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Message from WACS President

A Fruitful First 40 days
Monday, 14 July 2008

President

Gissur Gudmundsson

Sudurhlid 35,
105 Reykjavik, Iceland
ICELAND

Mob: + 354 8975988
Tel: + 354 5622264
Email: restaurant@restaurant.is
Website: http://www.wacs2000.org

Since the Presidium has been elected, we’ve been putting our heads together to figure out the next steps of the World Association of Chefs Societies. Here are a couple of things we have been working on.

Applications for Committee Work
I was very happy to see the enthusiasm to our call for members to send applications for the 24 seats in our committees. In all, we received 45 applications. The feedback we received regarding our initiatives for the committees was tremendous and I would like to thank everyone that has sent us positive words about our intention for these committees. We will formally announce on the WACS website, the committee members that have been chosen after our Board meeting in South Africa which is between the 12th and 15th of July. We will also put up their profiles and a short description of what they will be working on in the next while.

Upcoming Board Meeting
From the 12th to the 15th of July, we will hold our first board meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa. As many of you know, Dr. Bill Gallagher announced at the Congress in Dubai that he would like to travel less to our meetings and spend more time with his family. As this meeting will be one of the most important ones, we really wanted him to be a part of the meeting and so, we decided to travel to Bill so that he could take part in our first meeting. His words and wisdom regarding WACS are very important and, with this decision, the board wants to honour him for all the good work he has done for WACS. I am also very happy that we will have almost full attendance from the Board to this meeting as well as all the committee Chairmen and the two juniors that I have appointed to work with us.

We will be happy to inform you about the outcome of this meeting via our website and with that, we hope that you will get our information faster, stay tuned on the WACS website and follow the news. We’ll be adding a link on the website called Meetings with future links to minutes so keep an eye out there if you’re interested in following WACS’s board meetings in detail.

But if you’re not interested in looking through the minutes, we will also be putting out press releases with information on the decisions we will make.

As always, please feel free to contact anyone on the board, especially your Continental Directors, if you’d like to give feedback about our ideas.

Bocuse d´Or Europe in Norway
Finally, I want to say that I had the Honour to be a guest at the Bocuse d´Or Europe in Stavanger at the beginning of July. Stavanger is a beautiful city that has become one of the most important gastronomic towns in the Nordic countries area. I will attend another great event there again from the 23rd to the 27th of July when students from different areas of Canada and the Nordic Countries will come together for the World Junior Culinary Exchange.

Seeing and taking part in the Bocuse d´Or Europe is very inspiring and I know my friends in Asia have said the same. With Paul Bocuse and many other internationally recognised chefs attending, including our Honorary President, Dr. Bill Gallagher, I felt that it was time that WACS got involved with the Bocuse d´Or and I felt that they too have the desire to with us. I believe you will see more cooperation between WACS and the Bocuse d´Or in the future and I welcome that with all my heart.

It is with pride that I also tell you that the Nordic Countries came within the first 6 places. Norway was the winner. Knowing the chefs from the Nordic countries, I know that they are always ready to share their knowledge with you all and I urge you to get in contact with them and learn and share your friendship as well.

My dear colleagues, until next month, have a great summer.
Gissur Gudmundsson