After two years as TSG Chair, I would like to start this letter with a brief retrospective. In the beginning of 2000, Sharon Matola stepped down as chair and proposed my name for the position. I agreed to take over and I do not have enough words to thank Sharon, Sheryl Todd and Mariano Dixon for all their great help and support during the transition. I would not have made it without them!
Initially, Sheryl and I worked on a list of short, medium and long-term actions for the group and put together the new membership. The number of members increased to 71 professionals from 22 different countries (South, Central and North America, Asia, and Europe) and with varied backgrounds and expertise. In an effort to create a stronger organization and distribute the workload, Sheryl and I appointed a Species Coordinator for each tapir species, and additional officers based on the group’s needs (current positions, names of the coordinators, and members of the different committees can be found in the “TSG’s STRUCTURE” article in this issue).
As you all probably know, Sheryl Todd has been the TSG Deputy-Chair for four years. She is also the President of the Tapir Preservation Fund (TPF), manager of the Tapir Talk e-mail group and Webmaster of the Tapir Gallery website (www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/). Recently, Sheryl decided to step down from the TSG Deputy-Chair position. She will continue being an active member of the group and will stay on as Webmaster and banker for TSG (via TPF). The TSG and the TPF will keep working together as closely as ever. Charles Foerster, a North American biologist, who has been studying Baird's Tapir in Costa Rica for the past 7 years, has agreed to take over the position and will help me chair the group during the next years. I would like to thank Sheryl for all her tireless work over the past years (and, in advance, for all her work in the future!) and welcome Charles to the position.
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.