Thank you to everyone who voted in the recent elections. It was encouraging to see good levels of participation and interest in our four wonderful candidates from four different countries: Ben Arikpo – Nigeria, Peter Kalmar – Hungary, Michaela Faulhammer – Austria and Suzanne Zaldivar – USA.
We are pleased to announce the official results and welcome Peter Kalmar as IODA’s next President and Suzanne Zaldivar as Membership Coordinator.
Sincere thanks go to Ben Arikpo and Michaela Faulhammer who have been gracious and supportive. It has been so pleasing to see these four people offer their services for our community, express support and encouragement to each other, and being so welcoming and gracious as we informed them all of the results in recent days.
Thanks, appreciation and love go also to Ulla Nagel for her remarkable service to IODA and to Christine Wawra as former Membership Coordinator.
Peter addressed the following initial words as President to the IODA members. “It is a great honor, a huge responsibility and a wonderful opportunity for me to work with You all in the coming years, taking IODA, our organization to the next level in its 28 years of existence. I am proud and happy to serve IODA in the next three years, leading a great Executive Committee and a wonderful group of global citizens – You our IODA members. Let me say first that I am grateful for all your support and the trust that I have been receiving in the last couple of months. The end of this year’s elections is indeed the beginning of a new phase in IODA’s 28 year old history; it is an opportunity for all of us for a fresh start.”
We had a smooth and efficient hand-over of roles in April and Peter Kalmar has been representing IODA together with Rod Barnett at the first ODN European conference in London. The EC is operating under his new leadership and we have had frequent meetings since then. The current focus is on the upcoming wonderful conference in Peru.
Once again, warmest congratulations to Peter and Suzanne!
Watch out for more messages from the President and Membership Coordinator in IODA’s upcoming IODA newsletter.