Of course the biggest change for the Board in 2004 was that we had a new mix of people. The new CODI Board was made up of newly elected board members from CODI and HUG as well as former CODI and HUG board members. At first I wasn't sure what would happen when Horizon customers had to work so closely with Dynix ILS customers, but it really hasn't been a problem at all. The Joint CODI/HUG Conferences the last two years helped build a solid foundation between the two groups. In short, this new Board has been a pleasure to work with and a model of cooperation.

One of those changes has been the appointment of a new President and CEO for epixtech. Jack Blount has hit the ground running. And he’s made some changes of his own. He’s brought some new staff into the company, and moved some existing staff into new positions. He’s also brought a new focus of making sure the product really works. Something we can all agree with.

In addition, there have been two changes among the Board members. First Mark Calkins was reassigned to other duties at Dynix, and Dynix assigned Jim Wilson to be the Dynix liaison to the CODI Board. Many of you already know that Jim Wilson has a long history with both Dynix and CODI. Please see his article in this newsletter. Second, Rod Miller resigned from the Board because his library has elected to migrate to a different software vendor. We appreciate Rod's work and contributions to CODI, particularly with the Enhancements/JAD process. We are working on finding a replacement for Rod.

 Despite so many changes, there has been some continuity from the old HUG/CODI to the new CODI. Eileen Kontrovitz has agreed to continue as chair of the Dynix to Horizon Migration Committee. Similarly, we asked Sue Holbrook to be on the Regional User's Group Committee. Please see their articles in this newsletter explaining what their respective committees do for CODI and Dynix customers in general.

Some of the tasks that we have completed so far this year are: signed the Articles of Amendment for the new CODI, changed the Horizon escrow contact to be the current CODI, hosted a Federated Chat in May, closed horizon-l, procured liability insurance for CODI Board members, developed a process for accepting credit card payments for CODI membership (Treasurer), and began a review of the new CODI bylaws (Bylaws Committee).

Another major change is that we decided that we need a new logo for the new CODI Board. We enlisted Gretchen Freeman (former Dynix liaison to CODI) and Joan Gregory (past HUG president) to work with a designer to develop the new logo. See Gretchen's description of the process that went behind designing the new logo. You can see the new logo on the header of this newsletter. Also in the works is a redesign and merging of the HUG and CODI web sites.

Also included in this newsletter is a summary of my trip to ALA, Orlando. In terms of CODI business, this was a very productive trip.

You might be wondering why you are seeing a newsletter now. CODI has decided to reinstate the newsletter. We think that it is a good way to report on all of the many activities of the CODI Board and its helpers. We hope to produce the newsletter on a quarterly basis. I hope you enjoy this first attempt to bring you CODI news.

Vicki Teal Lovely, CODI President