Following a resolution taken at the Board of Directors held in Colonia del Sacramento (Uruguay) last January, an Advisory Committee was created.

The committee is formed by three members of the Board of Directors – Julie Lemieux (Quebec, Canada), Bruno Delas (Lyon, France) and Geoffroy Coomans de Brachène and Michaël Goetynck (Brussels, Belgium); the members of the staff of the OWCH General Secretariat based in Quebec (Canada) – the Secretary General Denis Ricard, the Deputy Secretary General Lee Minaidis, the Office Manager Rachel Larouche and the Programs Administrators Manon Auffray de l’Étang and Andréanne Charest; and three Regional Coordinators – Paulina Kaplan Depolo (Regional Secretariat for South America and the Caribbean), Matthias Ripp (Regional Secretariat for Northwest Europe) and Rafael Perez de la Concha Camacho (Regional Secretariat for South Europe and the Mediterranean). The meeting took place in Sintra (Portugal) on May 26, 2015. It was held in the Sintra City Hall and we wish to thank the Mayor of Sintra, Basílio Horta, and his Deputy, Marta Castelo Branco, for their hospitality and impeccable organization of the meeting.

The goal of this committee is to reflect on the future of the OWHC, and the members looked into the situation of, among other things, the coordination of the Regional Secretariats, and they broached the subject of an improvement plan of the communication system between all the active members of the OWHC.

We are pleased to announce to you that during the meeting of the Board in Angra do Heroismo (May 28 and 29, 2015), it was decided that the mandate of the Committee would be renewed. The next meeting will be held in Brussels, Belgium, in September.