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The most frequent question asked of me during conference was, “How is your first conference as executive director going? ” So I thought I’d write my column from that perspective.

Operationally, it went well. The Penn-Del Chapter, led by Conference Chair John O. Smith and Vice Chair Rick Johnson, was well prepared, hospitable, friendly, informative, and enthusiastic. Most of the bumps were minor and smoothed out before the rear wheels had time to pass. I thank the volunteer team, staff, exhibitors, sponsors, and 2,100 attendees for a great experience and a job well done.

For the first time in a long time, I actually felt like I was a participant of the conference, not watching from behind the curtain. Here are a few of my favorite moments:

• Seeing Mark Chisholm, Frank Chipps, and Kathy Meyer break world records in the footlock events of the ITCC.
• The 54 seconds of my leg of the ground worker relay for Team ISA during the RakeMaster Challenge hosted by the Society for Commercial Arboriculture. Although I had, for a moment, set a record time, speed demon and women’s 2003 ITCC world champion, Kiah Martin of Australia, eventually crushed my time by two seconds. (I’ll be back, Martin—wiser and faster.)
• Jim Clark’s keynote speech, Keep Our Eye on the Prize.
• And, of course, all the wonderful conversations with friends from around the worldÑat meetings, on the trade show floor, and at receptions.

Part of the annual conference includes a report to the Board of Directors about our performance for the year. The report is followed by review and approval of our annual operational plan and budget. Fortunately for me, the report for the year was a positive one.

In certification, we have passed the 16,000 mark for Certified Arborists. Our chapter network offered 260 Certified Arborist exams, conducted more than 6,000 continuing education classes, and logged more than 275,000 CEU hours to keep Certified Arborists on a track of continual improvement. For the advanced professional, ISA launched two new credentials—Municipal Specialist and Board-Certified Master Arborist, further emphasizing our commitment to promote the profession of arboriculture.

In the past year, ISA’s public relations program has placed more than 350 stories, reaching a readership in excess of 35 million. The message we send is “Trees are good; trees need care; arborists care for trees.” ISA has access to more than 60,000 international media outlets and 78,000 throughout the United States. Our marketing coordinator targets media opportunities to keep ISA the leading source for scientifically based information on tree care worldwide and to make ISA Certified Arborists the “go-to professionals” for tree care.

ISA’s Educational Goods and Services team developed the CEU compendia series, a great resource on a variety of topics, offering 54 continuing education units. Also completed was the fifth booklet in ISA’s Best Management Practices series&mdashUtility Pruning of Trees. Four more BMPs are in development. The Tree Biology CD, a part of ISA’s Introduction to Arboriculture computer-based training series, is now available in Spanish, and the ISA Hispanic Web site (www.ISAHispana.com) receives more than 4,000 visits per month.

Membership growth for the year has topped 17,000, a five percent increase over 2003, giving ISA its 21st consecutive year of positive growth. A recently added member benefit is the job board on ISA’s Web site. Members can post résumés, and companies can post job opportunities. For more information, visit ISA’s Web site and click on the Job Bank link.

ISA committees continue to do great things while grappling with the monumental tasks and issues associated with being an international organization. Our committees have helped ISA’s board and members understand the value of diversity from a multicultural as well as multinational perspective. Their efforts have helped us define the value of the “I” in ISA as we strive to represent professionals worldwide.

The Executive Committee has spent countless hours in meetings and on conference calls and collectively traveled more than 250,000 miles visiting ISA chapters around the world. They work to see that ISA members have a voice in Society governance, they provide a diverse and informed perspective to our decision-making processes, and they continue to keep us focused on actively pursuing our mission.

We even managed to set some funds aside for our reserve account and have a very aggressive development year planned to provide more and improved services for our members. Those plans will be the topic of next month’s article.

In closing, I’ll share my most memorable moment of the conference, which occurred during the ITCC awards ceremony. To be fair, I need to share this with all our members. During the ceremony, a member of the local community presented a bouquet of flowers with the attached note: To all ISA members: Thank you for all the work you did on our trees! The Central Northside residents.

Now that’s solid-gold ISA, making the world a better place, one tree at a time.