A year ago you gave me all your confidence in electing me as your new International President. Needless to come back on all the activities, meetings and decisions of 2007. I would much rather talk about the upcoming year until March 2009, date of our next International Congress in China where my mandate as your President will end.

We shall pursue with the parution of our International review (Spring and Autumn edition), will make sure that each one of you has received the 2008/2010 edition of our book of members, will also keep a vigilant eye on our treasury. The talent and implication of Roderick Levejac will be dedicated to our improving website and we will make it in such a way that the procedure to obtain the "Bucherer keys" make everyone's task much easier. I will yet again visit as many nations as possible and, above all, the countries "in difficulties".

After Copenhagen, it was Great Britain and Ireland each one having their AGM and Gala night, each one also having voted in new Presidents, respectively Mr. Paul Still and Mr. Brendan Spence  to whom we wish total success. I shall then travel to Vancouver to the much coveted Pan American congress and intend to visit Morocco and Hungary soon after.

During Copenhagen we presented an organigram listing the duties  each one of you has to achieve if we want our Association to go in the right direction . This organigram will be inserted on our website very soon and I invite each one of you to take a good look at it and, according to your positionning, take all the positive actions to your above hierarchy. In doing so, the Executive Board will then have all the elements to help us "all" succeed.

Today, with the excellent performance of all our Zone directors, we are definitly going in the right direction. I shall ,like last year , convey the 4 European Zone Directors for a day's work at 12 rue Cambon most likely mid-july, meet with Shujaat Khan in Vancouver and hopefully get to see Christian Sussman in China where i will go for a pre-congress inspection . Oceania is a long way away but, if time is given , I would love to go and see Colin "down under".

Finally , of course , we will have a International meeting , may it be a Board of Directors or an Executive Committee Meeting with Zone Directors as the case may be. We shall also take the Andy Pongco Award to China and, with the motivation of all the National Presidents, have a great profile winning this second challenge. And, if I have not forgotten anything, I shall dedicate myself together with the actual Executive board to leave an excellent heritage to our next International President. I wish you all the very best life can give !

Roger Bastoni

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