Minutes of Annual General Body Meeting (GBM) - 2024

Venue :: Auditorium, Dr.D.Y.Patil Medical College, Pimpri, Pune, Maharashtra.
Date :: 05/04/2024 ( Friday )
Time :: 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm

The General Body Meeting was held during the Twelfth National Conference of Society of Clinical Anatomists (SOCA)

MEMBERS PRESENT ::

The members present for the General Body Meeting were as per the Register. Since the required quorum was available, the President, Dr.M.Sivakumar welcomed all the members who were present and declared order to convene the General Body Meeting of the Society of Clinical Anatomists. Before starting the meeting, homage was paid to the souls of following clinical anatomists who left us in recent past: Dr.M.S. Shailendranath, Bangalore, Dr.R.K.Srinivasan, Puducherry and Dr.B.B.Gosai, Vadodara.

1. Annual Report by the General Secretary : The annual report of the Society of Clinical Anatomists was presented by the General Secretary, Dr. N. Muthukumaravel. He appreciated Dr.Vatsalaswamy, the Organizing Chairperson and Dr.Preeti Sonje, the Organizing Secretary of the 12th annual conference of the Society and the Team for accepting and organizing the same. He also reported that till then 2415 clinical anatomists have become members of the Society. The General Secretary got the approval of General Body for the clinical anatomists who had been admitted as new life members after due verification during the last year.The General Secretary also conveyed that the SOCA’s second Life Time Achievement Award was presented to Dr.Vatsalaswamy, Director, Academics, Dr.D.Y.Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre considering her contributions to the Subject Anatomy, her academic achievements and playing vital administrative roles in her esteemed institute. The General Secretary thanked Prof. Dr. Giriraj Kusre, Professor of Anatomy, Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh and his team members for organizing Hands on workshop on Genetics for early career Anatomists from 29th to 31st of January, 2024 under aegis of SOCA. The General Body unanimouslyapproved the General Secretary’s report.


2. Annual Report by the Treasurer : The interim report of the finance for the year 2022-23 was presented by Dr.N.Muthukumaravel, General Secretary on behalf of the Treasurer. The statement of accounts of the Society was displayed for the members’ perusal. The Balance in Society’s account in IOB branch, Valasaravakkam, Chennai as on 31-03-2024 was Rs.23,54,050/- The General Body unanimously approved the Treasurer’s report.


3. Report by Editor-in-Chief of National Journal of Clinical Anatomy : Dr. Kumar Satish Ravi, Editor-in-Chief of National Journal of Clinical Anatomy presented the annual report of the Journal for the period from January 2023 to March 2024.
   
   The Editor-in-Chief, Dr.Kumar Satish Ravi presented the achievements of National Journal of Clinical Anatomy and discussed about all the steps taken in order to index and empower the Journal and also to make it financially stable.
   
   
ACHIEVEMENTS ::


1. National journal of Clinical Anatomy is at present Q4 Journal included in SJR, ranked 39th position with 10th percentile, ahead of all the Anatomy Journals of India. As per the SCOPUS data, the cite score of NJCA is 0.3. He mentioned that NJCA was indexed in DOAJ & SCOPUS in quick possible time after he became Editor in Chief. Dr. Kumar Satish Ravi thanked all the members of SOCA, Editorial board members, SOCA Office Bearers, Reviewers, Authors and Subscribers for their support and encouragement towards the growth of the Journal.


2. NJCA is the first Indian Journal of Anatomy to release SPECIAL ISSUE. Dr. Ghulam Bhat and Dr. Pushpa N.B. served as Gust editor and Managing editor respectively for the special issue on “Advances in anatomical sciences education”.


3. In order to increase the visibility of articles published in NJCA, the Editor-in-Chief has initiated to float VIDEO ABSTRACTS (first in Indian Journals) in various social media platforms (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter). For this Dr. Viveka S has been appointed as Social Media editor.


4. NJCA had more than 80 Agency / Institutional subscribers in 2023 and the bank balance as of 2/4/2024 was Rs. 52, 19,886/-.

ACTIVITIES of NJCA ::



1. NJCA under the aegis of SOCA had organised WEBINAR on Biomedical visualization in order to commemorate WORLD ANATOMY DAY on 15th October 2023. The Chief Guest for the celebration was Prof. M Srinivas, Director & CEO, All India Institute of Medical sciences, New Delhi. Guest of Honour was Dr. Minu Bajpai, Executive director & Vice President, National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences. The Guest Speaker, Prof Paul M Rea, Professor of Digital &Anatomical Education& Director of innovation, engagement &enterprise,University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK, delivered guest lecture on the theme. The session was chaired by Dr. Rima Dada, Dr.Vatsalaswamy and Dr. Kalpana Ramachandran. This was the 4th consecutive year the celebration was organized and event witnessed more than 400 delegates.


2. On the occasion of World Anatomy Day,the NJCA under the aegis of SOCA had organised National Essay competition for both faculty and students. For the faculty, the theme was Digital content on YouTube channels - boon or bane to Anatomy teaching learning? and for students – The Conundrum of National Exit Test (NExT) in India. We also had announced NJCA cover page competition. Dr. Parveen Ojha, Dr. Navita Agarwal, Dr. Sundip Charmode, Dr. Ravi Kant Narayan and Dr. Praveen Kumar R had served as Judges for Essay competition. Dr. Pushpa NB had co- ordinated the competition. Certificate of appreciation was awarded to all for their service.

Winners of Essay Competition ::

Student Category ::


1st Prize – Vishnu B, 3rd MBBS, AIIMS, Mangalagiri.

2nd Prize – Dr. Rahul Singh, JR(Anatomy), BRD, Gorakhpur.

3rd Prize – Dr. Alan Joseph Abraham, JR(Anatomy), AIIMS, New Delhi.


Faculty Category ::


1st Prize - Dr. Shilpa Bathla, Associate Professor, Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi.

2nd Prize - Dr. Supriya, Associate Professor, SCMCH& RI, Channa Patna.

3rd Prize - Dr. Pratibha Shakya, KGMU, Lucknow.


3. To promote the members of SOCA &budding Clinical Anatomists, Best paper – Dr. RN Mukherjee memorial award was being initiated since 2023.This year, the Best paper award was conferred on Dr. Smitha Elizbeth of Oman. Award included, a Medal, Certificate and Cash prize of Rs.5000/-. Award was given during inauguration ceremony of the conference at Pune. This year,Dr. Anjali Agarwal, Dr. Ghulam Bhat, Dr. Sneha Guruprasad Kalthur, Dr. Jolly Agarwal had served as Jury members and Dr. Sundip Charmode was the convenor. All the members were awarded certificate of appreciation during the conference.


4. All the Reviewers and Editors are being given CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE for the service rendered to NJCA and one of the Editor being conferred best editor. This year Dr. Ghulam Bhat was awarded with Certificate of EXCELLENCE for the editor service.


FINANCIAL REPORT of NJCA ::


1. Dr. Kumar Satish Ravi proudly presented that the current bank balance at the Journal account as on 2/4/2024 was Rs. 52,19,886/-.He mentioned that after starting with Zero Balance in June 2020, the balance of Rs. 33,47,503/- achieved in February, 2023 and attained the present balance of more than half crore. Editor-in- Chief thanked all the Subscribers, Authors and Agencies for the achievement. This was also because of:


1. Saving Office assistant salary of Rs.15,000/- per month (approved by last GBM) - Rs. 1,80,000/-


2. Plagiarism check done by EiC using personal logistics. It saved approximately (211X3X80) - Rs. 50,640/-


3. All Brochures, Certificates, Flyers being designed by Editor in Chief himself.


2. Editor in Chief presented the Audited statement to the GBM. Postal charges and World Anatomy Day expenses are to be withdrawn.


3. Dr. Kumar Satish Ravi appreciated the gesture of Executive Committee member, Dr. Padamjit Panchal, Additional Professor, AIIMS Patna for donating Rs. 50,000/- towards NJCA.

NJCA PORTAL 2023 :

Total number of articles submitted were 211. Last year we published 49 articles, which included- 32 original articles, 2 review articles, 4 case reports, 2 case series, 4 short communications and 5 editorials. Acceptance rate for the year 2023 is 18%.

ACCOLADES :

Dr. Kumar Satish Ravi mentioned that he had delivered various guest lectures as Editor-in-Chief of NJCA to educate the Anatomists and the honorariums of which have been donated for the welfare of the Journal.

FUTURE GOALS ::


• Increasing the frequency of Journal to bimonthly and then, monthly from 2025.

• Increasing the number & variety of articles in each issue.

• Streamlining, strengthening & decentralizing the review process - Section editors and Article editors.

AGENDAS APPROVED BY ::


• Editor in Chief informed to have special issue on Neuroanatomyand to invite guest editor.

• In order to have more submissions from abroad, EiC informed that we need to reduce the Article Processing Charges (APC) for foreign authors as many are withdrawing after acceptance due to publication charges. He mentioned that APC has been reduced to Indian authors, similarly we need to think about foreign authors.

• Fixed Deposit of Rs.40 Lakhs.

• Dr. Ravi informed that we have got green signal to apply for ESCI &soon, we will be applying for PUBMED.

The GB applauded the efforts of Editor in chief in the growth of NJCA. All the agendas were approved by the GBM and Editor-in-Chief thanked all.


4. Venue of the next SOCA conference : As decided in the Executive Committee meeting, The Department of Anatomy, Government Medical College, Srinagar, Kashmirheaded by Dr.Ghulam Mohammed Bhatwill organize the 13th Annual Conference of SOCA in the year, 2025.


5. International Affairs: Matters relating to International Federation of Associations of Anatomists (IFAA) and SOCA : The General Secretary conveyed the General Body that the SOCA has applied for membership in IFAA and once the application is approved in their next General assembly at South Korea in September, 2024 during the IFAA Congress 2024, we need to pay the prescribed membership fee. The General Secretary also conveyed that our Editor-in-Chief, Prof.Dr.Kumar Satish Ravi has been invited as a Guest Speakerfor the same IFAA Congress at South Korea and as representative of SOCA, Dr.Kumar Satish Ravi would bid for future IFAA Congress to be organized by SOCA in India. The General Body unanimously approved and appreciated the international involvement of SOCA.


6. Decision on Office bearers and EC Member : The General Body approved the following decisions: Elevation of Dr.V.Gladwin as Joint Secretary from his earlier post of Associate Secretary, ElevatingDr.Padamjeet Panchal as new Associate Secretary from his earlier Executive Committee membership and Electing Dr. Pushpa N.B. as new Treasurer and Dr.E.Mohana Priya as new Joint Treasurer.As per the decision of the General Body Meeting last year (2023), an Application Format was released in Society Website to receive applications from the eligible members to be included as Executive Committee (EC) members. When the General Secretary informed the General Body that response was inadequate, the General Body permitted to extend the application receiving period for one more month from the date of the General Body meeting only for this year so that all the fifteen vacancies get filled and Executive Committee becomes functional. The General Secretary requested the members to apply and encourage their eligible contacts. After discussion and interactions, the following decisions were taken: There is NO age limit, Office bearers or Executive committee members of other National Anatomical Societies and their state chapters are NOT eligible to become Office bearers or EC members of SOCA and this is to be followed as part of our Society’s norm to avoid conflicts of interest.
   
   Since all proposed agendas were covered, the General Body was pronounced over by the President.
   
           Dr. N. Muthukumaravel                    Dr. M. Sivakumar
           General Secretary, SOCA                President, SOCA