A Triennium of Record Growth: Wonca Reaches 97

The current triennium has seen a dramatic growth in Wonca membership to a record number of 97 organizations that are Full Members, Associate Members or Members in Collaborative Relations. In the three years between the meetings in Dublin and Durban from 1998 to 2001 Wonca only had two new full member organizations and two new associate members. During that time, two member organizations were removed. Thus, our net growth was two during the past triennium. A count of the member organizations after the Durban meeting revealed a total of 65 member organizations. Also at that time there were 6 organizations in collaborative relations and 1,379 direct members.

We have welcomed a record number of 26 new Member Organizations during this triennium, plus one prior member moving from Associate to Full member status (see below for list of new members organizations). During each Executive Meeting (Singapore, London, Galway, Beijing, and Singapore again) this triennium, we accepted new member organizations. After the last meeting in Singapore we now have at total of 97 member organizations representing 79 countries. Of the record total of 97 member organizations, 79 are Full Member organizations, 9 are Associate Members and another 9 are Organizations in Collaborative Relationships. This record setting net increase of 26 member organizations during the 2001-2004 triennium almost matches the 30 new member organizations added during the prior record setting decade of the 1990s (see below).

In addition, one of the most exciting developments during this triennium was our becoming truly worldwide in our membership. We created a new region representing the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries in Central and South America. The new region Iberoamerica/ CIMF was created and brought in 11 new full members. Dr Javier Dominguez del Olmo has capably served as Regional President for the new region. It has been very functional from the beginning and is a strong region already. Family Medicine has continued to become an even larger worldwide force and strengthened as a movement impacting medicine on a global basis

Direct membership has also grown dramatically. As of August 2004, Wonca has almost 1900 Direct Members (ie, individuals who joined Wonca) from 85 countries, an almost 40% increase from the 1,379 at the beginning of the Triennium. A total of 494 new Direct Members joined Wonca in 2004. In July alone, 179 (36%) new Direct members applied, a one month total exceeding all those joining in all of 2002. The majority of new Direct Members joined to take advantage of the substantial discount in the registration fee offered to Direct Members to attend the world meeting this October in Orlando, Florida, USA.

We continue to receive inquiries from organizations that are interested in applying for membership in Wonca. We expect to have at least one new member organization at the meeting this fall which will be a transfer from Associate to Full status. One or two others have started the process and may or may not meet acceptance criteria by the time of our next meeting.

Wonca and Family Medicine are alive and well in the world.

Warren Heffron. M.D.
Chair, Wonca Membership Committee