PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE By I. Chi Su President, Bonsai Clubs International Time flies and my two year assignment as BCI President will soon expire, quick as a wink. BCI has accumulated 45 years’ of resources and associations. Through annual exhibitions in different countries each year, BCI has driven the Bonsai and Viewing Stone arts into every corner of the world, thus pulling people closer and accomplishing the sublime dream of arts without borders.The BCI Board of Directors continues to bring its decision-making function into full play. All committees devote time to various tasks resulting in BCI’s becoming even more representative of Bonsai and Viewing Stones internationally. This year we established an online forum for all BCI Board members, allowing discussions and consultations regarding BCI projects via the internet and improving communications so that the Board can more quickly find resolutions and devise strategies for our work on behalf of Bonsai and Viewing Stones. We have actively strived for improvements in global communication through BCI’s magazine, and our painstaking efforts have paid off -- starting this October the Chinese version of Bonsai & Stone \ Appreciation Magazine will be published, providing to all Chinese societies, bonsai growers and stone collectors, access to the same global information. BCI strives to be ahead of the times as a forerunner through such mechanisms, providing the best services to our members and fans of Bonsai and Viewing Stones around the world. Our endeavors this year also included a project which was recommended by members and BCI’s Club Ambassadors: a compilation of information relative to teaching,creating, lecturing and judging in which nearly one hundred BCI bonsai masters worldwide are featured. We concentrated all or our efforts towards this one ultimate goal of “advancing international exchange through the promotion of bonsai and viewing stone arts”. I was invited to the annual bonsai and viewing stone exhibition of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, (ASEAN) to represent the arts of Bonsai and Viewing Stones and I gave a speech at the opening ceremony on July 10. The major participating countries at this event were Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and China and it was held in the capital Kunming of Yunnan Province, China. Following my presentation Liao Xiaoshan, the vice mayor of Kunming City, mentioned to me her desire to host the BCI annual exhibition in Kunming. Subsequently, I had a discussion with the CEO of the Kunming International Convention & Exhibition Center Mr. Zhao Yunzhong, the President of the Yunnan Viewing Stone Association Mr. Ge Baorong and Chair of the Yunnan Penjing Association Mr. Shang Kaiwei, regarding BCI’s annual Bonsai and Viewing Stone exhibition. They all showed great interest and were confident that Kunming is capable of hosting such a mega international exhibition. The flowers, Bonsai and Viewing Stones of Yunnan surpass the international class. I gave them my word that I would submit such a proposal at the BCI-IBS 2008 Congress in Italy, and that they should personally attend the 2009 convention in New Orleans, USA to address a formal application. Kunming City has spread its name globally because of its successful China Flower Exposition in 1998, and received high praise as the host of the National Viewing Stone Grand Exhibition of China in 2006. As for the infrastructure, Kunming has four modern exhibition centers with abundant experience and manpower to handle large exhibitions. I have participated in the exhibition of Bonsai and Viewing Stones in Kunming three times and they get better each time. Such large events in China are supported by both private and governmental organizations assuring that the international exhibition is perfectly presented. On August 29, 2005, hurricane Katrina slammed the state of Louisiana in the United States, crushing the levees along Lake Ponchartrain and the city of New Orleans. Eighty percent of the entire city was under water, hundreds of people lost their lives, thousands of people had to be rescued and properties were seriously lost or damaged. The horrible pictures from this disaster are implanted in every BCI member’s heart. The current managing editor of BCI’s magazine, Donna Banting, lives in New Orleans and witnessed first hand the disasters brought on by Katrina. Therefore she appealed to BCI to help support the recovery of her beautiful city and local Bonsai and Stone Appreciation arts by holding the annual exhibition in New Orleans in 2009. Through the concerted efforts of the BCI Board and the Greater New Orleans Bonsai Society, it was decided to hold BCI 2009 at the New Orleans Botanical Garden, June 19 to June 21. The theme for this event is to encourage stronger faith despite adversity.” BCI has always kept the spirit of “Wherever someone needs us, there we will be.” The reality of holding any exhibition is the funds required, especially in an area where both the organization and the venue have suffered so much. Therefore I made the first contribution towards funding the 2009 exhibition in New Orleans in the hopes that others will be inspired to do the same. It doesn’t matter how much you donate, but the devotion in your heart matters. Please do what you can. I eagerly hope to see you all in the newborn New Orleans on June 19, 2009. Please keep this in mind because it is through your support and mine that we can enrich New Orleans with a growing atmosphere in the arts. I. Chi Su, BCI President BCI is recognized as a 501.c.3 non-profit organization by the IRS. This means that donations above membership dues are likely to be deductible for USA taxpayer donors. This President's Message appears in the 4th Quarterly 2008 issue of BONSAI MAGAZINE & STONE APPRECIATION, the official publication of Bonsai Clubs International.  Email to: BCI Web Master  Email to: BCI Business Office