Every year lately brings excitement, new events and new ideas to explore. I hope that in your schools, you see that too! There is always a way to improve, enhance or revamp something we do in the classroom and that holds true for your association. You might have thought last year brough some excitement in the realm of technology as we jumped on the Myspace and del.icio.us sites. We are now on Facebook, have a Cafepress account and all of our conference registrations are online! What else can I share about this year? For starters, a new membership benefit for everyone! Each year we will provide our members with a resource of some sort, either tangible (like this year and next) or access to a program online exclusively for YOU. It is our way of saying thank you for your continued support of the development of Michigan's leaders. The resource will change from year to year but I will give you a teaser about the next two years... YOUR KIDS HELPED CREATE THESE AMAZING MATERIALS! That's right! If you sent students to our summer leadership camp and they were part of the Level 3, or 3rd-Year Council, they worked hard to develop two pieces that we know you will use in your classroom and/or meetings for years to come. We are very excited about this and we hope you get your membership in early this year so that you do not miss out on our mailing. Oh, there is more to share! Do not stop reading there, as exciting as that is! We have a new conference that is coming for the first time ever this fall. It has been an idea for about three years and it is finally becoming a reality in 2007-2008! Are you ready for the ulimate resource gathering for leadership students and advisers? Are you prepared to have access to speakers, curriculum, service groups, charitable organizations, fundraising companies and other schools projects? Introducing the first STUDENT LEADERSHIP EXTRAVAGANZA! I could tell you more, but the website is more appealing to look at than this plain text. Let's see... yes, there is STILL more! This year we will be offering access to podcasts. Your MASC and MAHS Boards of Delegates are working hard to develop topics and content that meet your needs. These 15-20 minute audio files will be up online throughout the year and many will be accompanied by an article in the e-newsletter. OH YEAH! That's right! ANOTHER NEW BENEFIT! While the podcasts will be available online to anyone (we get a lot of outside traffic on our site), the e-newsletter is just for members, as it always has been. The e-newsletter will be a great little email that comes each month that is interactive. We will provide short article clips with links to full-length articles on our website. You can easily share the email with your students as well. We hope to release this at least every other month. Our ultimate goal is once a month. The more submissions and articles we get from advisers and students, the more we can make that happen! I look forward to seeing YOUR NAME on one of our articles soon! I think I'm wearing myself out with all this new stuff! As you can tell, we don't get a summer vacation here at the office! We're always working to bring you resources you can use to make your job as leadership adviser easier and the student development stronger. I hope we succeed in doing that. You are our mission! I am looking forward to another great year with you, so send in your membership and enjoy the conferences, newsletters, podcasts and other goodies this fall! In Leadership,Kadi PojetaMASSP Coordinator of Student Leadership Services, MASC/MAHS