Minutes of the HAPA First Annual Meeting

Minutes of the First Annual HAPA Meeting

The meeting was called to order at 12:30 p.m. by Maria T. Lymberis, MD, HAPA

President, who welcomed members and guests.

I. The minutes of the HAPA Inaugural Meeting of May 15, 1999 were approved as noted in the HAPA Newsletter and website, with the following correction: Linda Kalivas was present at the 1999 meeting.

II. Presidentís Report:

Dr. Lymberis expressed her appreciation for AstraZenecaís support of our scientific meetings for the second year. We are still a very young organization with very limited resources and great plans. The year has been spent in developing our basic structures with very little outside funding and a small membership dues base. We did it by doing the work ìat homeî. Specifically, HAPA was able to keep costs down by getting the vital work of HAPA done by members of her family. She thanked her son Anthony De Cordoba who donated his time and expertise to HAPA by designing the logo and website: www.hellenic-psych.org. The website was launched in April 2000 by her sonís company, Vista View Imagery Ltd. (VVI): http://www.vvi.at. VVI is hosting the HAPA website for free for the next three years. Vista View Imagery has launched AUSTROSEARCH, Austriaís International Search Engine http://austrosearch.com and http://austrosearch.at. Presently the search engine is available in both English and German, but shortly it will be in Spanish as well. They are hoping to have Greek available in the future, at least for the HAPA website. VVI offers email and webhosting among other services. Finally, Dr. Lymberis thanked her husband, Pedro De Cordoba for his invaluable help with the HAPA membership, banking, billing and mailings through his office. Next year some of these functions are expected to be done by several HAPA officers.

Dr. Lymberis announced that there were several very important meetings that are going to be held in Greece this year. Specifically, the Fifth Delphi International Psychoanalytic Symposium, ìSelf Knowledge: Before and After Freud: in Delphi, GREECE, July 25-30, 2000.; the Second International Congress, ìHormones, Brain and NeuropsychoPharmacologyî in Rhodes, GREECE, July 15-19, 2000; and the 11th Conference of the Hellenic Society for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in Athens, November 23-26, 2000. More information is available at the HAPA website and copies of some of the programs were distributed at the meeting. Dr. Lymberis noted that Dr. Vaslamatzis, President of the Hellenic Society for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, had hoped to attend this meeting and speak to us about this meeting and the Society. Unfortunately he has not been able to attend. We certainly hope that we will see him next year.

Dr. Lymberis reported that she had received a letter from the psychiatrist, Kirk Pandelidis, MD. Dr. Pandelidis noted that he and a number of other psychiatrists had tried to form an Hellenic Psychiatric Society in 1966. The attempt did not work out. Dr. Pandelidis was asked to write a short article about that effort for the HAPA Newsletter detailing that effort.

Dr. Alexopoulos, HAPA Secretary, has been unable to attend the meeting due to weather conditions. Dr. Lymberis has functioned as the Secretary for this meeting.

III. Membership

Dr. Lymberis thanked Dr. Cardasis for his work as Chair of the HAPA Membership Committee. He has organized the HAPA Directory and is working on membership recruitment. He clearly needs everyoneís help. Our goal is to get to 100 HAPA members so we can be formally recognized in the APA Assembly as an Affiliate organization. In 1999, HAPA had 37 due-paying members. Of these, three were MITís and 5 were Affiliate Members. We clearly have a long way to go.

IV. Amendments

Amendments to the HAPA By-Laws were passed without any changes as distributed and are effective as of the conclusion of this meeting.

1. ARTICLE III, Membership

Delete Section 2b, Corresponding Members. This section is not needed. General/Corresponding members have the same dues. HAPA has no requirement for attendance at HAPA Annual Meetings.

2. ARTICLE IV, Officers and Executive Council

Amend as follows: Section 3. Elections and Term of Office: ìThe following officers shall be elected at the Annual Meetings of HAPA for a three (3) year term: President, President-Elect, Secretary and Treasurer. The President shall serve as a member of the Executive Committee for three (3) additional years upon completion of his or her term of office as President and shall not be eligible for reelection as President-Elect until four (4) years after completing a tern as President.î

3. ARTICLE V, Committees

Amend as follows: ìCommittee Chairpersons of all committees are appointed by the President for three (3) years and their term of office expires with the expiration of the term of office of the President who appointed them.î

4. ARTICLE V, Committees

Add the following sentence to: Section 4. Committee Membership: ìAll HAPA Committees shall have a minimum of three (3) members.î

5. ARTICLE VII, Finance

Amend sentence: ìHAPAís books shall be audited annuallyî. to ìThe President and/or the Executive Committee can request an audit of HAPA books when or if it is needed.î

6. ADDITION: Add to HAPA By-Laws: ARTICLE XII, Dissolution. ìIn the unlikely event of the dissolution of HAPA, the President shall appoint a Liquidation Committee. Such committee will proceed to liquidate all of the physical assets and legal contracts of any and all forms of HAPA in accordance with state and federal laws and procedures.î

V. Elections

Dr. Kanellos was elected for the term of office through 2003.

VI. Annual HAPA Meeting

The Annual HAPA Meeting time is to change to a later day and time. Specifically, the change will be to the Tuesday of the APA Meeting and to a dinner meeting. This change is believed to help with attendance by members from abroad.

VII. HAPA Meeting in Greece

Explore the feasibility of a HAPA meeting in Greece for 2002. George Christodoulou noted that Drs. Zervas, Vaslamatzis and Lyketsos could work on this. The suggestion was made by Dr. Lymberis to also include Peter Partocolis in the feasibility phase of the discussions.

VIII. HAPA Tasks

HAPA Tasks for 2000-2001 to include:

1. HAPA Membership Drive: Contact the APA Membership Office and get labels for the East Coast, Illinois, Ohio and California where there are many Hellenic members and send to all of them a letter with an application for membership. Post to all DB Newsletters a HAPA Membership Drive Notice. This will be done by HAPA President.

2. Explore the possibility of establishing a HAPA Scholarship Fund from donations by large Greek Foundations, such as the Onassis and Latsis Foundations. HAPA could thus offer a scholarship to Greek psychiatrists for Post-Graduate Training in Psychiatry in the United States. The HAPA President will write to both foundations.

3. HAPA needs all members to try to get funds from pharmaceutical companies for our next annual meeting and our newsletter. HAPA is our organization – we all need to help. START NOW! Dr. Lymberis will contact Zeneca since they have helped us from the beginning.

4. The presenters in our scientific meetings will be asked to submit summaries of their presentations for the HAPA Newsletter at the time of their presentations.

5. Initiate a HAPA Project to work with the Greek Orthodox Church. Dr. Lymberis contacted the APA Public Affairs Office and distributed this guide free of charge to the entire Archdiocese mailing list to the churches in the USA and Canada in the mid-1990ís when she was an APA Trustee at Large. The APA received many responses from priests who had found this very helpful. HAPA can do this again when the APA gets from the APA the updated Guide. Dr. George Christodoulou noted that the Greek Psychiatric Society had contacted the Archdiocese in Greece, initiating a dialogue and hoping to work on joint projects. Dr. Kalogerakis mentioned the exchange of correspondence he has had with His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios. He recommended that ìwhat is needed is a formal approach to the Archdiocese in the United States by HAPA, which is the only organization representing Greek-American psychiatrists in this country.î We need to initiate a dialogue on common interests. The HAPA president appointed Dr. Kalogerakis to Chair the HAPA Greek Clergy Project and report at the next meeting.



IX. Scientific Program

Due to time limitations, Dr. Lymberisí presentation was postponed to a future meeting. The two other scheduled presentations were received with great interest and generated a lively discussion. The THIRD ANNUAL HAPA MEETING will be a dinner meeting and will be held on Tuesday, May 8 at 6:30 p.m. in connection with the APA Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The meeting was adjourned

at 3:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,



Maria T. Lymberis, M.D.