It is with much pleasure that I now have the opportunity to give the President's Report to the AGM 2004. First, I will briefly review the activities that have been held over the last 12 months, secondly I want to summarise some of the Business related matters that have been considered and to finish with some observations concerning the future.

At the AGM 12 months go we had a presentation from Dr. Geoff Ambler, Endocrinologist from Westmead Children's Hospital. Geoff provided and overview of GH, its application to children with PWS and the current scene in Australia in relation to trials and availability. The potential of GH to significantly impact on the development of children with PWS well into their teenage years is now well established and hopefully with continued lobbying from our National association access to the treatment will be for everyone.

The meeting in October was an opportunity for us to do some "navel gazing" as we took stock of what the Association was and has been doing, how it was doing it and what we would like it to be doing in the future. This was in part driven be the steady decline in numbers attending meetings and was the start of a strategy to increase the "value" to our members of belonging to the Association. An outcome from this meeting was a strong desire to maintain the Association It was recognised that the core tenant of being a forum for information exchange was key to its existence. What is needed however is to look for new ways, in particular as we now live in the so called information age, to communicate and keep connecting.

Coming out the focus night was a plan to conduct 4 network meetings in 2004 at which an opportunity would be provided for our members to meet around a particular theme without any Association business being conducted. This was to be handled on ad hoc meetings called during the year. At our December meeting, which was a casual affair including a Christmas supper, the plan for the network meetings was discussed.

February of this year saw the first of our Network meetings centred on the theme of "Therapies". Guest speakers, Kim Bulkley and Georgina Loughnan provided an overview of the types of therapies suitable and available to our people with PWS of all ages and instigated a great time of dicussion.

In April a large contingent of our members travelled to Christchurch, NZ, to attend the XXX international Conference and 9^th Australasian PWS Conference. This was a great opportunity to meet and hear from many of the world leaders in PWS science, medicine and management. It was also an opportunity to interact with the real experts in PWS - the parents and carers!

Early May was the time for our annual PWS picnic, an opportunity for our young people with PWS and their families to meet. The venue again was beautiful Bobbin Head on a lovely Autumn day. The families were kept active on the play equipment, fishing and a nature walk. It was encouraging to see 10 families attending and thanks to Katie McKay for co-ordinating the event.
Our meeting in June was the 2^nd Networking meeting this time with the intention of providing a forum for feedback on the International conference. A small but dedicated group attended on a dark, chilly night to hear from Dr. Ellie Smith and Leslie Robertson provided overviews of the Scientific and the carers workshop respectively.

In terms of our activities programme, that brings us tonight's meeting and I am looking forward to hearing from David Woolley on the work of D Sport and the opportunities that might be available for our members.

I would like to now move onto some aspects of Association business that were conducted during the year.

For many years now our new members first contact with the Association was the cheery voice of our Secretary, Louise Soames. Louise needs a rest from that position after 9 years of handling our correspondence and answering the telephone. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Louise for her outstanding service and look forward to seeing Louise, Matt and the family at some of our activities in the future.

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