Herman Weggen, President CFW
Dear readers of the Newsletter,
On 21 June 2005, at our Annual Meeting in Crete, there will be elections
for members of the Board of Directors. The bylaws state in article I,”The
corporation’s Voting Members shall be national cystic fibrosis
organisations.”
At our Annual Meeting in 2002 in Genoa, it was decided that ICF(M)A
and IACFA would merge on 1 January 2003. At the same meeting a Board
of Directors was elected. According to the bylaws, article II, section
3,”two of whom shall be elected for a term of two years, and three
of whom shall be elected for four years.” As CFW has made significant
changes, it was clear for me that the Board should have specific capabilities.
In 2002, I composed a job description and invited every member country
to nominate new candidates. Since there were no nominations, the existing
Board was re-elected.
I am very glad to hear that almost all members appreciate the direction
and the change CFW is making. There is a lot of support for the work,
mainly done by Christine Noke our project manager and Gina Steenkamer
our office manager. While they do a good job, we need CFW to continue
to grow and develop a more solid foundation. It requires a solid Board
where several capacities are fulfilled. This will allow the many on-going
tasks to be divided among the team members and carried out in an effective
manner.
After the Annual Meeting in 2004, some members asked me to come forward
with a team that I would like to work with. I hesitated because we are
a democratic association. But what if I should not do it? Even after
a written call for nominations, the national associations have not nominated
any new members the past few years. Finally, after discussing this with
the Board, I decided to approach possible new candidates.
What were the leading principles for my choice?
Mitch Messer has worked very hard the past two years to build up a solid
financial administration for CFW together with Gina. He is a person
with CF and very committed with CFW. He is the president of Cystic Fibrosis
Australia and lives in Perth, Australia.
Joe started to work for CFW a year ago. I asked him to focus primarily
on contacts with the Latin-American countries. He did a good job and
his overview is growing more and more. He showed interest and commitment
and the ability to work in a team. Joe’s daughter Katelyn died
of CF five years ago. Joe is project manager at SourceCF and lives in
Alabama, United States.
Peggy Green is the past president of the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
and a physiotherapist. She is a CF sibling and lives with her family
in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Ulrica Sterky is the mother of a son with cystic fibrosis. She is a
board member of the Swedish Cystic Fibrosis Association and a nurse.
She lives with her family in Göteborg, Sweden.
Katarina Stepankova is a mother of two sons with cystic fibrosis. She
is the president of the Slovak CF Club and a dentist. She lives with
her family in Kosice, Slovak Republic.
Enrique Sliver and I will continue. Our term continues to 2006.
I am convinced that the members of CFW will elect a productive and
professional board in June in Crete.
Herman Weggen, president
The Netherlands
