2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Asian Pacific Orthodontic Society (APOS) Executive Committee Members (ECM)

Written by:
Dr. Kelvin Chang, APOS Website Editor

The 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Asian Pacific Orthodontic Society (APOS) Executive Committee Members (ECM) was held on 5 December 2024 at The Grand HiLai Hotel, Taipei, Taiwan, in conjunction with the 37^th Annual Meeting of the Taiwan Association of Orthodontists (TAO) and the 14^th Asian Pacific Orthodontic Congress (APOC).

The APOS Presidents’ Breakfast Meeting, held from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. before the APOS AGM, was a great opportunity for all the affiliate society members to meet each other and share experiences in a casual way. Besides the presidents of the affiliate societies of APOS, we had two special guests, the president of WFO, Dr. Nikhillesh Vaiid and the president of AAO, Dr. John Callahan.

The AGM was called to order by APOS President Dr. Roberto Tan at 9:00 am. The Secretary-General, Dr. Kieran O'Neill, did the Roll Call, mentioning the names of each Office Bearer and Executive Committee Member from the seventeen Affiliate member societies present. We also welcomed the resource persons from the Cambodian Association of Orthodontists (CAO), the Mongolian Association of Orthodontists (MoAO), and the Thai Association of Orthodontists (ThaAO).

After the approval of the proposed agenda for the 2024 AGM, ratification of the minutes of the 2023 APOS AGM was carried out and approved. The President’s, Secretary-General’s, and Treasurer’s reports were announced and approved on the floor. At this point, Dr Kieran O'Neill introduced the new Assistant Treasurer, Dr Matthew Lau, who will be taking over Dr Luisa Neo’s role as she steps down after the AGM today.

The committee reports from the APFORE Chairman, Dr. Somchai Satravaha, and the APOS Journal report from the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Eric Liou, and the APOS website report from the website editor, Dr. Kelvin Chang were read and approved.  

Dr. Spinx Lu (TAO ECM) presented his report on the 14^th APOC and the 37^th TAO annual meeting. Dr. Zakir Hussain (Vice President of APOS) made his report on the 5^th APOS Residents’ Forum. This was followed by an update of the 15^th APOC by Dr. Geraldine Lee (AOS ECM). The 15^th APOC will be held in Singapore on Nov. 6-8, 2026. The 2025 APOS Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held in Ho Chi Minh City on July 27, 2025, and Dr. Tran The Tho (VAO ECM) made the report.

The membership application from the Cambodia Association of Orthodontists (CAO) was reviewed and voted upon. We are pleased to congratulate CAO as the new affiliate member of the APOS.

For the host for the 16^th APOC in 2028, there were two candidates for the bid. Dr. Poonsak Pisek represented Thai Association of Orthodontists (ThaAO) and Dr. Tsendsuren Khurel-Ochir represented Mongolian Association of orthodontists (MoAO) to make the proposal presentations respectively. After the vote, ThaAO was decided to be the host for 2028APOC.

The final agenda was the election of the new APFORE and APOS Office Bearers. We are pleased to announce the new APFORE Chairman for 2024-2026 is Dr. Spinx Lu (TAO).

The APOS Office Bearers for 2024-2026:

• President: Dr. Kieran O’ Neill (NZAO)
• Vice president: Dr. Geraldine Lee (AOS)
• Secretary General: Dr. Takashi Ono (JOS)
• Treasure: Dr, Tran The Tho (VAO)
• Assistant treasure: Dr. Matthew Lau (AOS)
• APOS Journal Editor-in-Chief: Dr. Eric Liou (TAO)
• APOS website editor: Dr. Kelvin Chang (TAO)
• Internal Auditor: Dr. Bolormaa Sainbayar (MoAO)
• Internal Auditor: Dr. Shalene Kereshanan (MAO)

After all the issues on the agenda were finished, the 2024 AGM adjourned at 11:30 am. A group photo was taken, and all the attendees cherished the friendship with joyful smiles.