REPORTS FROM THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Secretary for Public Relations
Dr. José Matuk Kanan (Mexico)

The report from the Office for Public Relation of the Liga Medica Homeopathica Internationalis, is short but with some important changes. I received more histories of countries which are very interesting, and I am still waiting for the countries who not are send it yet his papers. But this will be finish I hope before of the end of this year. We have some changes in address, and National Vice-president, and we send the new Directory with the changes that we have in the congress of Budapest, a great congress.

I remind you that your National Report must contain the following points to have useful information for every body. You can send your report by Email if you want for the other National Vice Presidents.

We received the history from Latvia, Sri Lanka, Uruguay, and the UK. They are now available on the website inn addition to the already existing ones from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Hungary, Italy and Mexico.

We still need the histories from Australia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Israel, Japan, Malaysia,, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, United States, and Venezuela.

If you send your history, it will be inserted on the website very soon. If not, please do not miss the opportunity to fill your place on the site. If you are National Vice President or Contact and you do not have the new Directory, please let me know so that I can send it to you again.


Secretary for Research
Maria L. Lara-Marquez, MD, PhD (Interim Secretary for Research)

Developing and Enhancing research strategies in Homeopathy worldwide.
I have been recently appointed interim secretary of research of the LMHI and began my official activity in Budapest, Hungary this past May of 2000 in the 55th Congress of the LMHI. I accepted this challenge with the goal of contributing with the current collective effort of many colleagues worldwide in promoting and enhancing research in homeopathy as well as helping expand the information about research within homeopaths. I will summarize what has been done and what are the short and long term plans the year 2000-01.

1. Obtain information about prior activities of the research secretaries of the LMHI.
2. I was requested by the Executive Committee of the LMHI to collect information from the National VPs about the homeopathic research done in their respective countries. The results of this inquiry would be published a reputable journal and would be distributed to all the LMHI members. For this task a brief questionnaire was given to each NVP in the Budapest meeting. I have not received any reports as of yet. There are already efforts being done in the Europe, Latin America and U.S.A by research groups collecting this type of data in a more complete way. However, the best contribution of each NVP would be to provide information about on-going research that maybe has not been published yet or research that is not published in journals that are cited in international databases. This would provide additional information to the one already existing in the international databases and would help to promote networking and collaboration between various research groups. I understand this is a difficult endeavor and time consuming but I encourage each NVP to collect this information if possible, and forward it by 28 February 2001 (MS Word or Excel for windows 95). The questionnaire is shown below.
3. Develop an award of the LMHI for the best research presented in the LMHI congress each year which amount and source still pending definition. The specifics of this prize should be announced in the call for papers for the next LMHI congress. Arrangements are being done, to have the winner paper published in an international recognized homeopathic journal.
4. Create an international scientific committee to work with the secretary of Research of the LMHI to improve scientific quality of LMHI congress and support initiatives of the regional VP where the congress will be held each year.
5. Participate in regional and international conferences sharing the interim Research Secretary's own work or views about the challenges of research in homeopathy in the new millennium.

Conferences in year 2000 related to homeopathy:

1. Randomized Placebo Control Trial of Homeopathic Therapy in Allergic Asthma: Clinical and Immunological Outcomes - National Center for Homeopathy 2000 Annual Conference-April 7-11th, 2000, Burlingame, California, U.S.A.
2. Homeopathic Medicines for Asthma National Center for Homeopathy 2000 Annual Conference-April 7-11th, 2000, Burlingame, California, U.S.A.
3. Introduction to Homeopathic Medicine: principles and application in clinical practice. Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the 21ST century Seminar. St. John West Shore Hospital, University Hospitals Health Systems, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A. April 19, 2000
4. Medicina Homeopática: Prinicipios terapeúticos y mecanismos de acción.
   Jornadas Escuela de Medician, J.M. Vargas, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela, May 8-10, 2000.

Conference in 2001 related to homeopathy:

1. Hypothesis-Driven Basic and Clinical Research in Homeopathy: Contributions of the Psychoneuroimmunology in Understanding of how Homeopathy may work. Improving the success of Homeopathy 3: Reuniting Art and Science. The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital, London 22-23 February 2001.

General Secretary
Dr. Ulrich Fischer (Germany)

According to the Statutes of the LMHI the General Secretary is responsible for the administration of the association and the preparation and the execution of the meetings. He shall draft the minutes of the meetings and shall forward copies of the Minutes to all National Vice Presidents. Additionally, the General Secretary shall maintain relations with the national institutional members.

1) Relation to the administration of the association: many written correspondence concerning the archives of the LMHI, the LMHI web site, addresses of homeopathic MD’s worldwide, the duties of the National Vice Presidents, their pledge of performance and certificates, the promotion of the LMHI worldwide and others had to be answered. The Minutes of the meetings of the Executive Committee and the International Council from Salvador de Bahia were written and sent to all National Vice Presidents.

2) In collaboration with the Officers in the Executive Committee and the Organizing Committee of the Budapest Congress, the meetings of the Executive Committee and the International Council for the 55th Congress of the LMHI were prepared and organized.

3) With continuous and regular communication (often daily email contacts) between the members of the Executive Committee the following matters were discussed, resolved or put in practice: public relations of the LMHI, communication between NVP’s, research projects, the Internet page of the LMHI, promotion of the LMHI in the different member countries, the “Gutmann Legacy” and others. Together with the Treasurer of the LMHI, the “Resolution on Homeopathy” has been developed and sent out.

4) LMHI Archives: After moving the archives of the LMHI to the “Institut für Geschichte der Medizin” in Stuttgart, it is necessary to provide the institute with continuous updates about the LMHI. With the revision of all the materials collected through the last 3 years, all relevant data, minutes of meetings, everything concerning the development of the new statutes and letters of importance have been sent out by the General Secretary to the Institute in Stuttgart.

Address: Institute für Geschichte der Medizin, Straußweg 17, 70184 Stuttgart, Germany
Phone: , fax:
Email:


Treasurer
Dr. Ton Nicolai (the Netherlands)
Annual financial report 1999, a summary

In 1999 the LMHI (paying) membership increased from 6,303 to 6,699. A new country, i.e. Uruguay, joined the LMHI. The increase over the last 5 years is 45 %.

The 1999 expenditures included the following (CHF = Swiss Francs):

• secretarial expenses and accommodation expenses for the LMHI annual business meetings (Executive Committee and the International Council meeting)
• secretarial expenses of the other Executive Committee members
• newsletter (2 issues); design, editing, printing and mailing
• a non-recurrent amount of CHF 6,200 to the Institute for the History of Medicine of the Robert Bosch Foundation for maintenance of the LMHI Archives
• accountant’s fee
• expenses surrounding the Executive Committee and International Council meeting
• website maintenance
• taxes, bank charges and commission and amounted up to CHF 85,194.

The 1999 income included the following:

• membership dues
• dividend, credit interest
  and amounted up to CHF 51,288.
  This low income is mainly due to the fact that some countries had failed to pay their 1999 dues.

This means a net deficit of CHF 33,965 for the year 1999, which is about the same amount as in 1998. The LMHI assets decreased from CHF 353,123 on 31 December 1998 to CHF 319,157 on 31 December 1999.
In 1999 the LMHI continued to use its reserves. This is due to the International Council decision at Capri (1996), because of the then high unnecessary financial reserves, for a temporary decrease of the membership dues from CHF 15 to CHF 10 per (association) member per year.

Estimate for 2000
The 2000 expenditures will amount up to CHF 139,100, the receipts to approx. CHF 90,500. That means that the LMHI will have a net deficit for the year 1999 of approx. CHF 48,600 and that the LMHI assets will continue to decrease.

Increase of membership dues
At the 1996 International Council meeting it was decided that the membership dues were to be raised again in the future, as soon as the LMHI assets reach a critical limit. Although this limit has not been reached as yet, it is certainly approaching rapidly. Therefore, the International Council decided to raise the membership dues step-by-step, to start with CHF 12 per individual member as from 2001. Later on, a further increase will be necessary.