A letter from Fred Matser...

Dear ANH Community Allies,

Here, in The Netherlands, we find ourselves here surrounded by many beautiful and blossoming flowers in pretty warm weather. I hope you enjoy the season as much as I do.

Some of you may know that I stepped in as Chairman early June after having been on the Board for about 1 1/2 years. I feel honoured to have the trust of all my fellow Board members to step into the shoes of my wonderful predecessor, Roberto Savio.

First of all I wanted to thank Roberto for his heartfelt and dedicated leadership over the period of the birth of ANH until now. Many of us know how Roberto was challenged by the illness of his lovely wife Colette, whom he loved so much and her death late last year. Even under these very difficult circumstances Roberto was fully present to serve our organisation as Chairman.

As we all are aware of, our world does not only face an environmental crisis, but also a financial and economic one. These circumstances have not left us untouched. We find ourselves in quite choppy waters as well.
Jorge Colmenares, our CEO, stepped back late spring, as, due to the increased interest in renewable energy sources, his private business required more attention than he was able to provide to the Alliance.
Also, as our ongoing funding dried up, the Board made the decision to discontinue existing employment contracts, and lay off our staff members. On behalf of the Board, I want to thank all of them wholeheartedly for the work that they have done.

We are also very grateful to the staff members who stepped in to volunteer their services going forward. We will continue our efforts to find money so that we can meet our existing obligations.
As from now our organisation is run by a group of committed and dedicated volunteers. Because of the described circumstances, the conference organizers decided to cancel the Guatemala event in which the Alliance was to participate, and the Board felt that the Alliance should concentrate more on infrastructure, and decided to postpone the conference planned for November 2009, in San Diego, California.

A crisis is an opportunity as well: we have the chance to transform our organisation. In our Board meeting, early June, we decided to address the challenging situation. Two committees have been established and are working hard with great enthusiasm to present us proposals in two fields:

1) One committee will focus on the re-evaluation of our values. This committee will be chaired by Brian Waniewski. Some of you will be approached by Brian to participate in a Stakeholders survey.
 

2) Patrick Brauckmann, my fellow Board Member, is chairing the team that is focussing on the creation of a new infrastructure that meets the needs of the time: to help and bring back the power to the people.
 

I am very confident that by early autumn we will be able to present you a re-organised ANH that will be able to deal with the challenges of this time in an even more inspiring and effective way, by creating opportunities and possibilities of cross-fertilization and collaboration.

In the meantime, I like to share that we had an overwhelming response on the ANH Startfund invitation for co-funding inspiring projects. The American as well as the Dutch guiding committees are working very hard to evaluate the applications in order to decide which project will be co-funded.

As mentioned I am personally very confident about a bright future for ANH. As your new Chairman I see myself more as a 'shareman'. In this respect, I feel honoured and inspired to work with a very committed inspiring and dedicated President, Deepak Chopra, and Chair of the Excom, Howard Rosenfeld, as well as my wonderful fellow Board members.

Last but not least I would like to honour and thank all those people that have made it possible to establish ANH and build its community to the point from which we now can move on to the next promising and exciting stage. I welcome your thoughts, and look forward to sharing the journey with you. Thank you for your work in the world, and for your continuing commitment to the Alliance for a New Humanity.

I greet you all in the spirit of unity.

Fred Matser
Chairman

The Alliance for a New Humanity