Dear Friends and Colleagues

From this issue of our newsletter onwards, I have accepted responsibility for its overall production; Susan Duff, in charge of IAPR's Secretariat, has agreed to help me. I must admit, I feel quite overwhelmed by the daunting task and without Susan's help I would not feel able to cope. On the other hand, Adrian Clark, our editor thus far, managed to produce the newsletter on his own without much help from other people. Adrian has now taken over the chair of Technical Committee 5 on Benchmarking and Software and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for all his good work and wish him good luck with his new responsibilities; his efforts are much appreciated by the whole community.

As the new editor, I would like to use this editonal to express my thoughts for the newsletter. I would like every member of IAPR to feel that this is our voice and our forum for talking to each other. This can only be true with your help and cooperation. If you have some views which might interest the community and you would like to air them, please drop me a line. If you go to a conference and feel strongly about something, or are simply inspired by it and would like to try out your reporting talents (!), please do send me the result. It will be highly appreciated and I will be happy to receive your contributions.

In addition to letters to the editor, another new column we decided to introduce is a column with news of members. Please drop me a line if you think some news item concerning a member is news-worthy.

I receive occasionally books for reviewing which I like to pass on to people who are interested in reviewing them. The reviewer has to write his/her opinion of the book and gets to keep the book as a reward; if you would like to participate, please send me a message stating your main interests and your postal address. Further, if you are the author of a book, do tell the marketing department of your publisher to send us a copy so that we have it reviewed, and publicised, through our columns.

To start things up, and as it has just heen the festive season, I thought we might have a bit of fun! What about a cartoon competition? First prize, US $50. The subject of the competition is open but it would be good if it had some relevance to the interests of the community. Please send your entries to me by mid February.

Please remember: this newsletter will be boring, dull and unexciting unless you want it to be otherwise, unless YOU feel it is yours!

Susan and I promise to do our best for a smooth, timely running, but a successful newsletter cannot he a one-man band - not even a two-women band!

Maria Petrou

Editor