On Friday, April 29th and Saturday, April 30th, PAACS held its Spring 2022 Board of Directors meeting. This hybrid meeting was held in Chicago, and persons from around the globe were able to participate either in-person or virtually. The in-person meeting had 55 attendees, and another 45 persons joined by Zoom. This hybrid meeting model continues to provide an opportunity for PAACS to open its meetings to individuals from around the world to hear and learn more about the workings of PAACS.
The Open Session meeting was held on Friday, April 29th. This meeting was attended primarily by members of the PAACS Board of Directors, leadership, faculty, administration, and guests. During the Open Session, various members of the PAACS administration, program faculty, graduates, and Chairs of Committees and Councils presented reports, provided updates, and discussed what is happening within our programs in Africa. In addition, PAACS had special presenters speak on various topics including COSECSA, WACS and surgical education. These speakers were Dr. Abebe Bekele, Chair of the Examinations and Credentials Committee of COSECSA, Professor King-David Terna Yawe, the 29th President of the West African College of Surgeons (WACS), and Dr. John Mellinger, Vice President of The American Board of Surgery (ABS). We were very honored to have these distinguished individuals present during the meeting.
The PAACS Open Session of the Board meeting concluded by late afternoon. The meeting was followed by a fellowship dinner and a time of prayer and worship.
The Closed Session of the meeting was held the following day on Saturday, October 30th. This meeting consisted only of the voting members of the PAACS Board of Directors. The main portion of the meeting was spent reviewing and voting on accepting three new training programs as part of PAACS. Praise God, the Board voted to start a new Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery program in partnership with CURE International, training in both Kenya and Ethiopia, a new Head and Neck Fellowship at AIC Kijabe Hospital in Kenya, and a General Surgery program at Hospital of Hope in Togo. In addition, the Board passed a new budget for 2022-2023, reviewed and approved the PAACS audit, approved new PAACS faculty for programs, approved changes to the PAACS Gift Policy, discussed the status of projects under the five-year strategic plan, and talked about the growth of the ministry.
The PAACS Spring 2022 Board of Directors meeting was successful, and much was accomplished in a short period of time. We hope to meet in-person again October 28-29 in Chicago for the Fall PAACS Board of Directors Meeting.
