Dear Friends, Presidents, Sages and Colleagues, 
 
I wish to thank each of you for your attendance and participation at our International Congress in Hangzhou, China and those of you who could not be with us; we hope to see you next year in Lisbon!
 
Our meetings were quite productive, and I believe we were able to accomplish a great deal.  I wish to offer a special "Thank You" to the former Members of the Executive Board and Zone Directors for their tremendous work under the exemplary leadership of President Roger Bastoni.
 
The next two years will be very challenging and I am looking forward to my time as your International President.  I hope to have the new Book of Members ready within the next year. With the help of the Executive Board, we will modernize the communication within the Executive Committee by holding conference calls on a quarterly basis; with such an International Executive Committee we will be able to reach all four corners of the Globe.
 
I have already made plans to attend the Canadian National Congress in Calgary this month, and in May, the American Congress in Florida.  I hope to come to Europe this Summer and hopefully see and spend time with many of you.
 
At this time, I ask that each of you speak to your Delegates who attended the 2009 China Congress in Hangzhou and gather your comments.  I have spoken with the Executive Committee and we shall be sending a Congress Questionnaire to you shortly.  If you have any thoughts regarding what questions should be included in The Congress Survey; please forward them to Michael Romei, our new General Secretary.  We certainly wish to continue promoting attendance of our International Congresses and move in a forward direction.  Most of you have been to several International Congresses and it is very important for me to know the thoughts and opinions of you and your Delegates who attended.
 
I want to take this opportunity to welcome my new Executive Committee and send all of you many warm wishes for  the future.  I am certain that we will witness extreme committment to their new positions and excellent work toward the exemplary future of Les Clefs d'Or.  Also, I wish to make mention of an important date for us this month: On April 24th; we will celebrate the 57th anniversary of UICH!
 

Vive Les Clefs d'Or
 
Robert

Shujaat KHAN
Chef Concierge
The Capital Hilton
1001 16th Street NW
Washington D.C. 20036 - USA

email : shujaat.khan@hilton.com

Zone Director : Gregory TAN, Singapore
Temporary Acting Zone Director
Chef Concierge
Marina Bay Sands Pte Ltd
Singapore
email : gregory.tan@marinabaysands.com

 
CHINA - CHINESE TAIPEI - HONG KONG - JAPAN - KOREA
MALAYSIA - PHILIPPINES - SINGAPORE 

Zone Director : Henning KLETVANG
Chef Concierge
Grand Hotel Oslo
Karl Johans gate 13
Oslo 0519 Norway
Phone : +47 2321 2000
email : henning.kletvang@rica.no

  DENMARK - FINLAND - NORWAY - SWEDEN

Zone Director : Tamas UNGAR
Chef Concierge
Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal
Erzsebet ktr. 43-49
HU-1073 Budapest
Phone : +36 1 479 4800
Fax : +36 1 479 4333
email : tungar@corinthia.hu

AUSTRIA - CZECH REPUBLIC - GERMANY - HUNGARY
ROMANIA - RUSSIA

Zone Director : Claudio CASER, Switzerland
Chef Concierge
Hotel Giardino, Relais & Châteaux
Via Segnale 10, P.O. box 806
CH-6612 Ascona
email : c.caser@bluewin.ch

BELGIUM - FRANCE - GREAT BRITAIN - HOLLAND - IRELAND
LUXEMBOURG - SWITZERLAND

Zone Director : Gustavo CONCHA
Zone Director
Chef Concierge
Hilton Auckland
Princes Wharf
147 Quay Street
Auckland
Phone : +64 (0)9 978 2005
Fax : +64 (0)9 978 2001
email : gustavo.concha@hilton.com

 
AUSTRALIA - NEW ZEALAND
 

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Since I received my Golden Keys in 1999 I have been active in the society, initially as voted by my peers to for the last four consecutive years the position of National President of Les Clefs d'Or New Zealand, and previously as our National Treasurer. During this time our membership has doubled, and I continue to take an active involvement in the mentoring and development of our young Concierges, while also contributing to the growth and prominence of our organisation in New Zealand and raising awareness of our ethics and goals within the hospitality industry. I feel privileged to have expanded my Les Clefs d'Or knowledge with the assistance of my esteemed colleagues.

In my new role as Zone Director Oceania, I strongly believe that we can continue to expand the society into other nations that wish to be associated with us and share with them our values of professionalism and friendship, two of the core principals of Les Clefs d'Or, as well as our people who are of course our greatest asset and are recognized for the service and professionalism that they deliver.

Our dedication, passion and friendship has been the foundation of our society for the last 80 years and I'm certain it will continue more strongly than ever, working together delivering our best to our guests who are the reason why we belong to this great international organisation.

I'm excited by my new role as Director of Zone Oceania, and I'm honoured to be able to contribute fresh new ideas and work closely with the National Presidents, Zone Directors and UICH Board over this period.

As always, in friendship,

Gustavo Concha

UICH Director Zone Oceania

Zone Director : Mario EROICO, Italy
Zone Director
Chef Concierge
L'Albergo della Regina Isabella
Ischia, Italy
email : mario.eroico@tiscali.it

  HELLAS - ISRAEL - ITALY - MOROCCO - PORTUGAL - SPAIN - TURKEY
 

Now, after California, fires are set in Australia, damaging houses and properties, ruining people's life and more dramatically killing peoples. All of us at UICH are hoping that very soon, those fires will be under controls once and for all. Our thoughts are with those people of Australia living this tragedy.

On the brighter side of life there is this incredible positive reaction of human kind at coping, fighting and at looking to a brighter tomorrow.

In less than a month time, many of us will be meeting for our yearly international congress in Hangzhou China. Through the year gone by, I have had the great satisfaction at providing the high standards required by UICH.

It will then be time for me to hand over the current affairs to a new president and a new board. I intend to give them rapidly all the necessaries elements, giving them the immediate possibility to be well informed and ready to work.

These 2 years have given me great satisfaction, above all meeting many of you and exchanging our views on our profession and our fantastic association. All my gratitude to the excellent work made by the executive board with a special tribute to Virginia Casale, our international secretary. Thank you also to the zone directors for being so pro active, to all national presidents for their day to day efforts, to the Comité des Sages for its wisdom, to the Paris Office and Esther support and of course a big thank you to you all, dear members, at being on a day to day routine excellent at your job.

For the next 2 years, in my capacity of past president, I shall look forward to seeing you all many more times.

Your friend,

Roger

So let’s all deal, to the best of our ability, with the “freeze” only to “spring” back successfully very soon.
In the past, the word of “Concierge” has also had to deal with controversies, its name not “clearly” defining our profession, being often mixed with the likes of buildings properties or museums “Janitors”, thus giving some upper managements difficulties in assessing our true potential.

Spring has now grown in all fields of our profession. Many a professional company, large industries, notorious firms even telephone services, have associated our competences in their quest of conquering clientele.

Let’s all together make it in such a way that our professional performance, in equivalence with a sporting activity, got “exceptional” for its quality all along 2009.

 The “UICH” board will meet early January in Livorno for their Pre International Congress executive committee meeting. Many topics will be on the agenda but above all, we shall all work at making sure that our, your next congress in China is a total success.
I shall see as many as possible of you then!

Your friend,

Roger BASTONI