Dear colleague. By the time you receive this you will probably have recovered from the holiday season and are well on the way of tackling the challenges of 2002. Nevertheless, I would like to wish you an enjoyable New Year and hope that all of your plans for the year are successful.

The annual meeting of the Society in 2001 was held in Cardiff, Wales and from the formal and informal feedback we have received it appears that members of the Society who attended felt it was an excellent meeting that has continued the tradition set by my predecessors. We introduced novel modifications to the programme including the Young Investigators prize session being a plenary session, the poster presentation session, which were excellent but challenging to moderate! Sessions dealing with healing in tissues other than skin and soft tissue were all well received. All of these ideas developed as a result of the activities of members of the Local Organising Committee and the ETRS Board. I would like to thank them for their help, assistance and encouragement in developing the programme for this meeting.

The Annual Meeting in 2002 is a joint meeting with our colleagues from the Wound Healing Society. This will be held in Baltimore at the end of May. Considerable input has been provided by members of the Board to the planning of this meeting, but to be a real joint meeting we need to ensure significant members of our Society attend the conference. Please do your utmost to join us at our annual meeting to further extend and expand the network of colleagues we all have in this interesting and challenging area.

In September 2002 we will be holding a focused meeting in France to ensure educational opportunities are provided for members who cannot travel to the meeting in North America. It is also possible that additional focused meetings may be arranged before our next annual meeting, which is scheduled to be held in Amsterdam in 2003.
The ETRS is now firmly established as the leading scientific society in tissue repair in Europe. I therefore feel it is now time to reflect on our achievements, but more importantly develop a strategic plan for the future. To address this issue I am arranging a two-day meeting with all members of the Board, including those newly elected, to discuss, debate and plan for our future. As this is your society I would urge all members, who have a view as to how we should go forward, to write, email or telephone me to ensure that I can feed your views into the discussions.
By the middle of 2002 I would intend to provide you with the strategic plan that has been developed for further comment and hope we all can then clearly see the future direction of the European Tissue Repair Society.

I do look forward to seeing you in 2002 and if you have any issues or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me.

Keith Harding
President