However, at this critical juncture, there is no time forself-congratulation. LISA members accrue no concrete benefits froma shift in a political structure alone; the latter is but a means to an end. And what is that end? The results of this summer's membership survey makes it abundantly clear. You, LISA's members, state with resounding unanimity that you want LISA to be a forum for addressing technical quality issues, a repository for non-proprietary localization information and resources, and a workshop for hammering out such vital tools as localization benchmarks. Issues requiring urgent attention, as voiced by a number of LISA members, are NLS support for Eastern European and Asian languages and evaluating language processing tools.

But without the firm hand of the previous Management Board on the tiller, responsibility for the achievements of the association as a whole are now diffused throughout the entire membership. That means it is now more than ever up to each of LISA's members to take an active role in this association. This inevitably dictates contributing time, resources, and person-power. The bottom line is, however, that the collective whole will be greater than the sum of the parts, for these are goals that no single company can achieve independently.

In its managing director Mike Anobile, LISA is blessed by having a genuinely non- partisan individual with much-needed marketing and management skills propelling the organization forward and seeing that it has an official organ (the LISA Newsletter). But by definition the actions of Mike can only reflect the will of the organization as a whole, as is the LISA Newsletter only a conduit for its collective voice. Without a doubt, 1994 will be the year inwhich LISA finally succeeds in getting a number of vital activities rolling or the year it succumbs. Which will it be?