I am thrilled and consider myself truly privileged to serve the association as your President for 2008-09.  I look forward to working with the extremely talented people who currently serve on the Executive Board.

At the annual conference, I shared my vision for the year during the first ever State of the Organization meeting.  I challenged the Board and our committee leaders to continue to look for creative and exciting ways to increase our overall association membership by 5% this year.  I was very encouraged to hear how our committees have enthusiastically accepted the challenge and have already started work on a host of opportunities, from Contests and Consulting; to Websites and Webinars, that will help us reach that goal and beyond. 

I want to thank Past-President Kristi Gimmel Becker for her tireless work as President last year and her continuous efforts to provide value added services to our members.  I am committed to these same ideals and will push forward to strive for excellence in this arena.

I also want to extend my gratitude to Annual Conference co-chairs, Jean Paterson and Anne Voller and their entire conference committee.  What a great conference we had in St. Louis!   The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. We were invited to Catch the Spirit, and I believe we all did through lively networking, engaging keynote speakers, and programs rich in applicable content.  Again, thank you for your hard work in creating one of our best conferences ever.

Finally, I would like to encourage you to partner with us and look at ways you can contribute this year to Midwest ACE and our mission of Bridging Education and the World of Work.  I look forward to seeing you at the Trends Conference on November 20-21, 2008 in Chicago.

In Your Service,

Drew Butts

Midwest ACE President

2008-2009