Thank you for the opportunity to be your leader as we enter the new millennium. As we begin this journey into a Time for Change, we must keep in mind and reflect on what CLEAR is all about.

CLEAR is an association of individuals, agencies and organizations working together to improve the quality and understanding of regulation in order to enhance public protection. This association began twenty years ago in New Orleans when a few far-sighted individuals joined together to discuss a common need. Through the hard work and dedication of members like you and CLEAR's great staff, our focus on improving our agencies and our individual skills to meet the ultimate goal of public protection are greater now than ever before. I personally thank CLEAR's founders for having the vision of creating this organization. I also thank each of you for your continuing support today.

Now let's look ahead and see if it is a Time for Change, as our 2000 conference theme suggests. Are we as effective and efficient as we can be? Are we truly protecting the public or are we gatekeepers to entry into a profession? What professions should be regulated? What can we do to make needed change happen?

This year, I believe, we have taken steps to answer those questions. The Board has been holding teleconferences throughout the year to deal with CLEAR business. A nice byproduct of this approach is that it has helped build a more cohesive and effective leadership team. The program committee members have identified challenging and useful topics for this year's annual conference designed to help us address change in a meaningful manner.

In terms of enhancing our agency and individual skills, CLEAR is exploring a partnership with the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials (ARELLO) to provide a joint certification for investigators involved with investigations of real estate complaints. This partnership would provide for specialization and additional opportunities for receiving training during the year. We anticipate establishing similar partnerships with other regulatory associations.

The members-only portion of our web page is up and running. Using the online directory, you will be able to find agencies by profession and by jurisdiction. You will finally be able to turn to CLEAR online to answer the most frequently member-asked question: "Which jurisdictions regulate a specific profession?" We will ask you to help us make this a successful endeavor by letting us know when information on your agency needs updating.

Finally, I would like to remind each of you of another innovation this year: there is a public comment period public comment period scheduled at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, September 14 during the next meeting of the Board of Directors in Miami. This is your organization--we hope to hear from you.