to this country was an appeal to the IAOMS membership for used analogue x-ray equipment, including Orthopantomogram machines and other equipment. The appeal was reasonably successful as several machines were shipped to both west and east African locations. The donations also included anesthetic equipment, dental chairs and generous gifts of surgical instruments. Generous though these gifts were, they were but a drop in the ocean as far as need was concerned.
As Africa is effectively a vast region where one type of assistance that is appropriate for one area may not be appropriate for another, the board of IAOMS decided that if it was going to have any effect at all, it needed to work with smaller areas of Africa. Nine countries, which were already united by their governments into a common East African Economic Community as well as an East African College of Surgeons, were encouraged to establish
Lima, Peru educational project. From left to right: Carlos Abugattas, ASPECOM president, Mario Dominguez (Uruguay) lecturer; Horacio Sanchez (Uruguay) lecturer; Luis Quevedo (Chile) program coordinator and IAOMS education committee ALACIBU representative; José Luis Ferreria (Argentina) IAOMS president; Eduardo Rey (Argentina) ALACIBU president; Juan Enrique Bazan, Dean of Colegio Odontologico del Peru; Mario Hernandez, Dean of Universidad Inca Garcilazo de la Vega; Alejandro Cornejo, IAOMS councilor for Peru, Arturo Rodriguez, ASPECIME president.
IAOMS President John Ll. Williams with Mark Chindia and Symon Guthue from the department in Nairobi with some of the equipment donated by the IAOMS Foundation. Elison Simon showing the new operating room facilities in Dar es Salaam to Paul Stoelinga in November 2010. The facilities were made possible through donations by the Nina Harris Pebley Charity and the IAOMS Foundation under the leadership of then chairman John LI. Williams.
One of two refurbished and fully equipped operating rooms in the dental school building that are now in use.
Participants and speakers of one of the modules held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Center front: Elison Simon, chairman of the department in Dar es Salaam.
Preparatory meeting for the IAOMS education program for East Africa in Nairobi, September 2007. From left to right: John Williams, Julio Acero, Mark Chindia, Paul Stoelinga and Fawzia Butt.
the East African Association of OMFS. The IAOMS bylaws were then amended by council to grant this body a seat on council as if they were a single nation. This action gave the Foundation scope within which to work.
John Williams, the president at that time and subsequently, the Foundation chairman made several trips to Nairobi and Dar es Salaam to help in the establishment of an East African training program that could serve for the whole East African region with centers in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. The establishment of an East African Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery facilitated this endeavor.
The starting point was the adoption of the “IAOMS Guidelines for Specialty Training and Education” as the basis for a common curriculum. Once achieved, the universities were encouraged to modify both the duration and content of their Masters’ courses towards a common pathway. This proved to be a major breakthrough as, in due course, the community governments decreed that there should be “Freedom of Movement and Freedom to Work” for all people in the East African Community.
This demanded harmonization of training for all medical specialties and it was decided that this should be set for all at five years duration. To help with this process, an educational program was developed, similar to the Thai and Peru programs but adapted to the needs of East Africa. A major plan also was launched to support the OMFS department in Dar es Salaam which was desperately in need of improvement both of equipment and other facilities. The plan was to enhance the conditions there in order to accommodate the much wanted expansion of manpower in the area, as well as complementing a planned expansion by the University of Nairobi.
The Foundation was fortunate in securing a valuable donation from the Nina Harris Pebley Charity with which to build two operating facilities, including an immediate recovery area and two changing rooms. Donations from individuals secured sufficient funds for the equipment to make these facilities functional.
The first module of the East African educational project, with Mark Chindia as the host and supported by Fawzia Butt, was an eye-opening experience for both the attendees from various East African countries and for the teachers from Europe. The original intent was to hold the course in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi on a rotational basis, but because of political unrest in Kenya, the courses for the most part were held mainly in Dar es Salaam under supervision of Elison Simon, the department chairman. IAOMS had surely made an impact in this part of the world, where the need for basic oral and maxillofacial surgery in very high indeed.
Julio Acero, the Education Committee chair for the period 2005–2012, was largely responsible for the detailed content and organization of speakers for the East African region. This was a huge task, as it often was difficult to find the right people who were available to teach at the right time. During this period, Nabil Samman, the former Education Committee chair, continued the Foundation’s Asian project
President Nabil Samman with lecturers and participants of the August 2008 course in Jakarta, Indonesia.
with a few advanced courses that were held at a lower frequency, while he also initiated plans to begin a similar course in Indonesia, which came into effect in April 2007.
Needless to say that all the above mentioned activities were costly and required heavy support from the Foundation. Fortunately, assistance was given notably from the AAOMS for the Peruvian project and also by generous support from the Spanish association, which sponsored the travel expenses of the many Spanish teachers. Yet, while the Foundation reached its financial limits, it did not draw down any of its assets in this period.
It is fair to say that the Foundation at this stage had outgrown its teething problems and was ready to face the challenges that lay ahead. The IAOMS had engaged itself in educational projects in all corners of the globe, which would require ever more resources in order for the association to live up to worldwide expectations.
The Foundation luncheon at the 17th ICOMS in Bangalore in November 2007 was again a fascinating event. Thimappa Hedge, a neurosurgeon, talked about ancient Indian medicine. This luncheon was sold out, as usual, and sponsored by Biomet Microfixation, formerly known as W.Lorenz Surgical. A novelty was the golf tournament which had not been run for many years. This was great fun and also provided money for the Foundation. There was an overwhelming interest in the event, which was sponsored by ABN-AMRO Bank and Franklin Templeton. It was definitely an example which, it is hoped, will be followed for future ICOMS.
At this meeting, the chairmanship of the Foundation was handed over to John Williams. Much of his time as chairman was occupied by the many aspects of the East African project, which have already been described. It was inevitable that support for East Africa would be needed for many years to come.
A large stride was made in linking together the basic training period leading up to the acquisition of the Master’s degree and the final accreditation of these doctors as fully trained surgeons. Previously, the post Master’s degree period was served in the training center for two years, with essentially unstructured and largely unsupervised training. The East African College of Surgeons now entered the scene again and declared their intent on taking a lead with accreditation. In so doing, they demanded that the two-year period be a structured time, at the end of which the College would be responsible for undertaking an appraisal of the surgeons before they were appointed to outside hospital appointments anywhere within the Economic Community.
Additionally, work focused on the West African part of the African region, where an initial survey had been conducted in an attempt to ascertain the area’s needs and shortcomings. The fact emerged that, whereas five of the countries are Anglophone, there also are Francophone-, Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries and the specialty in these countries had been founded on totally different backgrounds. This meant that the IAOMS could not devise and support any one single aid project.
Furthermore, a significant number of countries were in a state of unrest or open warfare. The outcome was that only Ghana and Nigeria were candidates for any sort of collaborative project. This would materialize in the period of 2011–2012.
Scholarships established
Under Nabil Samman as president, attention turned to “Special Interest Groups,” (SIGs) particularly in oral oncology and craniofacial deformities, in particular cleft lip and palate. The SIGs developed two initial scholarship schemes to support trainees. The first of these took place during the academic year of 2010–2011 and supported: • Two fellowships in oral and maxillofacial oncology and reconstructive surgery. The locations for these fellowships were the Ninth People’s Hospital in
Shanghai, China, and the Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology in Beijing, China. For the academic year of 2011–2012, a third fellowship in oral oncology also was held at Mazumdar-Shaw
Cancer Center, Narayana Hrudayalaya Health City in Bangalore, India.
•A single fellowship in cleft lip and palate and craniofacial surgery. The locations for this fellowship was split throughout the academic year between
Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital in Orlando,
Florida, U.S.A.; Dr. Hasan Sadikin Hospital in
Bandung, Indonesia; and the University of Pretoria in Pretoria, South Africa. Although the fellowships were originally conceived as self-funding, the Foundation succeeded in gaining financial support from the healthcare industry, specifically Biomet Microfixation and Synthes, for the first two years of the program.
So, within the period described, the rather loose but, nevertheless, entirely laudable concept of a charitable Foundation to support the initiatives of the IAOMS Board, has evolved into a structured and well-financed body which works jointly with the association to demonstrate determination, both to develop concrete projects and to see them through to fruition.
From the successive presidents’ perspectives, IAOMS presidents are able to conceive a scheme for Foundation activities during their time as present-elect, see the plan initiated during their presidential years and then secured in all respects during their terms as past-president and chairman of the Foundation. Not only does this indicate just how long these projects can take, it also shows the value of the challenges made to the administrative structure of the Foundation at the turn of this century.
At the 20th ICOMS in Santiago, Chile, the speaker at the foundation Luncheon was Francisco Mûnoz Thomson, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon and an experienced mountaineer. He presented an overview of the Chilean landscape and its original inhabitants, followed by a fascinating account of the difficulties encountered Francisco Mûnoz Thomson when climbing steep and barely accessible mountains. He compared the planning and execution of mountaineering with the same measures required for surgery and life. The philosophy behind it was that the satisfaction does not lie in reaching the summit, but in the collaboration within the team that allows everyone to come back alive — a statement that could be related to the daily lives of everyone in the audience.
