[Linda Buquet]

NOTE to ALL: I have had some affiliates express concerns about who's going to be on this board and are they going to have the best interests of affiliates in mind? I am not officially a part of the organization, but I am for it.

So one thing I'd like to stress, for anyone that has initial concerns is that this group is out to make a positive difference in our industry and the backbone of our industry is affiliates.

Another thing I'd like to point out is that this initial board - the Formation Advisory Board - is designed to be a small, short term board who's main job is to do all the grunt work and leg work it takes to get a group like this off the ground. To do all the organizational work that no one has ever gotten done before - hence the reason we've never gotten an organization started yet.

No one has ever put in the money, time and resources it takes to launch an association until now. And an association never got formed because people just talked and argued about it and no one ever stepped up to the plate to actually do the work necessary to organize a formal association. In reality no one had enough time to do it on a volunteer basis either, because everyone was busy with their own affiliate business.

Affiliate Classroom (Anik Singal) is funding the start up phase and has hired a Director-level CJ person, Rebecca Madigan, to work full-time to launch this. Anik has stepped up and made an amazing contribution to our industry. I think we should be happy that someone took the initiative and put their money on the line to make this happen.

So thanks go out to Anik, Rebecca, Brad, Brook and Lisa for donating their time and resources to do the hard and thankless job of organizing the start-up. We appreciate you!