Anthony Joseph, Immediate Past President (left)
and ,Frank Bigley President (right)

October 4, 2008

IRU Members and Associates:

It is my privilege to succeed Tony Joseph as your new IRU President. As you know, Tony served successive Presidential terms, for a total of four years, and did an outstanding job of moving our organization forward. He will continue on the Executive Committee, along with Vice President, Jim Brost, our new Secretary/Treasurer, Jess Bongiorno and me. The officership progression plan called for in our By-laws assures consistency and continuity during periods of transition, as well as providing a good training experience with exposure to all aspects of the Association.

As we enter a period of uncertain and disconcerting economic conditions, which will no doubt continue to impact our industry and some of our members, I am pleased to tell you that your Association is on a very sound financial foundation. Your Executive Committee and Board, with the invaluable advice of our Counsel, Bob Calinoff, will continue to manage the Association's funds and operations in a conservative manner. I am confident that we can weather this storm, as we have worked through numerous others over our more than 40 year history.

The key to any trade association's success is membership participation and support. Our dues are quite modest when compared to other trade organizations and have remained unchanged for many years. We have been most fortunate to receive generous sponsorship of our conference activities by our members and I hope this can continue. These funds go directly toward our various educational initiatives, which is the heart of our Mission Statement.

We have been successful in attracting a few new members over each of the past few years and we are most pleased to welcome them. I ask that all of us continue to work on attracting new members. There is reason to believe that our industry will see further consolidation over the next few years, which means we need to add new members just to stay even. Should you hear about or think of an opportunity, please mention it as soon as possible to any Board member or to Jim Brost, our Membership Committee Chairman. Within a day or so we can then deliver a membership package to the prospective member company.

In addition to attending our various conferences and seminars, I encourage everyone to become involved in one or more of the various IRU Committees. A full list of the Committees and their members is on the website. As we are all volunteers with full-time jobs, there is always room for another set of hands to help with the work. In addition, it provides you an opportunity to contribute new ideas and perspectives to some very satisfying projects that make a meaningful contribution to our industry. Each and every Committee is moving forward on some very exciting projects and I again urge you to contribute in any area that appeals to you.

I look forward to seeing all of you at our Spring 2009 Conference at the Fairmount Southampton Princess Hotel in Bermuda on April 5, 6 & 7. The Program Committee and several other Board members have been hard at work for some time already and the program is nearly complete. I am certain that you will find the topics to be timely and interesting and they will be presented by some of the most respected names in their fields of expertise.

Please contact any Board member or me with any and all ideas you may have about the IRU, our activities, conference program topics or anything else that you feel will increase the value of IRU membership to your organization. IRU is, of course, your Association - and a great one it is. However, we need to hear your suggestions for any improvements that you feel will make it even better.

I look forward to serving as your President for the next two years and wish continued success to all of you.

With best regards,

Frank Bigley
President