Hello, this is Saburo Morita, the JRPS International Director.
Current annual membership fees are determined according to the GDP of the country to which each member organization belongs. We believe this is unreasonable for the following reasons:
① JRPS relies on membership fees as its main source of income. Therefore, we believe it is appropriate to determine the ranking by GDP per capita, rather than by GDP ranking by country.
② The large depreciation of the yen due to the influence of policy interest rates in each country is a heavy burden on JRPS.
[Reference] Trends in the euro/yen exchange rate (1980-2024)
https://ecodb.net/exec/trans_exchange.php?b=JPY&c1=EUR&ym=Y&s=&e=
③ Efforts to improve JRPS finances
We have tried various things to expand our membership. Currently, we have been running a deficit in order to continue our business, but we cannot get things done unless we strengthen our secretariat. Even if we are trying to save money, abolishing the travel expenses of directors will not be a fundamental solution.
The academic committee proposed that we work to encourage more academic specialists such as ophthalmologists and physical therapists to become members. In addition, Morita, who is in charge of international affairs, proposed to expand the membership eligibility of the organization for patients with retinitis pigmentosa and related diseases to patients with age-related macular degeneration, and this was approved by the board of directors, so we will propose this at the JRPS general meeting in late June.
If this passes, there is a possibility that the number of members will increase significantly, and the problem will be solved, but this will require changes to the Articles of Incorporation, which means that the earliest it can be implemented is three years away.
We are working hard in the hope that if these efforts prove successful, JRPS will be able to host a second World Congress in Japan.
This time, I would like to ask the representatives of each country to create a review committee, including a third party, at the RI Board of Directors to consider the JRPS’s proposal for the revision of annual membership fees. I would be grateful if you could at least consider our proposal.
