MINUTES OF ANNUAL MEETING

December 2, 2008

Reza’s Restaurant, Chicago IL

 PRESENT:

Ali Abbasian, Gholamali Afshang, Anahita Aghari Lasboo, Shahram Askari, Mehdi Bathaii, Azadeh Beheshtian, Fargol Booya, Hournaz Ghandehari, Jafar Golzarian, Reza Habibi, Reza Hayeri, Saied Hojat, Keyanoosh Hosseinzadeh, Javad Jamshidi, Arash Kamali, Iraj Khalkhali, Kiyarash Mohajer, Hamid Mohazab, Hamid Mojibian, Reza Raji, Cyrus Raji, Redram Rezai, Mohammad Reza Rezai, Mehrdad Sehizadeh, Khalil Shirazi, Ali Shirkhoda, Yousef Soltanahmadi, Jamshid Tehranzadeh, Vahid Yaghmai

The meeting was called to order by Dr. Farzin Eftekhari, President of NAIRS, at 7:15 p.m.  The minutes of last year’s meeting were approved. The members introduced themselves.  Dr. Jamshidi, Treasurer of NAIRS gave the financial report. Then, Dr. Eftekhari introduced Dr. Ali Shirkhoda as the next President of NAIRS, and presented his biography.  There was unanimous approval of his election. 

 Dr. Shirkhoda spoke about the present status of NAIRS and future plans, and encouraged members, especially the younger radiologists, to participate actively. He indicated that one of the major goals of the Founders of NAIRS has been support of the field of Radiology in Iran mostly through Iranian Society of Radiology (ISR). However, in the past this relationship has been mostly in two areas; participation of the NAIR members at scientific programs of ISR’s annual meetings (Iranian Congress of Radiology “ICR”) and paid subscription to Radiology journals. Dr Shirkhoda explored other potential avenues that we might be able to assist our sister Society and particularly those in training in Iran. Examples that he indicated are; 1) Helping ISR to organize short term subspecialty educational courses in Iran beyond their annual meeting, 2) Sponsoring senior Radiology residents in Iran for a 1-2 months observership in US through a competitive program involving recommendation of ISR and approval of NAIRS executive committee.

NAIRS may explore the possibility of providing one time per year scholarship for such young individuals. 3) Support of Iranian Journal of Radiology in order to raise the scientific contents of the journal by direct contribution of articles. 4) Development of joint research projects with Iranian Radiologists especially providing an atmosphere that our residents at academic institutions may be engaged with their counterparts in Iran on various projects. This could be initiated in Iran and therefore Dr Shirkhoda suggested providing the Emails of the NAIRS members on our website (www.nairsociety.com) for future possible contacts.

 Dr. Shirkhoda announced the next meeting of ICR April 28-May 1, 2009 in Tehran. He encouraged the members to participate.  For further information, their email address is info@icr2009.ir and the meeting website is, www.icr2009.ir

There was further general discussion about the future of NAIRS. The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m.

 Respectfully submitted,

 Gholamali Afshang, M.D