Business Meeting: Report

The Business Meeting of the International Psychoanalytical Association was held on Wednesday 31 July 1991 at the Sheraton Hotel, Buenos Aires from 08.30–18.00; Professor Joseph Sandler, the President of the IPA, was in the chair.

In his welcoming remarks, Professor Sandler observed that there had been a number of very substantial changes since the last Business Meeting in Rome and said that his Administration was concerned to enhance communication with the Component Societies and to increase democratic representation. Both the Business Meeting and the Congress in Buenos Aires were the largest ever, and Professor Sandler said that this should be the last time that the Business Meeting voted for members of the Executive Council, as the present meeting would be asked to approve voting by mail ballot.

Professor Sandler said the Council was honoured by the presence of Dr Angel Garma, Honorary Vice-President of the IPA. He then asked the meeting to accept the report of the last Business Meeting in Rome which had been published in the 154th IPA Bulletin. The report was received unanimously.

The IPA's Secretary, Dr Jacqueline Amati Mehler, then read out the names of those Members and Associate Members of the Association who had died since the last Congress and the meeting paid silent tribute.

A major item of business concerned the election of IPA Officers and Vice-Presidents for the term 1991–1993. Also, for the first time, the Membership was required to choose a President-Elect, who would become President in 1993, after the Amsterdam Congress.

Professor Sandler thanked the Nominating Committee, chaired by Mme. de Saussure, for all its hard work, and introduced the two candidates for President-Elect of the IPA, Dr Horacio Etchegoyen of the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association and Dr Jorge Garcia Badaracco of the Buenos Aires Psychoanalytic Association. Each candidate then made a five minute presentation.

Dr Garcia Badaracco said that his would be an active leadership, based