Dear Friends and Members of the Anglo-American Press Association,
It is a both an honor and a challenge to have been chosen to serve as president of this association, with its long and rich history, its dynamic present and promising future.
The life of a foreign correspondent is never easy…and never boring. It is challenging for many reasons, but every journalist I have met in my 20 years abroad pursues his or her work with passion. In recent years, we have seen huge changes in the journalism industry. Newspapers and magazines are downsizing and changing the way they work, while online news services, websites and multimedia are proliferating. Foreign bureaus of many major news organizations are either closing or being made smaller, and yet we are still here, providing news from Europe and elsewhere, to English-language publications and electronic media.
With some 125 active and associate members, the AAPA has begun its second century with stabilized finances and a solid management team committed to seeing the Association prosper and grow while making it increasingly relevant to the Membership.
We will, of course, be pursuing our core activity of organizing events to allow members to get up close to politicians and businessmen and women as well as personalities in the arts and entertainment. We will also work at reaching out to members who don’t always manage to attend meetings.
This new website that has risen from the ashes of the old one is part of that commitment. It will report – with photos – past events and alerts of upcoming ones, news of what members are up to, as well as give you a peek behind the scenes to see what our Association’s committee is working on. Eventually, it will provide a blog space for members to air their views and news. It will be a work in progress, and will adapt to the needs and desires of the membership, so feel free to offer suggestions.
I will work at ensuring that the coming year is a busy and event-filled one for the AAPA, and trust that you’ll find that our Association is increasingly relevant to us and our profession.
-Virginia Power