Officers and Board of Directors – 2024

AVSPNI members wishing to contact AVSPNI Officers/Directors should e-mail [email protected] and we will pass on contact details.

General enquiries for AVSPNI from anyone other than a current AVSPNI member should also be directed through the secretariat on [email protected]

President: Iain Smith

Senior Vice President: Lynsey Hamilton   

Junior Vice President: Melanie Spahn

Treasurer: Philip Walsh

Honorary Secretary: Melanie Spahn

VetNI Board Members:

Melanie Spahn
Iain Smith
Seamus O’Kane
Lynsey Hamilton

Press Officer: Michael Watts

Directors/Council Members:
Keith Sheridan
Pat Hart
Seamus O’Kane
Colin McCrea
Dan Flynn
Mark Allison
Gareth Bell
Rachel Davies
Liam Fitzsimons
Piotr Dabrowski
Inge d’Haase
Cathal Carr
Michael Woodside
Robert McCabe

Nominations to the Board

Serving on AVSPNI Board of Directors allows you to become more involved in important decisions affecting vets in the province, from helping to shape the CPD programme, through to representation of the Association and the profession in discussions with DAERA on matters of animal health, welfare and policy. Board members for 2024 were approved at the AGM in January 2024.  If you or a fellow full member would be interested in serving as a Director in 2025, please complete the nomination form by 1st January.  If you would like to find out more about the role, give one of the current Board members a call/e-mail to hear more about it.  VetNI can supply contact details to full members for this purpose.

The Nomination Form can be found HERE.

Benefits of Membership

As the name suggests, Full Membership of the Association is only open to practitioners however at the AGM in January 2016, members agreed to introduce a new category of membership – Associate Membership – this will allow vets not in practice or not in Northern Ireland to avail of the AVSPNI CPD programme at members’ rates.

The AVSPNI CPD programme generally includes the following events each year.  All events are open to all vets regardless of their area of work.  Most events are also open to non-members on payment of a registration fee.

Large animal/farm CPD
– the ever-popular Omagh Day where 4 practitioners give short presentations on techniques or tips that they find useful, followed by AGM and dinner – free of charge to members
– Spring evening meeting – a good clinical topic and excellent speakers – free of charge to members
– Summer outing – usually a topic of veterinary interest on something not part of most vets day-to-day work – free of charge to members
– Autumn evening meeting – a good clinical topic and excellent speakers – free of charge to members
– Autumn Conference (3 days)– a full weekend of lectures (farm, equine and small animal) and social activities for all the family – discounted significantly for members

Small animal CPD
– at least 6 evening meetings per year on an array of topics, all with speakers chosen for their knowledge and expertise – free of charge to members
– at least one full day of CPD, often with a practical component – discounted significantly for members
– Spring Conference (2 days) – lectures for vets (GP and advanced) and vet nurses – discounted significantly for members

Bonus meetings
There are often extra meetings added to the programme (e.g. management topic – “To incorporate or not”; “TB Forum” – half day meeting).  Nurses from any practice paying for 2 or more vet members can avail of a CPD events which are either free or heavily discounted. 

Representation
In addition to a CPD programme that in content and value for money is hard to beat, AVSPNI undertakes to represent the practitioner viewpoint in meetings with DAERA, UFU etc. on issues of concern to the practising profession and on key issues which have an impact on animal health and welfare.  AVSPNI also has a seat on the BVA NI Branch, ensuring that its views are considered when BVA is forming its policy.

Cost of membership
The cost of annual membership subscription (Full or Associate) for 2024 for those paying by direct debit/BACS and returning their data capture form on time is included in the table below.

Annual subscription for the first vet from a practice/place of work paying by DD costs £155.  AVSPNI runs a practice membership scheme with the cost of second and subsequent vets in a practice decreasing on a sliding scale. Though subscriptions are collected from the practice, each individual vet member must be named – only named (and paid for!) members get free admission to CPD.  Subs are cheaper if you pay by Direct Debit and DD/BACS is the ONLY option available to new members – you get all the usual DD guarantees plus the chance to amend the number of vets you are paying for each year.  Single/individual members are welcomed too but if more than one person in a practice wants to join there is obviously a saving to be had via the practice membership scheme.

At the AGM in 2019, the membership agreed that a surcharge of £15 per vet could be added for practices/individual members that don’t submit their data capture forms on time.  The data capture forms are mailed/e-mailed out in February/March.

1	£           155.00	£   155.00
2	£           148.00	£   303.00
3	£           141.00	£   444.00
4	£           134.00	£   578.00
5	£           127.00	£   705.00
6	£           120.00	£   825.00
7	£           113.00	£   938.00
8	£           106.00	£1,044.00
9	£             99.00	£1,143.00
10	£             92.00	£1,235.00
11	£             85.00	£1,320.00
12	£             78.00	£1,398.00

For larger practices, subsequent vets (vet number 13, 14, 15 etc.) will be charged at £78.00 each.