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IERS Message No. 68                                     January 13, 2005
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Dear IERS users, contributors and friends,

It is more than four years ago when I took over the responsibility of
the chairmanship of the IERS Directing Board. At that epoch the IERS
just finished its re-structuring, under the efficient leadership of my
predecessor, Prof. Christoph Reigber. My four-year term of work in the
new structure has now expired, and it is time to say good-bye to all of
you who helped me with the task of coordinating the activities of this
important multidisciplinary service, and also to look backwards. After
these four years I am sure that the new structure proved to be a step in
the right direction, even if not all worked quite smoothly. The 'new'
IERS is now much more complex, more international, and consequently more
decentralized than before.

I would like to thank all members of the DB, and especially to its 'key'
members - the Director of the Central Bureau Bernd Richter and Analysis
Coordinator Markus Rothacher, for helping me with all the tasks that we
met during the past four years. My sincere thanks belong also to all
IERS components and cooperating institutions, without whose daily
routine work and support the whole service would not exist.

There were several personal changes in the composition of the DB during
the last four years, out of which I would only like to mention those
that took place lately: Tonie van Dam replaced Ben Chao as the head of
the Global Geophysical Fluids Center (GGFC), Ralph A. Gaume is the new
representative of the ICRS Center to the DB instead of Jean Souchay and,
last but not least, Chopo Ma was elected the new chairman of the DB at
the end of 2004. My own position on the DB as the IAU representative is
now taken over by Nicole Capitaine.

The IERS DB also suffered an unexpected and serious loss - the sudden
death of Peter Schwintzer left us without a representative, though not a
formal DB member, of the International Gravity Field Service (IGFS). We
all shall miss him.

I wish the new chairman, Chopo Ma, all the best in his new position and
all of you a very happy and prosperous New Year 2005. I am sure that the
IERS will evolve, under his leadership, into a more efficient service
serving the astronomical, geodetical and geophysical community.

Jan Vondrak
(Chairman of the IERS Directing Board 2001-2004)


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