and that was when we are were doing the search for john buchannon as well. so finally in january, the selection committee voted to appoint collin bailey. however, we had to be in sync with his board and he was not able to inform his board until yesterday. that was the time lapse and that is why we canceled the march 14th board meeting because there was no point to have it. we had to vote to appoint him because by our charter we appoint, not elect. the selection committee votes on it and it goes to the board and our board today voted to appoint him, both in the section of our board meeting. it was to afford him the courtesy to talk to his own board and the people he needed to talk to before we could inform our board. and that was unfortunately a time lag of about 6 weeks. and he of course wanted to give proper notice and that's why he will not be officially joining us until june 1st. >> any other questions? okay. well thank you all very much.

it has been quite a long procedure, although it was no longer than the search for john buchannon. both searchers took about 13 months. my selection committee which was 13 people and i would like to thank them for their participation and in particular the search committee voted to appoint this particular individual in january and they have been able to keep the secret of this person until today. and i really commend them because it's a very hard secret to keep and i know that there have been many rumors of names of people, 6 that i know of in particular including my dog twin kel but i started that myself. they have been able to keep the secrets of the board and this particular individual. so i want to thank all of them for their loyalty and support to the museum and which i very much appreciate. we have an outstanding group of trustees and their love for this institution is as astounding but rightfully deserved. thanks to all the trustees i see in this room today and i want to say how much i appreciate the staff. we have an outstanding staff at this museum. they are a happy lot and

looking at what direction to pursue looking for a great director, we spent months before we found john buchannon, and i think that john did that for us admirably and we did in fact become the great exhibition museum. our next step is we believe to focus on our own collections and elevate ourselves intellectually and to have a leader who was a scholar and known internationally as a scholar and someone who would elevate this new museum in our direction and art in this museum now exhibition based on the collections we have and further the name of the fine arts museum in this area, i think there is no one better than that collin berry, he's knowledgeable in every area of art, not just european art which is his specialty. he's a very delightful person and i know our staff will love working with him. i think he's watching this somewhere in the world. collin, whenever you are, i can't wait to have you here. he is a lot of fun and i did tell all of the staff that we would look for somebody who is a great leader for this institution but also somebody who is fun because john was really fun and i feel we h