As Presidents of both organisations, we are happy to inform you on the progress on the intended merger of the European Transplant Coordinators Organisation (ETCO) with the European Donation Committee (EDC) and integration in ESOT. It is our aim to create a strong, very visible and active donation section within ESOT that will concern all aspects of living and deceased donation in general and many topics in particular, such as donor management, organ recovery, preservation etc. The new section of ESOT will be the platform for professionals active in donation, co-ordination and the procurement process.

We feel that the mutual experience and knowledge of ETCO and EDC together within ESOT will undoubtedly benefit all the members of ESOT and ETCO.

Earlier this year, a task force with representatives from both societies has been mandated which investigated many aspects concerning the possibility and opportunity of this merger between ETCO and EDC and subsequent integration in ESOT. The task force has come forward with a positive recommendation to proceed as it sees a viable and robust basis for this new donation related platform as a new section in ESOT. The section will benefit from the best of both worlds and will have a promising start taken into account the advantages of both ETCO and EDC. The advice from the task force has been discussed and accepted by the Council of ESOT,the ETCO Board and both assemblies.

The mission of this new Section of ESOT will be to support health care professionals to provide clinically effective programmes on organ and tissue donation and procurement. It will aim to:

• Increase organ and tissue availability;
• Ensure high quality and safety organs and tissues for transplantation;
• Optimize the safety of living donors and care for deceased donors and their relatives
• Optimize potential recipient care and follow up;

The Section will intend to serve all those professionals who are directly involved or have an interest in deceased and living organ and tissue donation and procurement. Target groups will include transplant coordinators -in the wider sense of the function with its different role models and responsibilities such as deceased donation, living donation and recipient clinical coordination-, procurement professionals such as surgeons and other professionals directly or indirectly involved in the process of donation and organ recovery.

Within the boundaries of ESOT, the structure of the Section will include a Section Assembly and a democratically elected Section Board. The chair of the Board will have a seat on the Council of ESOT that answers to the General Assembly of ESOT Members. In addition, there will be a National Key Member Network of already existing country liaisons. The Section Board may install specific committees or task forces according to need. The Section will also count on a dedicated support from an executive officer.

A number of activities are envisioned to be developed by the Section. These include:

• The European Organ Donation Congress, which will be held every two years, in the year that there is no ESOT congress. As announced, the next European Organ Donation Congress will be held in Dubrovnik (Croatia) in October 2012;
• The Organ Donation Day, as part of the ESOT main congress, will be held every two years;
• The section will be involved in the design of the ESOT congresses with regards to topics related to organ/tissue donation and procurement;

• The continuous training and education will be ensured: workshops, courses and symposia will be periodically held;
• The Certification projects will be maintained and further developed. These concern both the Certification of European Transplant Coordinators and the Certification for Procurement Surgeons;
• Research in the field of organ and tissue donation is to be enhanced over the next years;

For the effective maintenance and development of activities, the Section will have visibility within the ESOT website.  To date, the collaboration with the Journal of Organs, Tissues & Cells will continue.

We will proceed and install a Transitional Section Board to govern the new Section and its dedicated activities until October 2012 when, after elections are held, a new Board will start to run the Section. The Chair and one additional member from the transitional board will stay on for reasons of continuity until 2013 to be replaced after that point in time.

This Transitional Section Board will be composed by the Task Force Members: Beatriz Domínguez-Gil, current Vice-President of ETCO, as Chair of the Section,  Bernadette Haase, current Chair of EDC, as Vice-chair, and Lisa Burnapp, Carl-Ludwig Fischer-Froelich, Dagmar Vernet and Dirk Ysebaert as members.

The Transitional Section Board will be responsible for the creation of regulations for the new ESOT Section and budget and activity planning for 2012 to be presented to the ESOT Council. It will also have the task to decide upon a definitive name and logo for the Section which is currently called ETCO-EDC including both original logos.

Glasgow, 6^th of September 2011

Rui Maio                       Rutger Ploeg

ETCO president             ESOT president