Our History – THE FORMATION OF THE SINGAPORE ANAESTHETIC SOCIETY

When we elected to organize the IV Asian-Australasian Congress of Anaesthesiologists in Singapore in 1974 we were faced with 2 problems: –

1. Our society had to be a member of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists.
2. To be a member of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists, our society had to be a legal independent body.

We had till this time (1971) existed as a sub-society of the Singapore Medical Association, and it was with a lot of misgivings that we elected to break off from the Singapore Medical Association which had always supported its various sub-societies to the hilt. The Society had already been in existence, as a sub-society of the Singapore Medical Association since 1967, the fourth Annual General Meeting (the last of the sub-society) being held in January 1971.

An inaugural meeting of the proposed Singapore Anaesthetic Society was held at the Alumni Medical Centre at 8.30 p.m. on 30th April 1971. Sixteen members were present. At this meeting it was decided:-

1. That the protem committee be made up of those members who were elected earlier to form the Executive Committee (of the Singapore Anaesthetic Society (SMA))
2. That our legal adviser Mr. Poh Kim Guan go through the new constitution and prepare it for eventual acceptance by the Registrar of Societies.

Due to the persistent efforts of Mr. Poh Kim Guan, our application for registration (under the Societies Act, 1966) of the Singapore Anaesthetic Society was approved by the Registrar of Societies. The President, Secretary and Treasurer signed the Societies Register on 11th September 1971.

On October 2nd 1971 an extraordinary General Meeting of the Singapore Anaesthetic Society (S.M.A) was held. Out of a total membership of 40, 18 were present (quorum was 14). At this meeting it was resolved to dissolve the Singapore Anaesthetic Society (S.M.A.), there being 30 votes, 12 voting by post. The dissolution of the Singapore Anaesthetic Society was thus affected.

On the same day following on the meeting that dissolved the Singapore Anaesthetic Society (S.M.A.), an inaugural meeting of the newly registered society was held. It was decided at that meeting to apply for affiliation with the S.M.A.; that the pro-tem committee would be the former committee of the Singapore Anaesthetic Society (S.M.A.) until the first A.G.M. of the new Society; that Mr. Poh Kim Guan be requested to be our legal adviser.

The Executive Committee comprised of:-