Issues of membership and of cut-backs in funding to the humanities and fine arts continue to be of pressing concern. So do professional issues related to full-time employment for graduates in the field, and burn-out and overwork for those who are fortunate enough to be employed. This latter concern among new and older members alike is nowhere more apparent than in our difficulty to fill such key demanding positions on the executive as the treasurer's position, so ably filled by Anne Nothof for so many years. We can only hope that we can continue to persuade able hands to take up that and other torches for us over the coming year.
Positively, the Journal is back on publishing schedule, though even more potential referees and contributors would be warmly welcomed. Members are also invited to visit the new ACTR/ARTC website at http://www.umoncton.ca/facarts/anglais/actr/artc.htm, and to continue to consider new ways of utilizing electronic technology to expand our research and dissemination of information and research. Utilizing CANDRAMA to better effect as an important communication network for people in our field may be one issue we could consider in this area.
It is hard to believe that with December we will all be entering not just a new year, but a new century and a new millenium. As we stand on the threshold of a new era, one hopes it will be a time of opening possibilities and new opportunities for us in terms of scholarship, funding, em- ployment and new alliances within and outside our organization. In a larger sense we also hope it will be time to affirm the crucial role of the humanities and fine arts - and of drama and theatre in particular - in shaping, challenging and reflecting the minds and hearts of human beings both in the individual and collective senses of those words. And to remember that the 21st century belongs to us no less than it does to business, technology and the sciences.
I am looking forward to serving you as vice- president and to seeing you at Edmonton and the University of Alberta in our first conference in the 2000s.