Dear colleagues of INTA
After a few challenging years for our association, we have managed to overcome the difficulties, and at the last General Assembly in March, held in Paris (thanks to the hospitality of Rémi Feredj and La Poste), we elected a new Board of Directors. This new Board of Directors has elected its new Executive Committee, composed of the new President Helle JUUL, the three Vice Presidents Sabina MUJKIC, Étienne LHOMET, Guido Valdivia, and Treasurer Jean-Michel EVIN.
As I conclude this mandate of more than four years, extended due to the pandemic, I want to sincerely thank the colleagues who kept the association alive after its near-dissolution at the beginning of 2021. It is a heartfelt thanks that INTA and I owe particularly to Maurice CHARRIER and Budiarsa SASTRAWINATA (the presidents whom I had the honor to succeed), as well as to Jacques GALLY, who defended the administrative and financial viability of the association and ensured the transition to a “low-cost” association, the only formula capable of keeping INTA alive in the new economic, social, and professional context where we try to develop our activities. Without their generosity, support, and work, we would not have survived.
Those who have followed the situation of the association in recent years know well that this is not an exaggeration. A word of gratitude also goes to Christine and Michel and Sudarskis, who accompanied us to the end, even after retirement, and enabled the necessary transition.
To the new Board members and the new leadership of INTA, I want to express my gratitude for their willingness to take up the torch of this extraordinary association, one of the few where, today as in the past, one can freely express ideas, exchange experiences and plural perspectives, reflecting diverse backgrounds and professions, always with a humanistic and socially engaged perspective.
In this new stage of INTA’s life, it is very important to rely on a professionally competent Board representing a geographical diversity of regions and countries where the association has always had a significant presence. Additionally, these are individuals actively engaged in their professions and recognized among their peers, in their countries, and in those where they work. Indeed, the association needs “new blood” and a grounding in professional life to relaunch, knowing that they can always count on their predecessors to, together, chart this new path.
To all those who now take the helm of INTA, and especially to our new President, Helle Juul, I wish success and good luck for the future.
Lisbon, June 5, 2024.
Fernando Nunes da Silva