Dear ISCA Members, Dear Colleagues,

As you know, I was recently elected as ISCA President. It is a great honour for me and you can be sure I will do my best during the two next years to serve our association.

Thanks to the work done by the scientific events organizers, the student volunteers, the international advisory committee and the board members, ISCA has grown significantly during the past years. It is true in terms of membership, in terms of Interspeech participants and in terms of incomes but also in terms of grants, workshops and other activities.

I can't thank enough the ISCA past Presidents and, as I worked closely to her during the four past years, particularly Isabel Trancoso. They have led  our association very well during its main transformations and they help all of us, the ISCA members, to build a very active and dynamic international scientific association.

Yes, without any doubt, ISCA is now the main or one of the main scientific associations in the field of Speech Communication. And Interspeech conferences are the major scientific events in our field.

Looking at that, it is clear that ISCA doesn't need a revolution for the next years. On the contrary, the goals I wish for our association in the near future are to consolidate our position and our activities. Of course, to maintain the dynamism of ISCA and to increase the services our association is providing to our community, in terms of diversity and quality, remain our major objectives. But it will be very important also to work all together in order to emphasize the 'ISCA spirit', i.e. the flavor of our association which defines its specificity.

Taking in charge the ISCA President responsibilities at this specific moment of the Association life is for me particularly exiting and challenging for three main reasons. First, ISCA has now about 2000 members and about 1300 participants joined the recent Interspeech in Florence. These numbers demonstrate that ISCA is not longer the association it was few years ago, when ISCA was counting only a few hundred members. This nice situation introduces some new questions about Interspeech or about the ISCA administrative load, which increased also a lot. Secondly, our general professional environment is also changing very quickly and this evolution could have an impact on the ISCA members needs and desires. Lastly, the stable financial situation of ISCA will allow us more innovation and flexibility than in the past.

With the help of all ISCA volunteers and your feedback, I know I will really enjoy representing our Association during the next years and helping it to reach our objectives,

Sincerely,

Jean-Francois Bonastre
ISCA President
isca-president@isca-speech.org