At the recent World Federation of Chiropractic Congress in Auckland, New Zealand, a meeting of the Asian Chiropractic Federation (ACF) was held to elect new officers and discuss plans for the immediate future.
Seven Asian nations were represented at the ACF meeting:
Hong Kong Chiropractors Association
Bruce Vaughan,DC
Japan Chiropractic Association
Kazuyoshi Takeyuchi,DC
Hirofumi Nakatsuka,DC
Brian Budgell,DC
Malaysian Association of Professional Chiropractors Kate Paczek,B.App.Sci.Chiro
Chiropractic Association of the Philippines Jameson Uy,DC
The Chiropractic Association (Singapore)
Janet Sosna,DC
Taiwan Chiropractic Association
John Hsieh,MS,PT,DC,CA
Chiropractor's Association of Australia
Robert Scott,DC
A Pressing Challenge
The most immediate and daunting challenge for the ACF, according to its president, is to have only one association from each country act as a representative to the federation. In countries where chiropractic is just gaining a foothold, the most disruptive influence is to have competing groups of chiropractors from the same country vying for attention for government recognition.
The second difficulty is the nature of an international federation. The cross currents of cultures are problematic. As witnessed by certain states in the U.S., bringing chiropractors together under the banner of a single state association is difficult enough, much less bringing seven countries together under the auspices of a federation. The distances separating the countries and the language barriers all add to the mix.
The short-term goals of the ACF president are to ratify the federation's constitution and formalize country memberships and representatives. Two other short-term goals, the creation of a web site and a directory of chiropractors practicing in Asia, are already being addressed by the federation.
"Our immediate goal," Dr. Uy noted, "will be to create a directory of legitimate chiropractors who practice in Asia; this directory will be included on the website hosted by Dynamic Chiropractic.
"The advantage of this arrangement," Dr. Uy explained, "is that Dynamic Chiropractic has one of the most comprehensive chiropractic websites on the internet. The Asian chiropractor directory can serve as a referral directory for other doctors around the world looking to refer their patients who might be travelling or moving to Asia.
"We also hope the ACF directory will serve to improve the communication links within the Asian region, so that the exchange of information and levels of assistance are facilitated between chiropractors in the different Asian countries."
Election Results
The new ACF officers are:
President -- Jameson "Sonny" Uy (Philippines)
Vice Pres. -- Edward Lee (Hong Kong)
Treasurer -- Hirofumi Nakatsuka (Japan)
Secretary -- Janet Sosna (Singapore)
"With this new set of officers," said Dr. Uy, "we will be working towards formalizing the Federation's structure and determining membership criteria."
