b'Message from the Vice President With this Annual General Meeting, both my term as Vice President of the Canadian School Boards Association and my career as an elected school board official comes to an end. I would first like to thank my fellow presidents for giving me the opportunity to share in this Canada-wide political experience. The CSBAs executive office is comprised of highly talented school politicians and Directors General. Serving with you and occasionally representing you has certainly been a highlight of my political career, as well as an exciting challenge. For this, I thank you sincerely. A year is a very short time, barely long enough to properly define the issues and priorities and to make a meaningful contribution. I reiterate the importance of longer terms for the president and vice president. Very few organizations provide for such short terms. I nevertheless had the privilege of serving as Vice President to an exceptional leader, a model of citizen engagement. The work accomplished by Laurie French will have helped our organization to grow, become structured and rise to the national level. I wish to thank Laurie for her patience, her work ethic and the flawless embodiment of what it means to be all about schools. One of the pleasures of being the CSBA Vice President is replacing the President, to the extent possible, at certain functions. Being the voice of the CSBA at the SSBA and MSBA General Meetings, highlights of my short term, allowed me to learn about the great diversity of elected school board officials paths and to raise the CSBAs profile in both those provinces. Thank you, Shawn Davidson and Alan Campbell, for your warm welcome and the opportunity to become better acquainted with YOUR leadership and your respective issues. At both events, I emphasized the CSBAs advocacy efforts in favour of the role of elected school board officials and in the quest for fairness for all Canadian students. I also seized the opportunity to stress the extent to which school democracy is essential for the development of a community at the local level. Like Nova Scotia, Qubec has chosen to terminate the mandates of elected school board officials and put an end to their existence. With this stark reality in mind, I asked Manitoba and Saskatchewans elected school board officials to protect this tier of local democracy, not to wait for a crisis similar to that in Nova Scotia and Qubec. All associations of elected school board officials should pursue their efforts at promoting these officials role in the success of the greatest number of students possible and in more fairness for all.Before concluding, I wish to acknowledge the contribution of our Executive Director, Nancy Pynch-Worthylake, with whom it has been a real pleasure to work. The support she provides to the President and the executive office, her political acumen and her ongoing commitment made our work so much easier. Nancy helped improve the efficiency of our weekly executive meetings and will no doubt have a hand in our organizations continued growth. Upon hiring an Executive Director, we had hoped for exemplary bilingualism. While the Francophone voice within the CSBA will temporarily disappear, Nancy knows and illustrates the importance of this linguistic dimension in the Canadian context and in our organization.Thank you all. Long live elected school board officials and long life to the CSBA.Alain Fortier Vice-President'