IFAJ  Executive Committee Meeting

Saturday 8. of  September 2001

Ms. Pirjo Kontio

President of the Finnish Association

 

 

 

DEAR COLLEGUES

 

ItŽs my great honour and pleasure welcome You all, Dear Executive Committee members to this 45th annual congress to Finland, to the centre of the beautiful Lakeland district of Finland.

 

I thank You all for Your decision to take part to this event. WeŽll be a great group: almost a hundred colleagues from 26 countries will discuss about professional and I hope also other matters during this week. Let`s make a good congress!

 

Organising this Congress has been real team work.

It has proved that an old Finnish word Talkoo is still relevant. Talkoo means when somebody in your neighbourhood needs help, You give it to him or her without asking any money. Members of our association have given their professional skills, lots of money and also their hearts to fulfil this project.

 

This congress is the first in the IFAJ:s history in which the web is used so widely.

 We took a risk to use internet as means of registration and communication. Now we know that the decision was right. From now one all the associations of IFAJ have good possibilities to develop the use of the internet further more. During this congress YouŽll have an opportunity to follow our congress via internet: we are publishing Net News almost on-line.

 

We have not ignored printed media even we here in Finland have lived in the internet ecstasy. As You may have noticed, a brand-new Directory of the Finnish Agricultural Journalists is in your congress briefcase.

 We are very proud of this.

 And I tell you a secret: it has been published especially for you.

 

Organising a successful congress needs hard work, mental and physical, but it needs also strong support of the sponsors. Fund rising is easy when you have such marvellous partners as we have had here in Finland. We are covering one third of the congress expenses by fees of the participants. Rest is coming from our generous sponsors.

 

Our profession is strongly based on skills of story-telling.

 I hope that You all get productive seeds for good stories when you go back home.