News from the secretary of the national chapters.
The EHS continues to become a bigger Society. The EHS has been working to offer its members more benefits, to help us all become better at what we do. Some of our
members renew each year as individual members. But increasingly, our members are joining and renewing through their National Hernia Society, the so called National
Chapters. The EHS relies on its National Chapters, to help us share good practice,
educate, train and inform their members. The connection of the National Chapters to
the EHS was informal, with at times, little dialogue between them. But we are stronger together, sharing ideas, practices and building international friendships.
Over the last two years the EHS board has been working on ways to improve our links, communication channels and support both ways between the EHS and the National Chapters. Times are changing, and the pace of research, innovation and thus change is all too evident. And the inclusivity of anyone looking after people with a hernia is also important. The EHS brand as a quality marker is evident, and we want to take our National Chapters with us. We wish our national chapters to follow our example, as a modern, cosmopolitan and transparent European society. We are
also aware that national borders in Europe are less of a focus, and the traditional National Chapters model may not fit every country or indeed region.
Going forwards, we have considered that there will be three different forms of cooperation as ‘chapters’ or ‘societies’ with the EHS. The simplest and most like the previous model is the affiliated status. At the beginning of 2024, all existing EHS
National Chapters will have affiliated status. As a member of an affiliated chapter, you benefit from many advantages in your local country, but by also being a member of the EHS through your affiliated chapter, you have a discount on your EHS membership fee. The next form of co-operation is ‘associated society’. Applications are open for current affiliated chapters, (and indeed new societies within Europe that wish to align with the EHS) for associated status. Again, members of an ‘associated society’ who also are EHS members through the associated society enjoy a further discount on the annual EHS membership (compared to an ‘affiliated society.’ So why not all societies as ‘associated’ status? The requirements for ‘associated’ status are higher than for ‘affiliated’, and while we hope that all societies would have associated
status, we are also aware that some will take time to bring around change to
meet the requirements for ‘associated’ status.
The last form is ‘Collaborating Organisation.’ Typically, these would be societies without hernia as their main focus, but through their activities, there is a benefit to
both them and the EHS collaborating. And we have had approaches from hernia
societies outside Europe wishing to collaborate with the EHS, and this may be a
mechanism to formalise a bit more, such relationships.
The key element to these changes, is to help bring the #herniafamily closer together, We want to simplify and improve cooperation of the different chapters with the EHS, make it more transparent, and grant you advantages if your membership is organised through an affiliated or associated chapter.
The next meeting of the delegates of the ‘national chapters’ (or should I say affiliated
chapters) will take place in Prague, at #EHS2024Prague on 29 May 2024.
Contact your hernia society for more information.
Bernd Stechemesser
Andrew de Beaux
