INTERNATIONAL BOBATH INSTRUCTORS TRAINING ASSOCIATION
An international association for adult neurological rehabilitation
We hope everyone is keeping safe during these difficult times especially as the situation is continually changing.
Please remember when you are planning courses that it is possible to ask for an exemption.Exemptions – Membership are reminded to review the list of exemptions listed in the AGM Special Notice – Covid-19. Please submit all exemption requests to the EC.
Exemption requests that involve course content are considered in collaboration with the Education Committee and when instructor-candidates are involved, the Qualification Committee. The attached updated document has been generated based on the responses to exemption requests to date and may assist members – “Information for membership regarding Covid-19 course exemptions June 2020” – LINK.
You are invited to contact the Executive Committee for all exemptions and questions.The Statement of Instructor Status (SIS) form is now ready to be completed.
Every IBITA member must fill in this form before 1st July. To complete your SIS please go to the member webpage – Select “Your Profile” – select “Edit your Profile” – select “Fill in your Statement of Instructor Status Survey”.
All voting this year will be by postal vote. Postal votes will only be accepted from full members who have completed their SIS by June 30th AND paid their subscriptions by August 15th
Opportunity to ask questions before voting.
This year is extraordinary and members will not have an opportunity to meet in person and discuss before voting. To allow the opportunity to address member’s questions, the final AGM agenda with all reports and nominee statements shall be posted by July 24th. Members are invited to submit questions regarding the reports and motions by email to the IBITA Secretary by July 31st. Responses will be posted on the website by August 10th to inform voting that will open August 14th.
“Important dates” Please look at the webpage LINK as it has new information about the deadlines for motions for the 2020 Agenda, committee reports and submitting your postal votes.
Below is a list of key dates for your information.
June 28 Initial AGM Agenda posted
June 30 Statements of Instructor Status and Instructor Candidate Status submission deadline, to be completed by ALL members – Full, Retired, Honorary Life Members, Associate Members. Electronic submission via Member Profile on website – SIS Instructions.
July 1 Subscriptions to be paid after 1 July and no later than 15 August – Invoice
July 12 Committee Reports final submission date to the EC
July 24 AGM Final Agenda will be posted on the website.
July 31 Deadline to submit questions regarding AGM Final Agenda reports and motions. Please submit to the IBITA Secretary.
August 10 Responses to questions regarding AGM Final Agenda reports and motions shall be posted on the website.
August 14 Postal votes open. The Postal Vote Form will be available in Google Docs-Documents-AGM current year Documents. Note for 2020, all members with voting rights are eligible to submit a postal vote.
The Final AGM Agenda will be posted and updated with a link to Nominee names and statements. No changes are possible after this date.
August 15 Subscriptions payment final deadline –Invoice
August 21 Postal votes close.
August 29 2020 2pm-4pm Sweden time – Extraordinary Zoom Meeting. The in-person AGM is cancelled.
The Extraordinary meeting will allow for member exchange and education. In addition, the results of voting for nominees and motions shall be announced.
The Education Component will be a presentation by Dr. Kim Brock.
The title will be “New directions in rehabilitation research – new opportunities for the Bobath
concept?” – Rehabilitation research has entered a new phase where large, well designed trials are more common. However, many of these studies have had negative outcomes, showing no differences between interventions. This has led to some rethinking by leaders in the field and greater interest
in individually tailored interventions. At the same time, there is a greater focus on recovery rather than compensation after stroke or brain injury. Movement scientists are demonstrating that multi muscle co-ordination patterns underpin movement. This lecture will discuss these new directions and how this evidence can be used to support the treatment approach of the Bobath concept.
Country Representatives – please note that the closing date for sending your completed report to Kim Jennings (Vice Chairperson) is 30th June
Future AGM’s
We now have venues for 2023 and 2024
- 2023 Marstrand, Sweden – dates not yet confirmed
- 2024 Italy – dates not yet confirmed
Thank you to all our members for staying connected and responding to the committee surveys and to our committee and working group members for continuing their IBITA work through these extraordinary times.
Research Committee
Thank you to all the members who have completed the Google survey regarding the proposal for the Scientific Director
So far we have received 83 responses – thank you for this useful feedback and we have extended the deadline for completion until 30th JUNE to allow members a few more days to complete the survey
If you have not already completed the survey, this is the LINK
IBITA Library-A folder with 58 new articles has been added to the library. The folder is called “Recently added 19-06-2020” LINK One of the articles is related to the Bobath Concept and has also been included in the Bobath folder.
Nominating Committee
Preparations for this year’s elections are still in progress.
We are very happy that we already received nominations. However, please have a look at the listed committee posts. It is always preferable to have some more members standing for nomination
| Committee | Number of vacant posts for 2020 |
| Executive Committee / Vice chair person | 1 |
| Verification Committee | 1 |
| Appeals & Grievance Committee | 1 |
| Bobath Development Committee | 1 |
| Nominating Committee | 1 |
| Research Committee | 3 |
| Peer Review Committee | 1 |
| Qualification Committee Asia/Pacific | 1 |
The Nominating Committee would like to encourage everybody to think about their nomination. You all are very welcome to get in contact with the listed committee members and/or the nominating committee as well.
Please note that there will be only postal voting this year and therefore 12th August is the final deadline to accept nominations.
Please don’t hesitate to ask for any information.
We thank you all for your support.
Kind regards and stay well!
Cecilia, Koji, Heike
Finally, if you have any information for the next newsletter, please send it to me by 15th July 2020
Janice Champion
IBITA Secretary