It has been a very busy summer at FTIA. We are very excited about our new software, AdopTrak®, that we believe will allow us to provide you better and better service. We are still in the process of working out the bugs with our new custom software, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. As soon as we complete the current phase of our conversion, the next step will be to create an area on our website where adopting parents can track each step of their adoption in real-time. We will also be putting all of our guides and materials that we currently send families on our website in a restricted access area. This second step we expect to be complete by the end of the year. Written words cannot adequately express how significant these advances will be and how excited we are to be able to empower families with more and easier access to information.

FTIA also received our re-accreditation from the Council on Accreditation for Children and Family Services (COA) this summer. COA was created more than 25 years ago as an independent not-for-profit organization to accredit social service organizations across the country. We received our first accreditation in 2000 when only a very small handful of international adoption agencies were accredited. The number is growing, but still it is a small minority of international adoption agencies that have earned this accreditation. It is our belief that the COA accreditation raises the requirements for operation far above any state-licensing requirement. For example, agencies with COA accreditation are required to have independent financial audits, written conflict of interest policies and procedures, an active Board of Directors, the COA comes on-site to the agency and interviews most everyone in the agency as well as the Board of Directors and many adoptive parents, and they crawl through our files to see that all documentation is proper. Most state licensing authorities have a piece or pieces of the COA standards, but not all the pieces required by the COA accreditation. I believe it is a true accomplishment by our staff to reach and maintain this level of achievement.

FTIA is currently licensed in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kentucky, and we are soon expecting our license from New York. Evansville, Indiana will remain our international headquarters, and all actual processing of adoptions will continue to come through Evansville. But, our satellite offices when fully staffed will be active in providing support of our adopting and adoptive families in these states and providing education and other resources to our adoptive families. We are currently staffed in Ohio and Kentucky, and will be staffing Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York in the near future.

I was elected this year to the Board of Directors of the Joint Council on International Children's Services (JCICS). Most of you know that JCICS is the largest association of not-for-profit international agencies in the country. While JCICS has accomplished much over the years, there are several urgent matters. Some of these issues include current legislation issues, like the Hague Convention and the ICARE Bill currently before the Senate. Internationally, Romania has passed a law essentially prohibiting international adoptions and there are other individuals around the world trying to persuade additional countries to prohibit international adoption. There are issues with U.S. regulatory agencies like the CIS, Social Security Administration, and U.S. Department of State. There is much to do and I am honored to be a part of the Board to serve adopting parents.