The new member organisations are:
- French National Council of Physiotherapists (Conseil national de l'ordre des masseurs-kinésithérapeutes)
- Polish Chamber of Physiotherapists (Krajowa Izba Fizjoterapeutów)
- Order of Physiotherapists in Romania (Colegiul Fizioterapeuților din România)
At the General Meeting held in Geneva in May 2019 the WCPT membership approved a new Constitution for WCPT. The Constitution states electronic voting may be used outside a General Meeting to vote on resolutions that relate to the approval of an organisation’s application for membership of WCPT. This is the first time an electronic vote has been used to admit new member organisations.
The WCPT membership also discussed at the General Meeting a proposal to allow more than one national physical therapy member organisation in each country. The membership rejected this proposal and approved the new Constitution. Therefore there can only be one member organisation per country and, as set out in the Constitution, it will ordinarily be the organisation that represents the highest number of physical therapists in that country.
Following the General Meeting, a number of applications were received and assessed by the Membership Committee as being eligible for membership.
On the advice of the Membership Committee, the Executive Board recommended WCPT member organisations pass separate resolutions to approve applications for admission to membership of WCPT from French National Council of Physiotherapists (in excess of 88,000 members), Polish Chamber of Physiotherapists (in excess of 63,000 members), Order of Physiotherapists in Romania (in excess of 4,500 members).
WCPT has 120 member organisations, of which 104 took part in the electronic vote. A simple majority of the number of WCPT member organisations is required to approve applications for admission to membership of WCPT. The electronic vote was conducted using the online voting platform Election Buddy.
Membership of WCPT for the three new member organisations will take effect from 1 January 2020.