Thank you for your help in the past in making INTECOL an exciting and vigorous organization. As members of INTECOL we all have a great opportunity in the years ahead to learn from each other as we continue to collaborate on ecological issues of global concern. We have begun new initiatives under past-president John Lee that we need to continue to develop. Our plans for the next meeting in 2013 are beginning to take form as we strive to support new groups associated with international ecological studies and stimulate synthesis of major concepts. Your suggestions for topics regarding workshops and sessions are most welcome. INTECOL will be meeting with the British Ecological Society which will be celebrating its 100 year anniversary. We will all want to participate in that important event in London as we help to celebrate a century of history-making contributions to our discipline by that society’s members.

I have greatly enjoyed my participation on the INTECOL Board these past 6 years and look forward to serving as your president. The past recent meeting in Brisbane was a great success as reported in the summaries here in this e-Bulletin. We began a discussion of our long-term plans to see how we can remain at the forefront of international ecological research and applications. We are excited that the number of national ecological societies continues to grow and to connect with emerging groups of researchers that transcend national boundaries. We welcome the active participation in INTECOL by this wide range of organizations and will strive to improve communication, especially through our website and e-bulletin as well as through co-sponsored workshops and smaller meetings at a wide range of venues. As more international research is being organized, it becomes even more essential for INTECOL to help coordinate and communicate among our membership.

In Brisbane, we also reflected on the many students who attended the meeting. Their enthusiasm in participating by helping to organize workshops and field trips and their presentations in many diverse sessions made the meeting a great success. Recognizing that the future of ecology will be determined by this very capable and creative generation of graduate students, the Board recommended that we create a process for selecting a new Board member from among the current graduate student members to provide additional perspective to our discussions at the upcoming meeting in London. I suggest that the British Ecological Society, our next host society, help us indentify that new Board member as soon as possible to begin that participation. We also agreed that it is important to continue to encourage more new graduate student members and we welcome suggestions on how best to do that.

As we move ahead with our plans for 2010 and beyond, I hope you will contact me and let know what you would like to see INTECOL do that is complementary to our mission. I welcome your suggestions and look forward to your help and active participation in continuing the progress that INTECOL has made over the years.