Date: February 9, 2002, 7:30 - 9:00 a.m.
Venue: Imperial Hotel, Les Saisons

The participants were
President	M.F. Brennan
President-elect	E. Santoro
The 3rd President	M. Kitajima
Secretary General	T. Takahashi
Treasurer	Y. Hiki
Editor	O. Kobori
Council	H. Sugano M. Nakajima
JGCA Congress President	K. Yoshino
Office Secretary	Y. Kato M. Kaminishi K. Maruyama M. Maruyama T. Sano T. Yamaguchi

1.	President of IGCA, Dr. Brennan made some short remarks and chaired the meeting.
2.	Adoption of Agenda: Draft of Agenda was adopted.
3.	Adoption of minutes of IGCA of the joint Executive and Council Meeting in 2001 New York: As time was limited this morning, chairman asked the members to read the minutes at their homes and to send the corrections to the secretary general by email or Fax, if corrections were necessary. All members agreed with his proposal.
4.	Dr. Santoro explained the outline of the 5th IGCC in ROME in 2003. The 5th International Gastric Cancer Congress will be held in Rome, May 4 to 7, 2003. Council and Executive Meeting will be convened at 12:00 on May 4, 2003 and General Assembly will be set before closing ceremony on May 7, 2003. The 5th IGCC is offering electronic submission through its Internet website. Electronic abstract submissions are due January 31, 2003. Congress President Santoro mentioned that he wishes to hold a meeting in Japan before finalizing the program. The Japanese Clinical Surgeons' Congress or Japanese Congress of Cancer treatments that will be held in Tokyo in November would be convenient. However, there was some concern as to whether this would be possible. If a meeting is not possible then Dr. Santoro will discuss the program with Dr. Brennan and Dr. Takahashi to be sure that there is appropriate representation at the meeting especially from Japan.
5.	Report of Secretary General: Secretary General, Dr. Takahashi reported that the number of membership of IGCA was 1048 from 54 countries as of last December. It was a great pleasure for us because our Association became bigger and more international, he said. He also reported that a new Directory of Members was issued and sent to all members of IGCA last December and he expressed his thanks to Dr. Nakajima for his effort making Directory.
6.	Report of Treasurer: Treasurer, Dr. Hiki reported financial reports of IGCA as follows: Total amount of income was $22,136.22. It was 87% of the primary budget, and this shortage was result from the delay in member's payment. Total amount of expenditure was $20,186.67, of which $7500 for directory printing, and $2,998 for mailing. Net revenue was $2,304.01 in 2002, and the balance as of 12/31/2001 was $35,742.86. After then, budget for 2002, and 2003 was proposed and accepted. Total income and expenditure for 2002 were expected to be $23,092, and those for 2003 were $42,323.08. Increase in budget for 2003 was due to the increase in the annual fee and the number of members at the 5th IGCC in Rome. ICSG membership due ($2000) was not issued this year, since it is pending whether ICSG accepts $2000 as a membership due for IGCA instead of $5000.
7.	Report of Journal "Gastric Cancer": Dr. Sano reported IGCA Journal "Gastric Cancer" was issued Volume 3, No.1 (June, 2001)-4 (February, 2002) including original articles 22, case repots 2, review articles 3 and special articles 2. Fifty-two papers were submitted and 40 were accepted (Acceptance rate 76 %). Dr. Sano also reported that Journal "Gastric Cancer" has been accepted for citation in Index Medics database after being reviewed by the National Library of Medicine. Thus, our Journal" Gastric Cancer" will come to attention of worldwide investigation through MEDLINE. Editorial board selected 3 best papers among papers appeared in the volume 3 for "Nishi Memorial Award".
8.	Issues for Discussion. 1) Election of Officers and Council Members: Secretary General said that according to constitution, the term of office of officers and council members except President and President-elect shall be four years, but they shall be eligible for re-election of their office. And present officers and council members were elected at Seoul meeting in 1999 and the term will be expired at the end of Rome meeting in 2003 and therefore, executive meeting should consider nominating new executives and councils by next executive meeting in Rome. President Brennan asked members the nomination for new officers and councils. He asked participants about problems with re-election of present officers and councils. Executive members pointed out no problem with it. Secretary General, Takahashi recommended Dr. Keiichi Maruyama (Tokyo) and Dr. Yo Kato (Tokyo) as new council members from 2003. Executive committee agreed with his proposal and also agreed that they will consider adding other new councils worldwide by next meeting. President Brennan asked President-elect Santoro to select two candidates for Council from Europe and he also suggested choosing one from Brazil, if any, one from Argentina. Dr. Sugano said he would like to resign council member in 2003, because he has been appointed as an honorary member. President Brennan agreed with his proposal. Secretary General said there is no description on office secretaries, but he recommended adding Dr. Kuniyoshi Arai (Tokyo) and Wataru Yasui (Hiroshima) as office secretary. The proposal was accepted unanimously. 2) Handling of the J-P Kim lecture Fund and the Nishi-Takahashi lecture Fund: President Brennan said IGCA has two endowed lectureships: J-P Kim lecture and Nishi-Takahashi lecture, which were approved at New York Congress. President Brennan asked Dr. Takahashi about his idea for handling of the fund. He said he has a bank account of US $20,000 in Citibank in time deposit for Nishi-Takahashi lecture, showing a copy of bank account US$ 20,000. And he proposed to use US $ 5000 for Nishi-Takahashi lectureship every congress and that money will be send to Congress President from IGCA office. However, he said he has no idea for J-P Kim lecture. Executive committee agreed unanimously with his proposal and suggested to use US$ 5000 also for J-Kim lecture every congress. Dr Brennan asked the secretary to communicate this to Dr. J-P Kim, and to enquire where the money is currently banked. A discussion was held about the J-P Kim and Nishi-Takahashi lectures it was unanimously agreed that the invited lecturer should provide a manuscript of his lecture for publication in the journal, Gastric cancer. Dr Sano, said other conference participants will be asked to provide manuscripts. Dr Brennan suggested in the future, all major plenary session lectures should require a manuscript for consideration of publication in the journal. This will be discussed at the next meeting. Dr Santoro said he was trying to get financial support for travel to the 5th IGCA, he does not know at this time how much will be available. He suggested that the J-P Kim and Nishi-Takahashi lecturers would receive free registrations, and if there was money for travel, they would receive that also.
9.	Dr. Kitajima, the 6th IGCC Congress President explained the 6th International Gastric Cancer Congress, which will be held at Yokohama International Congress Hall, May 6-9, 2005.
10.	Place of the 7th Congress in 2007 President Brennan suggested that Brazil would be suitable, all participants agreed to that. And the secretary will write to Dr. Gama Rodrigues to see what is a suitable date.
11.	President Brennan gave closing remarks with deep application to the participants.

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