Dear LISA Members and Newlsetter Readers,

The non-profit entity as defined by former board member Roger Jeanty “is a vehicle for the collection of information, the setting of standards, the exchange of ideas, networking and schmoozing in a non-competitive, non-commercial forum.” Examples of this operating model are ISO, the Unicode Forum, the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, and special interest clubs. In this model, membership drives revenues. Organizations join and remain as members because they receive value and want to play an active part in the Association. Success is largely contingent upon high activity levels on the part of the membership in defining issues, driving programs and volunteering support for various association-profiled activities.

By definition, profit-driven entities are very straightforward. Clients drive revenues, and remain clients only if they receive an equitable return on their investment. The profit-driven LISA licensee will market the Association by leveraging its data and resources like the Newsletter, Surveys, technical guidelines, forums, and workshop training programs. A licensed company can also manage specific marketing, advertising and PR activities that focus on localization’s key role in this increasingly global Internet economy. The company does not rely solely on LISA members to fund its programs. It can work with any organization willing to invest (see Alison Rowles’ article “Think Local, Act Global” on page 30 for further details).

LISA can benefit in several ways: (1) increase exposure to businesses and markets outside the traditional software and IT industries; (2) minimize administrative headcount and overhead; (3) administration becomes more portable and costeffective; (4) we can implement other strategic partnerships based on regional requirements, and, most importantly, (5) place greater focus on member-driven content and national and local programs to develop technical, standards and production guidelines that keep the Association at the forefront of the industry.

This year LISA will further strengthen our outsourcing model by putting greater emphasis on third-party licensing agreements. Johnston & Associates have signed on as a licensee to run internationalization workshops, ETP continues with their LISA endorsed project management workshops and consultancy. Fry & Bonthrone will continue managing the LISA Newsletter as well as other resource development programs. LISA is collaborating with seventeen trade and business organizations to promote the LISA 2000 Forum in Washington D.C. and the Globalization Seminar for Policymakers, Business Leaders, Professionals and the Press. We hope that this will set the pace for increasing the number of industry marketing and promotion events this year.

The localization business has never been healthier and more visible. The contracts are getting larger, the production and delivery methods are improving, and client budgets are increasing. As a result, more and more service organizations are making financial headway in the public marketplace.

With the support of our very pro-active Executive Committee and the synergy added by our new 2000 board members—Lone Strandbygaard, Manager of Localization at Navision Software, Renato Beninatto, Director of Marketing and Sales at Berlitz GlobalNET, and Mark Lancaster, Chairman and CEO of SDL (appointed to replace Roger Jeanty, President of Lionbridge)—LISA vows to help keep up the pace!