01 August 2021

Irish Doctors for the Environment AGM

Irish Doctors for the Environment will host our annual AGM on Wednesday the 25th August 2021. We will confirm details of the event closer to the time, but hope to be able to meet in person as well as hosting over zoom. If you have been a member of IDE or just want to learn more about the group and how you can be involved, please come along and get involved! At our AGM we will discuss our work and achievements over the past year, as well as vote on the positions for committee chairs and working groups.

Please see below for a description on these roles. IDE has grown in strength and numbers since we began in 2018, and we would love to see this to continue to expand!

IDE Committee Positions

Operations Officer

  • Chairs meetings, or ideally nominates someone in their absence/develops a rota for chairs.
  • Tracks and records the work of the organisation
  • Networks and attends meetings on behalf of the organisation and assists others roles as necessary
  • Main contact point for new business or business not allocated/suited to an existing role.
  • Sends monthly updates to the WhatsApp group on organisations activities and opportunities to get involved.

 

Secretary

  • Produces the agenda for each meeting
  • Produces and distributes the minutes via appropriate channels.
  • Manages the main email account, labelling emails to the relevant person and sending on emails where appropriate to the relevant persons, shares interesting emails in the whatsap group/social media group.
  • Caretaker of the Google Drive
  • Assists the operations officer in ensuring that thework of the organisation is tracked and recorded.
  • Liaises with committee members who need an update of the organization’s activities.

 

Media Officer

  • Running of the social media accounts including Instagram, Twitter and facebook, including coordination of social media team.

 

Membership Officer

  • Coordinates recruitment and engagement of new members.
  • Uses Salesforce to assist Working Group Leaders, committee members and others in reaching other members for projects, fundraising etc.
  • Responds to emails from new members

 

International Correspondence/ Newsletter Editor

  • Maintains and strengthens relationships with the international organisations that IDE is affiliated.
  • Ensures these organisations have a presence in Ireland and ensures Ireland is represented internationally.
  • Publishes IDE newsletter each month
  • Regularly attends Global Green and Healthy hospital meetings and other international meetings where possible.

 

Blog Editor

  •  Publishes articles by IDE members on the IDE blog site.

 

Press Officer

  • Coordinates press requests for interviews, talks or articles and assigns members to press opportunities
  • Coordinates letters signed by IDE (ensures agreed by Review committee), collects signatures and publishes to letter.
  • Provides a link between the press and IDE members who have written articles.
  • Solicits and manages works to be published by IDE e.g. articles, videos etc.
  • Completes the Press Log for all press opportunities
  • Liaises with the social media officer to ensure promotion of published items
  • Records copies of published items, with details of where published on the Drive (eg saves copy of published articles.

 

Policy Officer

  • The policy officer coordinates submissions to national public consultations

 

Fundraising Officer/ Treasurer

  • Applies for grants and funding for the organisation.
  • Records the finances of the organisation

 

Consultant Representative

  • Chairs annual meeting of consultant board.
  • Represents consultant board at meetings and events.
  • Feeds back information from meetings and progress of organisation to consultant board
  • Provides guidance to the committee and organisation as a voice of experience

 

Student Officer

  • Link in with students andpromote membership/events/student participation.
  • Assist the social media officer in generating social media posts.

 

Working Group Chairs

Working group chairs hold meetings of the working group to work towards the goals set out for the year. At the start of the year they plan 2-3 projects that should aim to start and complete over three months each. The working group’s role is to facilitate the projects engagement with the committee (social media, press, policy etc), to send emails related to the project from the IDE account.

Direct Action Group

The direct action group believes that due to the immediacy and scale of the threats caused by the climate crisis, in addition to ongoing negotiation and lobbying, there is a need for strikes, demonstrations and non- violent civil disobedience to communicate the urgency of the crisis to the general public and to elicit meaningful change from the government.

Inclusion of Climate Change in Medical Curriculum

The Medical Curriculum working group aims to implement climate change into the medical curricula in all Irish medical schools – a crucial step to ensure that future clinicians are equipped to face the medical emergency that is climate change.

We hope to achieve this implementation and change to the current curricula through cooperation between all Irish medical schools, creating a joint Irish approach.

Sustainable Diet in Healthcare Facilities

To promote locally produced, sustainable procurement in hospitals in Ireland.

Sustainable Community Care

This group will focus on the implementation of Green Practices and Planetary Health in community and primary care facilities.

Healthcare sustainability in hospitals

A group focused on healthcare sustainability and the establishment of green networks in Irish hospitals. A major focus of this group will be to campaign for measurement of healthcare emission’s in Ireland.

Anaesthetic Gas Working Group

The Anaesthetic working group primary aim is to make anaesthesia more sustainable. They aim to create a network for environmental enthusiasts in anaesthesia and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions among anaesthesiologists through safe use of low flow anaesthesia, TIVA, and sparing use of N2O and Desflurane.

Planetary Health Working Group

The Planetary Health working group primary aim is to extend the work of IDE to include our colleagues in the medical, nursing, allied health, pharmaceutical, management, economics, ecology and further afield. The aims are in line with the Planetary Health Alliance including:

  1. Building community that crosses sectors, disciplines, generations

  2. Facilitating the training of the next generation of planetary health leaders through curriculum building across disciplines

  3. Mainstreaming planetary health science through broad public outreach and direct engagement with policymakers

Research and Green Conference Group

To promote the science of planetary health through the organisation of conferences, speaking at academic events and publishing research and opinion pieces in academic journals

To generate and disseminate original high quality research on the effects of climate change and human health

To provide a platform for IDE members to share ideas and expertise, get advice, and get the opportunity to join in research projects and other academic pursuits

Implement sustainability at meetings and conferences held across Ireland. Generate sustainable medical conference pledge

Air Quality

Promote awareness on the impact of air quality on health. Advocate for policy change to improve air quality.

Active Transport

Promote active transport in Ireland, supporting the work of cycling and pedestrian organisations.

Galway Group

A localised, satellite group in Galway representing IDE at community involvement events, such as the Galway Park City proposal and hosting speaker events and presentations.

Mental Health and Climate Group

The Climate and Mental Health group is one of our newest groups and had its inaugural meeting in April 2021. The group is aiming to examine the interplay between climate change and mental health, as well as examine how healthcare professionals in the field can contribute to improving our impacts on climate. Membership includes GPs, psychiatrists, researchers and others.

How to apply for a position?

If you are interested in a position, feel free to email irishdocsenv@ide.ie for more information or to give us a heads up. If you want to know more about a particular role or speak to a current chair, you can find our contact details on the website and at https://ide.ie/working-groups

Procedure for AGM

Each position will opened to the floor for people to go into the running, another member to second and if there is more than one person for each position we will get each candidate to say a few words about why they want the position and then we will vote via zoom poll.

What if I cannot attend via Zoom or physically but I would like to run for a position?

Please email irishdocsenv@ide.ie with details of the position you would like to run for, why you would like to run for the position and what you would bring to the committee. A member of the committee will read out your email as a candidate for the position. We will then vote via zoom for the position.

To Finish:

Irish doctor’s for the environment is a wonderful organisation to be a part of. It is a very positive organisation advocating and implementing change that will benefit the health of all. COVID-19 has changed the way we see medicine and systems- based health, and despite the challenges of the past year, IDE’s dedicated members have had an impressively productive year. We would love to see some new faces on the committee; enthusiasm is just as valuable as experience so please get involved if you’re keen!