Summary of IFMSA-Egypt members' concerns raised in the national IFMSA-Egypt GA - September 2009

Please find a summary of the concerns expressed by IFMSA-Egypt community as regards the process of the merger. I would like to thank Ahmed Ghazy; ex-IFMSA Egypt President for moderating that Presidents’ session in our last IFMSA-Egypt GA held in SSS Cairo; where all that outcome was produced:

• Clear Goals & benefits for both sides

Not everyone was familiar with the potential advantages for each side from the merger. If you still share the same concern ; please check the earlier posts in this blog where some clips from the joint session held in Cairo talking about the issue are available.

· Founders’ turnover
IFMSA-Egypt with its current structure & elections system doesn’t allow an individual to remain in authority forever , the dynamicity is one of the important characteristics of IFMSA-Egypt as an organization ; but as an NGO; does the law oblige having a board or administration for a prolonged period without the opted turnover?

· IFMSA-Egypt structure

The current structure has proved to be handy in various aspects. IFMSA-Egypt members would like to preserve the current structure as regards the LCs as members & the team of officials (board) as the administrative body. We cannot also accept non-medical students within our structure because it’s a medical students’ organization, yet other forms of cooperation or collaboration may be ventured on.

· Decision Making & Autonomy:
In IFMSA-Egypt ; the GA is the highest decision making power . One of the important factors that need to be maintained is the autonomy of IFMSA-Egypt & the decisions taken by the GA. We do not accept a higher level of full supervision on al the decision that our members make through voting in GAs or those taken by the board as a part of the administrative process.

· Financial Independence:
As a byproduct of autonomy ; the funds belonging to IFMSA-Egypt need to be protected from external manipulation & for IFMSA-Egypt treasurer; the right to access the account balance as per the GA adopted decisions should be secured. there should be no interference in the direction of spending the finances after setting the rules to be followed.

· IFMSA representation:
IFMSA-Egypt believes it still owns the right to represent the medical students activities in EGYPT in IFMSA. Any other arrangements should include this as a red line for negotiations.

· System for membership:
What are the imposed implications on IFMSA-Egypt members after the merger? What extra responsibility is put on their shoulders? What are the authority in the NGO administration hands that could deprive IFMSA-Egypt members from membership of the organization?

· LCs vs LBs system:
What are the authorities & fields of work for each? There will be an overlap of work & sometimes conflicts if there are 2 groups of people operating in the same field.

· Exchange System:
The current exchange system will undergo modifications that we believe are necessary but the application process through the exchange system should remain through IFMSA-Egypt as the representative of IFMSA in Egypt.

· Personal Conflicts:
IFMSA-Egypt members are all undergraduate students while those in EMSA are mostly graduated or in their final phase of internship. This signifies & echoes the point mentioned above that there is a stagnancy in the levels of membership in EMSA with no appropriate turnover; also we have to mention that although some mistakes were made from IFMSA-Egypt side in some points in the past, but EMSA side has also made some serious mistakes in the approach at the beginning of their foundation , something that lead to an endless list of personal conflicts that cannot be omitted especially that the same people are still there in EMSA while IFMSA-Egypt’s turnover of generation has occurred. So we do not accept the fact that the system in IFMSA-Egypt is branded as corrupt & that EMSA’s sole purpose is to combat corruption. We have to courageously acknowledge some mistakes made in the past from BOTH sides.