Dear friends
I was looking for the best words, which would describe a year of the Convention, and highlight our achievements:

Think Ahead-Aim High

This theme should lead our thoughts and decisions while shaping our future and our way forward
The challenges we face to day are our growth, the Istanbul Convention, and in 2015 a new modernized, clarified and simplified constitution.

One essential part of the challenge is to increase our membership, and get back to the magic period of growth we had in the last decades of the past century.
Membership is the greatest asset of our organisation. It is obvious that the most important element in IIW is its members. There would be nothing without them. Once we accept as a premiss, the importance of membership, we must, as a natural consequence, accept the importance of membership development to ensure IIW growth. It will be one of our aims at the Convention.

To attract new members, and particularly younger ones, improving our constitution is not enough; we definitely need to provide better information and explain what IIW is, what we do, and how much we achieve.
We do miracles all over the world, and sadly too many people don’t really know about it; so the other aspect of our challenge will be to communicate better, and greatly increase awareness of IIW in the public eye. We need to have a real communication strategy, internal and external, starting by a new modernized and up dated web site, which will also allow me to address all of you throughout the year.

I also would like you to bear in mind, when discussing the Convention Proposals in your clubs, that the general interest should prevail over the interests of any individual club, and that consequently we need to be adaptable to the very different traditions and cultures of the countries where IIW is present.

So this year I ask you to ‘Think Ahead and Aim High’ with flexibility, tolerance, enthusiasm, and a positive vision of the future
Dreaming of what the future can hold must be our driving force for change. I always have in mind this exceptional quote of Joel Barker:

“Vision without action is a dream
Action without vision is simply passing the time
Action with vision is making a positive difference”

I hope this approach will become yours also, as a vision statement is crucial to moving forward in a positive direction. You cannot prepare for the future if you don’t know where you want to go. We will definitely discuss this during the coming IW year, during my visits, on our web site, our meetings, our Convention.
Everything is now in your hands.
The Inner Wheel of to morrow is here, very close, in our mind and hearts, it is on its way, and it cannot be stopped.
So Think Ahead-Aim High and say Yes, with enthusiasm, to the future.