As most of you know, AVIxD held its first official Board of Director Elections which is an exciting and significant step for our small organization. This signifies we’ve officially moved on from “a bunch of Susan’s colleagues who are trying to get something rolling” to a real organization. I am so proud of how smoothly the election process went and how many members took the time to vote, and of course, I’m pleased to welcome out new Board Members: David Attwater, Bill Byrne, and Jason Williams.

But this also means that it’s time to say goodbye to some of the original Board Members, the intrepid few who were willing to jump into uncharted waters with me and create AVIxD from nothing. We wouldn’t be where we are today without the time, energy, and devotion of these four people, so I’d like to thank them each.

Thanks to Lizanne Kaiser for serving as founding vice-president, and for being willing to share her consistently valuable insights from her experience with other non-profit organizations. Lizanne brought many great ideas into the organization and we owe the smooth running of the recent elections to her.

Thank you to Peter Krogh for serving as a founding board member and as the co-chair of the AVIxD Workshop in 2009 and 2010. We could always count on Peter for a unique perspective and I will miss having him as resident provocateur.

Thanks to Jenni McKienzie for her service as founding treasurer and 2009 AVIxD Workshop co-chair, and for always being willing to pitch in, no matter what the project. My personal thanks to Jenni for nudging me into action to take AVIxD from a nice idea to a real organization.

Finally, thanks to Melanie Polkosky for serving as the founding secretary and keeping the records that reminded us who promised to do what, what we decided, and why. We’re also grateful to Melanie for conducting and sharing the results of the career survey with the AVIxD community.

Thanks to each of you, and to the rest of the founding board members (Charles Galles, Phillip Hunter, and Eduardo Olvera), for being willing to jump in and work in the background at a time when our ultimate outcome was uncertain. AVIxD wouldn’t be here without your help and support and I am grateful to each of your for the contributions you made to our organization and our profession.

A round of applause from the crowd, please!

Susan Hura, AVIxD President