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NEWS & EDITORIAL FROM THE CHAIR OF COUNCIL Over the last two years the Institute has seen many important changes, and while it has maintained its membership and continued to provide a suite of highly regarded professional examinations, it has become a much slimmer organisation. This follows the divestiture of the National Register of Public Service Interpreters (NRPSI), the absorption of Language Services Limited (LSL), the outsourcing of our finance and IT functions, and the streamlining of premises management that has come from the move to our new premises at Dunstan House in September. As I wrote here some months ago, Council last year established a working group to look at our senior Director at the head of each part of the organisation, and involves the creation of the post of Executive Director CIOL, which I am delighted to say Alan Peacock has been appointed to. The Executive Director CIOL will assume various tasks previously undertaken by the CEO, and will include responsibility for the strategic aspects of the membership activities of the CIOL, as the post of Director of Membership will no longer exist. At the same time, our Director of Examinations, Ann Carlisle, has become Executive Director IoLET, and will share with the Executive Director CIOL responsibility for outward-facing activities, and for maintaining and raising the profile of the Institute as a whole. I am pleased that these new senior management arrangements have been put in place in time to coincide with our move to Dunstan House, and I would like to I am pleased that these new senior management arrangements have been put in place in time to coincide with our move to Dunstan House management arrangements, given that we increasingly believed that in the light of these changes we no longer needed nor could justify a senior management structure involving a Chief Executive Officer, a Director of Membership and a Director of Examinations. We have during this period of change and reflection been grateful to Alan Peacock and Hilary MaxwellHyslop for their year as our Joint Acting Chief Executives, and we were pleased when Alan agreed to take on the role of Acting Chief Executive for a six-month period after Hilary's departure. The senior management arrangements working group that I chaired explored a number of possibilities and finally recommended a new structure, which Council agreed. The new structure places an Executive wish Alan and Ann every success in their new roles. I would also like to thank all our staff for their continuing hard work during what I know has been a period of uncertainty both with changes 'at the top' and the move to new premises. Although these important changes in our organisation and accommodation have been time-consuming, I have been anxious to maintain our external profile, and I report on Critical Link 7, which I attended in June, on page 28. A much-discussed topic at this interpreting conference was the continuing problems with the Ministry of Justice interpreting contract and the work of Professional Interpreters for Justice (PI4J), which has been a key part of my work since I became Chair of Council in February 2012. Keith Moffitt 4 The Linguist OCTOBER/NOVEMBER www.iol.org.uk