Dear ISSIP Members,

I am delighted and honored to serve as the President of ISSIP for 2014. My entire career has been dedicated to the services space and I am thrilled to be part of an organization that is focused on innovating in this ever more critical area.

This last year of involvement with ISSIP has given me a newfound appreciation of the many service-oriented activities taking place, compounded by the interaction with the incredibly talented and dedicated volunteers who make these activities happen across the world.

With continuous change underway in business and our personal lives, the abundance of technology available to improve the services in place today, the opportunities for service innovators is incredible. The challenge for many of us is not the access to facts about the changes taking place, but the context needed to understand the implications.

Our mission “To Promote Service Innovations for Our Interconnected World” reflects the direction of our organization for the upcoming years. Last year we started down this path in numerous ways. In 2014, ISSIP needs to focus on not just expanding the breadth of our efforts, but also increasing the depth of involvement and impact to each of our members. As a group, we need to support each other in our efforts to grow and learn. We are looking for volunteers to work with our existing Special Interest Groups, increasing the vision and materials available to advance service understanding and careers. For more information about the active SIGs, please check this and previous newsletters, as well as the ISSIP website: http://staging3.issip.org/community/special-interest-groups/.

I want to thank each and every one of you for your membership and participation, our volunteers for your dedication and collaborative spirit, and our sponsors and supporters for their continued patronage.

Charlie Bess

ISSIP President