3rd COTEC General Assembly, October 3rd – 4th 2015. Riga, Latvia.

The 3rd COTEC General Assembly was held in Riga – a lovely city. Our hosts were the Latvian Occupational Therapy Association and we were treated royally. Our hotel and meeting facilities were in the Old Town and we had two busy days.

Saturday, 3rd October 2015: COTEC Governance Day.

  • Launch of the new COTEC website. Please visit – They have a twitter feed. Feedback on website welcomed.
  • Round Table discussion x 4. Subjects ranged from Expert Area’s; Cooperation with Others, Regulations and Qualifications; ROTOS OT research network in Europe and finally COTEC Strategic plan (draft) 2017-2020.
  • Latvian Association of Occupational Therapists presentation on “Labour Markets for OT’s in Latvia”. Currently there are approx. 140 members in the Association and their first four year undergraduate programme started in 1996.
  • WFOT report from Samantha Shann.
  • ENOTHE update from Brain Ellingham.
  • Presentation of the European Patient Forum on Patient Empowerment by Stephanie Saenger.

Sunday, 4th October 2015: COTEC General Assembly.

  • Election of General Assembly Officials – Chair, Secretary, Auditors, Tellers (for voting purposes) Reviewers of Minutes.
  • Adoption of Agenda, Minutes of last meeting and matters arising
  • Annual Report 2014
  • Financial Report 2014.
  • COTEC 2015 Interim Reports
  • COTEC Fee Structure – which was passed. Means AOTI fee will increase next year. Matter was previously discussed at AOTI Council and agreement that we would vote in favour of increase.
  • Action Plan 2016
  • Budget 2016
  • Membership issues – application from Russian Association to become a member of COTEC was discussed. All present voted in favour and Russia become the 30th member of COTEC.
  • CPTEC ExecutiveCommittee Elections – there were two vacant positions. Nominations were called for prior to the General Assembly meeting. Both applicants made presentations and then we voted. Both applicants were successful.
  • Announcement of the 2020COTEC-ENOTHE Congress – Prague is the location and suggested date is May 20th – 24th, 2020. Date for your diaries!
  • Any other business – Greece have asked for COTEC Executive to write formally to their Government to support a matter relating to their pay. They are seeking to have the Government implement an agreed €15.00 hourly rate for OT’s.
  • Meeting ended. Next General Assembly will be in NUIG at the COTEC-ENOTHE Congress, June 2016.

If any member wishes to have further information on the General Assembly meeting please contact me.

It was great, once again, to represent AOTI on the European stage. Many thanks for allowing me to be the AOTI Council representation for COTEC.

To finish, we invited Ms. Stephanie Saenger, President of COTEC as a guest to the AOTI 50th Anniversary Celebrations on October 16th. She was delighted to attend and really enjoyed meeting Directors, Executive Council and so many AOTI members on the night. I have now been asked to write a piece for the COTEC Newsletter on the celebration!!!

Best wishes,

Phil Dunne.

AOTI COTEC Delegate, 2015.