And on the fourth day, IFMSA changed a bunch of stuff

Indeed, today’s plenaries revolved around bylaw changes and the adoption of Momenda of Understanding and Policy Statements, some pretty important stuff.

Today’s presidents’ session began with a talk on leadership by Dr Mukesh Haikerwal of the World Medical Association. The part of the talk that I found most instructive related the importance of conserving excellent relations with all players in the field, considering how quickly dynamics can change, particularly in political settings.

Extensive discussions were thereafter led on the five proposed Momenda of Understanding (MoU), which are essentially contracts between IFMSA and external bodies. IFMSA-Québec voiced several concerns on the proposal with the ECFMG, as it required extensive legal review and clarification before adoption. Joined by several other NMOs, our joint pressure led to the withdrawal of the proposal for this GA, and the Team of Officials will continue its work on the MoU to ensure that it is fully beneficial for IFMSA.

The AF Market was also held today, it was a very vibrant event where all NMOs got to host kiosques in the aims of recruiting students to engage in exchanges in their respective countries and encouraging exchange officers to sign contracts with them.

The evening plenary led to the adoption of several bylaws. Some of IFMSA-Québec’s proposals were adopted by the assembly, whereas others were not. We were particularly disappointed that our proposal on the Financial Committee was declined (only 4 votes were missing for a 2/3 majority). As I write this post, we still await the result on our Policy Statement proposal… to be continued!

Update on the strategic planning discussions: I have so far spoken to the UK, Canada, the Netherlands and Germany. More to follow in the upcoming days!

JNB