president's corner

Busy time !

I know, I know, it has been months since I last wrote an editorial and it is about time that I let you know what we have been up to lately.

The main event was the FEDEC presence at “Kaleidoscopia” in Turku, Finland during the circus related activities of Turku 2011 – European Capitale of Culture. Many thanks go to our member Minna Karesluoto from Turku Academy of Applied Sciences - Circus Department for her energy and involvement throughout the week. A Board Meeting, a seminar, performances and a lot of taxi services meant that she was kept busy and we all hope that she has recuperated in time for CIRCA, in Auch.

September has also been busy with all the organisation related to our newest circus discipline Module for the Cyr Wheel which is being held in Stockholm as I write. Several teachers and students are working on developing educational tools for this activity and we are all waiting to see what Gerard Fasoli and Sven Demey come out with. We would also like to thank our fellow members in Stockholm, Dans och Cirukushogskolan, for all their organisational support for the module.

And, as I mentioned before, Auch is coming up on us all quite quickly and it has been a pleasure to see how well Zoe Lacornerie has taken to her role as the Maternity Cover for Mathilde Robin. Auch is looking very good and all of us here at the nerve centre for FEDEC are looking forward to seeing you all there. Let us pray for as much sun as last year, and maybe less Armagnac.

On top of all this positive news, it is important to me to inform all of you that the team in the office has been working under quite difficult circumstances for the last month. In a relatively short time two members of La Maison du Cirque here in Brussels left for professional reasons.

These two members, Camille Vlérick and Madeline Hammond, provided quite a lot of support in regards to the financial and administrative operations of our organisation. Without these two key roles, it has fallen to the remaining team members to assume the work that was usually their domain. Effectively, two people have been assuming the work of four.

I would like to say how much I have appreciated the initiative shown by the team and the professionalism of their actions. It has been quite a stressful moment for the last four weeks and if, by some incredible circumstance, you happen to notice a slight slip in the quality of our communications I ask you all to be a bit tolerant as we rebuild our workforce.

Tim Roberts, President

27th September, 2011