Welcome Message by Leonard Kim, President of KASF-ERC

First of all, I would like to thank all of you for the support you have given me. To see a record number of representatives from the Board of Directors (BoDs) and many guests attending our first board meeting was a very reassuring endorsement of your support. It was heartwarming to see our members, regardless of their age and tenure with KASF, interact so well with each other - and most importantly, having fun. With your support and the incredible dedication of our officers, I have no doubt this will be another banner year for KASF. In my short tenure as the President of KASF-ERC, it did not take long for me to realize what personal sacrifices our past Presidents, officers and their spouses have made to create the organization that we have today. I am truly grateful, as I am sure you all are, for their services and the sacrifices they have made.

While I must confess the tremendous burden that I feel to carry on the work of this great organization, I am also excited about the opportunities we have to make it even better. I have specific goals for KASF, and I will give my all to reach those goals. My first goal is to position KASF to leverage the vast amount of technologies available to enable our organization to operate at the highest level possible. This will not only make us more efficient and effective, but it will prevent us from becoming irrelevant over the long term - a risk that we cannot afford to take.

My second goal is to increase our membership - not only by recruiting more members but also to by retaining some of our most dedicated, long-standing members. Although we have introduced many new young professionals to the group as potential BoDs, we have many more highly qualified candidates to introduce to you at our next meeting. In terms of retaining our more experienced members, we have a plan to engage many of our past Presidents in various active roles in the coming months. One such plan is to create a permanent position, Chairman of the board (for KASF-ERC), and I am recommending Dr. Yoonsoo Park for this position. This is intended to leverage not only his vast amount of experience and passion for KASF, but also to maintain the continuity of our organization as we pass the presidency of KASF every two years. His health willing, I am hoping that Dr. Park and other past Presidents will continue to fulfill this role in the future. I will be sending out a separate message about this for your approval.

My remaining goal is to strengthen interactions with our board members, donors and recipients. This e-newsletter is one of the ways that we can help improve our communications and reach out to those who could not attend our meeting. Just remember that it takes two way conversations to make communications work, so please provide us with your feedback. In addition to these goals, there are many more goals that we have set forth this year, and in future meetings, you will be hearing much more about the activities we are planning. We anticipate many challenges in the future as we experiment with new initiatives, and I look forward to your active involvement and continued support.

Leonard