EUROPEAN  TISSUE  REPAIR  SOCIETY

Figure 2. Conference logo 1993. Inaugural Australian
Conference on Wound Care: 'Turning Wound Care Upside Down'.

On 11 March 1993 a breakfast meeting was held at the Conference to discuss the need for a national wound care association. The meeting was attended by 84 delegates and trade representatives and was chaired by Mrs Jenny Prentice with Mr Tal Ellis (Chairperson of the South Australian Wound Care Association) acting as recorder. The notion of a national body was unanimously supported. The meeting moved that a Steering Committee be entrusted with the responsibility for establishing the framework of and constitution for a national body. The Executive Committee members were:

Chairperson:   Mr Pat Aldons, Consulting Physician,
                     Prince Charles Hospital, QLD
Secretary:      Mr Tal Ellis, Lecturer, Nursing,
                     University South Australia
Treasurer:      Mrs Jenny Prentice Stomal Therapist,
                     Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, WA.

Each state wound-care association had a representative on the General Committee.^3,4

The work of the Steering Committee continued until March 1994 when, at the Australian International Wound Management Conference in Melbourne, the recommendations of the Steering Committee was ratified and the Australian Wound Management Association was officially formed.

The Executive Committee included: Mr Michael Stacey (President), Mr Geoff Sussman (Vice President), Mr Tal Ellis (Secretary), and Mrs Janine Clarke (Treasurer). The General Committee consisted of six State Representatives, three positions to represent Nursing, Medical and Allied Health and the Journal Editor.

Much external support was given to the Association which enabled it to achieve many of its objectives during the Steering Committees term of office. Acknowledgements are paid to Beiersdorf, for travel costs of the Steering Committee, and Coloplast Australia, for funding the first two issues of an Australian journal on wound care, and the subsequent establishment of the Comfeel Literary Awards. The Helen Carty Memorial Award, from ConvaTec was used to buy our first computer, and Boots supported the Young Investigators Award.⁴

Figure 4. The first cover page of Primary Intention,
The Australian Journal of Wound Management.

Figure 3. Left: the Steering Committe. Centre: Jenny Prentice and Pat Aldons. Right: Paul Marshall and Rhonda Walsh.