There are moments in life when time goes by so smoothly, when everything seems so simple as you feel carried away by the spirit of others, when five days are just as a single one, when you laugh as you work, when you are entertained as you improve yourself, when work is so close to pleasure …
And you return home, and, while you should feel tired, you feel even more the desire to do well and the entire motivation towards your mission.

The 55th International Congress of the UICH held in Copenhagen from January 11 to January 16, 2008 by Mr. Arshad Khokhar and his organizing committee has allowed some 330 participants to live those wonderful moments.

Although it is said that nothing is ever perfect, we all attest that it is difficult to do any better: diverse and original and creative evening entertainments, varied and innovative educational program with very organized meeting programs, excellent food and drinks, almost too much, with an overall perfect supervision.

It needed the temperament of a Viking to achieve such a success!

For my part, I took a great pleasure to "orchestrate" the 3 days of meetings:
- Executive Committee Meeting as well as Area Directors Meeting.
- Board of Directors Meeting, that counts the above mentioned Committee as well as the President and one Delegate of each of the participating Member Sections.
- General Assembly with a little over 250 participants.

It is never pleasant to have to impose certain sanctions (even if temporary), but it had to happen to a few countries that do not respect our rules despite of several reminders. But what a delight to have dialogue and discussion with all attendees! My very best wishes will go first to Argentina, which became the 40th member state of the Union Internationale, and to Tony Chang of Chinese Taipei who won the very first "Andy Pongco Award" celebrating the young Golden Keys with the best profile as young Hotel Concierge, Members of the "Golden Keys". 7 candidates of different nationalities, all of them extremely motivated, had to answer a questionnaire, and then have a 15 minutes interview before a subcommittee of experts.

The winner won an invitation from the UICH for the upcoming International Congress (participation and transport)! I sincerely hope that over the coming years, this Award takes the dimension it deserves with a representation for each participating country.

Three observers were present including Dubai (accompanied by a member of the government delegate for tourism), Poland, Macau and a Swedish representative promised to try to make this section operational again.

Before giving you an appointment in March 2009 in China, I wish to thank my entire Committee for the support given to me over the past few months.

Looking forward to meeting you all again very soon!

Sincerely,
Roger Bastoni

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