A Message from the President


Michel Goossens
CERN,
Geneva, Switzerland
goossens@cern.ch

The 1997 Elections are now behind us and it is a real pleasure to congratulate Donna Burnette, Mimi Jett, Patricia Monohon, Arthur Ogawa, and Petr Sojka, who will serve as TUG Board members until Summer 2001. I extend my best wishes to Barbara Beeton, Karl Berry, Judy Johnson, and Jiri Zlatuska, whose terms were extended until Summer 1999. Together they will form the New Board, who will formally take over from the current Board at our Annual Meeting in the Summer. However, to prepare for the changeover and to have a democratic decision base which is as large as possible, I have appointed the incoming members to the Board with immediate effect. I am sure that together we shall be better able to reach the necessary urgent decisions which need to be taken to make TUG serve its membership and the TeX users better.

On the other hand, we had no candidate for TUG President, and as explained in the previous article, we are proposing an ad hoc procedure to extend the nomination period and elect a candidate at our Annual Meeting in July. I sincerely hope that one or more good candidates will step forward to take up the Office of TUG President. TUG really needs somebody who can motivate her or his collaborators in an efficient, enthusiastic yet professional way, and can act as a stimulus to guarantee that the Board acts as a united Team to address the problems at hand.

It is with great regret that I have to announce that Mimi Burbank, who has served on the TUG Board for many years, most recently as TUG's Treasurer, resigned from the Board for personal reasons. As well, she will not be assuming the function of Office Manager as proposed in the previous issue of TUGboat. I am pleased that Mimi will continue to work on TUGboat, since as TUGboat Production Manager she is an extremely valuable member of the TUGboat Production Team.

To cope with ongoing financial business I have appointed Mimi Jett as interim Treasurer until the new Executive Committee is elected in July at TUG'97. At the same time Art Ogawa became TUG's acting ``Office Manager'' and Art accepted gracefully to take over a major part of the Office duties. A more definite proposal about the new form the TUG Office will take will be announced soon.

By the time you read this it will be early May, and I apologise for the delay with which you receive this issue. We are doing everything possible to get the next issue of TUGboat to you in June. If everything works out as planned, we hope to be able to offer you a (very useful) surprise with that issue.

And last but not least, do not forget TUG'97; i.e., your Annual Meeting in July in San Francisco. We look forward to a huge turn-out. We count on your presence!


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