It is indeed a great pleasure for me to welcome you in this new website of IFNE, that reflects the significant and historical changes occurred in our Federation during the last two years.
The most important achievement is the legal formalization of IFNE as a Scientific Society. This occurred in the forum of Athens, Greece on April 5th, 2019, thanks to the kind mediation of Spyros Sgouros, Past President of the IFNE and of the staff of Erasmus Conferences & Events S.A., already appointed as PCO of the IFNE in January 2017. The legal procedure lasted few months and legalized the bylaws that you can read on this website.
This fundamental step allowed us to regulate the affiliation of new members, collect membership fees and to sign contracts of scientific collaboration with other Societies, Universities, Hospitals or Editors.
Very soon after this step, on July 18, 2019 I signed a contract with Linda Gruner, vice-President of Elsevier, to elect the journal “World Neurosurgery” as The Official Journal of the International Federation of NeuroEndoscopy. This important achievement and recognition was possible thanks to the idea and mediation of Salman Sharif, member of our Executive Board who first contacted Ed Benzel, Editor of “World Neurosurgery”. This formal agreement allows all IFNE members to subscribe yearly to the e-version of “World Neurosurgery” at a very discounted rate of 55EUR/year.
IFNE is granted moreover significant advantages in advertising official IFNE events on “World Neurosurgery” and have abstracts of the biennial World Congress published on it. Affiliation with “World Neurosurgery” grants worldwide visibility to the IFNE and will be the base for mutual longstanding reinforcement between the Federation and the Journal.
Membership fees collection and our new status required also some changes in the website. We acknowledge our Past President Spyros Sgouros, who created the first IFNE website many years ago, personally managed it for many years and kindly accepted the creation of a new website managed by our PCO, Erasmus. In fact, due to the very significant increase in activity due to all these recent changes, the website of the new IFNE could not be managed by a single person anymore. You are now looking at the first version of the new website: criticisms, opinions and suggestions are very welcome to try to improve it.
Affiliation to the IFNE is regulated by the bylaws that you will find in this website. Two letters by IFNE members can be presented although are not necessary to apply for active membership. Do not hesitate to contact the members of the Executive Board that you would like to have as supporters. IFNE membership also grants discounted registration rates at all official IFNE meetings and hands-on Workshops that take place throughout the world.
Finally, I am pleased to acknowledge the fantastic work of Samer Elbabaa, Chairman of the World Congress that will be held in Orlando at Hilton Bonnet Creek on November 21-24, 2019, preceded by a Ventricular and Skull Base Endoscopy hands-on cadaver workshop on November 20-21, 2019 at the University of Central Florida (UCF) College of Medicine. Joachim Oertel built a fantastic scientific program granting an impressive participation of world renown experts that you can discover
here.
Membership fees for the year 2020 (not including World Neurosurgery subscription) are included in the IFNE 2019 congress registration fees and you will automatically become a member in Orlando. Separate 2020 subscription to WNS for IFNE 2019 congress participants will be provided on the website after the Congress. We invite all those that will not be able to join us in Orlando to apply as member and be a part of the IFNE community.
I hope to meet you in Orlando, where the first Executive Board meeting of the new IFNE will take place. The two years of my Presidency have been fantastic and stimulating and I sincerely thank all the people who helped us in achieving all these important tasks.
See you in Orlando!!!
Giuseppe Cinalli
President, International Federation of NeuroEndoscopy
Naples, August 2nd, 2019