Welcome

In this very first message as President of the Canadian Identification Society, I would like to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to the membership for the continued support. It is one of the greatest honours bestowed upon me to be able to represent the Society as the 33rd President.

As an organization we have made some significant progress over the last few years on many fronts and I would like to continue with that momentum. As President, I would like to continue to promote and enhance our current programs, including educational workshops and conferences, scientific journal, professional certifications, awards and research grants.

Over the next year, I will be working with the CIS Board of Directors to ensure that the Society maintains a viable long term business plan including a sound conference planning process, while continuing to deliver quality programs to our membership.

Keeping in mind the importance of research and development, I would encourage all of you to contribute to this critical component of our scientific disciplines and expand the foundation of forensic identification through research studies, leading to subsequent presentations at our annual educational conferences and publishing in our journal. Studies of this nature will allow all of us to gain further knowledge and understanding of the scientific basis of forensic identification, not only to better articulate our disciplines to the courts but to keep our neighbourhoods and communities safe.

I would also like to encourage you to take a closer look at the awards and research grants offered by the Canadian Identification Society. These very awards and research grants have been in place to recognize great accomplishments and to promote further research and development in the field of forensic identification.

Our success as an organization greatly depends on the work of many volunteers who support the day to day operations of the society. With that in mind, I would like to ask all members to get to know your provincial directors and the members of the CIS executive and send them a few words of appreciation and perhaps input and suggestions on how we can improve this great organization.

For those of you that have been able to attend the 2009 CIS Annual Educational Conference in Vancouver, I hope that you enjoyed the ample opportunities to learn new techniques and to network and exchange ideas with your peers.

As for next year, the 2010 CIS Annual Educational Conference will take place in Orillia, Ontario and will be hosted by the Ontario Provincial Police. I would encourage all of you to check the conference website for regular updates.

In closing, I want to emphasise the critical importance of our mission as a Society with the words of John F. Kennedy:
"Our success as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education" (February 20, 1961)

Matthew J. Lewandowski
President
Canadian Identification Society

29-Jan-2010

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