SWOT ANALYSIS

CURRENT LANDSCAPE / BACKGROUND (Strenghts and Weaknesses)

• SECEC is a respectful and well recognized society, with a strong influence beyond the European borders to an international extent. That influence brings along an innate strength and thus SECEC will remain strong as long as being its member is a privilege for a shoulder and elbow surgeon.
  

• SECEC maintains close contribution with its peer societies. These positive interactions and mutual support provides a great strength for our society as well as our friend societies.
  

• SECEC establishes high quality scientific platforms in order to gather European surgeons for exchanging knowledge and experience. These platforms consist of live events such as Annual Congresses and Closed Meetings, as well as online platforms such as Webinars and E-Congresses. SECEC takes part in the organizations of EFORT, and undertakes ‘Shoulder and Elbow Sessions’ embodied within its structure.
  

• World-renowned shoulder and elbow surgeons, key opinion leaders, inventors and the best instructors are active members of SECEC. The accumulation of experience in SECEC is so strong that it creates a gravitational force attracting the industry and new members. SECEC is, and should continue to be the influencer of the shoulder and elbow practice. Industry closely collaborates with the key opinion leaders who contributed to the design of important implants or techniques in our practice.
  

• SECEC organizes very attractive events and gathers a high quality crowd that is naturally followed by the industry as a chemoattraction. High scientific content is presented by opinion leaders with high reputation and the other societies are represented at the level of presidency. SECEC prefers elegant venues in attractive cities which notably increases participation.
  

• Provides grants and prizes for talented surgeons, as well as important research projects that give direction to our practice and to the industry
  

• New European regulation on medical devices, EUCOMED and Medtech implement some restrictions for active societies. Cooperation with other societies and a political stance will be required in the management of these interactions.
  

• There are countries where SECEC is relatively less recognized or there are strong national societies so that they can compete with the umbrella organization position of SECEC in their home country.
  

• SECEC membership criteria have recently been criticized for being too selective and evoking the misinterpretation of the society being too closed. For this reason, our membership committee has re-evaluated our membership criteria in order to embrace a larger part of the community without deviating our scientific norms. New membership criteria have been accepted by our Executive Committee and announced on the new website. Essential changes also have been implemented concerning our annual fees that are reported as being too expensive. Junior membership annual fee has officially been canceled and a reduced fee option without the journal has been presented to the affiliate members.
  

• SECEC’s presence on social media needs to be amplified. We must be represented on various social platforms in order to adequately promote the society. Following our new website as the flagship, SECEC will appear on every decent social platform that would be used in our cause. For this purpose, a task force will be created within our Website Committee and the newly formed Junior Members Committee to fulfill this requirement.
  

• The increase in the number of our members and processes related to SECEC Certification require intense workforce. Under these circumstances, SECEC Central Office will be reinforced competently before 2020 Poznan Congress.

ACTION AREAS / POTENTIALS (Opportunities)

• National Registries provide very valuable data that can be highly beneficial for our Society in many ways. Registry data is interpreted to design high-quality research projects. Registries are competent tools for monitoring new trends in surgical practice. Different registry data sets can be pooled to gather larger statistical data and to understand the inclinations of the orthopaedic community to an international perspective. SECEC aims to play a key role in the management of national registries and their international expansion.
  

• Increasing number of young members creates a great opportunity for our society. Each young member should be considered as a fresh mind full of brilliant ideas, as well as a strong, devoted and entousiastic heart to work diligently for the society. Another crucial role of young members in our society is to carry SECEC’s knowledge and experience into future members. In the near future, young members will increasingly be assigned in the committees and will boost the dynamism.
  

• SECEC recently launched its New Website with an elegant design and notably many new features. It’s more user friendly for both members and administration. Our new domain name www.secec-essse.org belongs to the society, along with the former domain name’s ownership being transferred also to our part. The new website will be able to support our large scientific content and will take part also in the certification program as an online education platform. The far-reaching announcement of our new website brought along an increase in the visitor counts and thus the visibility of our society. From a financial point of view, we had a very reasonable contract with the italian company which is our new service provider.

• Fellowships are the way SECEC communicates with the world. Each fellowship creates a living platform on which surgeons exchange their knowledge, experience and culture. This is why SECEC heritage enlarges with each encounter. Fellows from the Eastern European Countries visit Western European centers for eliminating unfavorable financial conditions.

CAUTIONS AND RESTRAINTS (Threats)

• Despite being a non-profit organization, SECEC is affected by current global financial turbulences. Indeed, for every action of a society, no matter how accurate is the strategic plan, money is the rate determining step. As it is mentioned previously, the most remarkable benefit of having a strategic plan is allocating our limited resources efficiently. Our financial plan will allow our organization to be proactive rather than reactive to sudden financial hardships. Moreover, SECEC aims to increase the number of members and the proportion of members that actually pay the annual fee. Very soon, new methods of payment other than PayPal, namely via credit card and an easier payment interface on the new website will be operational.
  

• Traditionally SECEC canceled its annual congress and organized closed meetings in years when International Congress of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery (ICSES) is held. Recently, this established practice has been thoroughly discussed in our Executive Committee and a decision has been made anonymously in the way of discontinuing this implementation. SECEC will organize its annual congress every year except for the years when ICSES is held in a European Country. This essential change is expected to remarkably improve our society’s financial status which then, can be aligned with our educational activities.
  

• SECEC does not consider its peer societies as a threat. Contrarily SECEC, intends to maintain and reinforce the strong collaboration between its peer societies, in order to enhance the global quality and abundance of the healthcare provided to patients with orthopaedic disorders. SECEC claims to be the umbrella organization overarching all national societies for shoulder and elbow surgery in Europe an is willing to cooperate with all other orthopaedic societies in terms of its expertise area.
  

• SECEC Website will participate in a competition environment with its increasing video content, including rivals such as Vumedi, Youtube and personal initiatives. SECEC will maintain its competitiveness with high quality audiovisual material, its specialty and continuity. Video content of SECEC Website will be organized, structured and referential. The attendance to the visual material will be monitored and will grant the candidate an amount of credit as a part of the certification program.