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From the WGA Executive Office
Kuldev Singh, MD MPH, Executive Vice President, World Glaucoma Association
We are now in the midst of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, where a majority of the world's glaucoma specialists reside. Summer is generally a time of relaxation with friends and family, often involving travel for pleasure. This summer, a group of World Glaucoma Association (WGA) leaders are hard at work developing strategic plans for each of the WGA's numerous committees. Many of these leaders are former members of the WGA Associate Advisory Board who, upon graduation from this Board, have been given the task of co-chairing and developing a committee strategic plan. This process is being overseen by the WGA's three Associate Executive Vice-Presidents, Tin Aung, Jonathan Crowston and Tarek Shaarawy. Tin Aung is leading the entire effort and has been hard at work to make certain that the future goals of each committee are put in writing prior to the end of summer. Given that we will all be occupied next summer by the World Congress in Boston, which we expect will be the largest glaucoma meeting held to date anywhere in the world, it is imperative that the WGA leadership develop the plans and lay the foundation for future growth this year, before turning all of our attention towards Boston.
Another development this summer is the approval, by the WGA Executive Committee and Board of Governors, to create two new committees which will divide the tasks of a prior committee. The World Glaucoma Day (WGD) Committee will be composed of individuals representing both WGA and the World Glaucoma Patient Association (WGPA) with two co-chairs from each Association. The inaugural WGD 2008 was a great success and we expect WGD 2009, with continued leadership from Robert Ritch, Ivan Goldberg and George Lambrou amongst others, to surpass this year's event. The WGA Liaison Committee, which will be co-chaired by President Remo Susanna and myself, will be made up of representatives from each region of the world. As the WGA has grown in size and stature, we are increasingly approached by other large and small global and regional ophthalmic associations to collaborate on an assortment of projects. Previously, such proposals were directly addressed by the WGA leadership. As we expect that there will be an increasing number of such proposals in the future, the WGA has created a committee to evaluate each such proposal, as well as develop proposals that might be sent to other organizations on behalf of the WGA. The primary purpose of this committee will be to assess whether or not potential collaborations with other ophthalmic associations are consistent with the goals of the WGA and are within the fiscal constraints of our Association. This new Liaison Committee, like all of our committees, will be advisory to the WGA Executive Committee and Board of Governors with ultimate decision making authority resting in the hands of the Board.