Le Mot du Délégué général
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Dear Friends,
As you learned in the last issue of L’AF en Bref, I have had the honor of being chosen to replace Pierre Hudelot as Délégué général of the Alliance Française de Paris in the United States.
This exciting new mission will be an opportunity to strengthen ties with numerous actors within this network, whether they are the heads of the Alliances Françaises with whom I have had the pleasure of working throughout the past two years, or the Presidents and board members with whom I am delighted to be in contact.
I am looking forward to further sharing my attachment to the values and missions of the Alliance Française - which I have had the opportunity to serve (on four continents, no less!) since 1983 - with our friends from each of the 132 chapters.
The work accomplished by this Délégation générale under the impetus of Pierre Hudelot has allowed or organization to deepen its missions of providing cultural activities and further developing the American network:
- Pedagogical and resource-providing efforts, led by three projects concerning professionalization (AF Frames), activities for children (Alliance Enfance), and documentary resources (Projet MERLIN in partnership with the FIAF resource center) have been realized in 31 local and national training missions, a series of grants to Alliances, as well as productions financed by the allocation of subsidies from France totaling 73,000 euros, or 95,000 dollars over the past two years.
- Artistic and cultural activities within the network have doubled in volume during the past two seasons. In 2006-2007 alone there were 15 lecturer series and 8 artist series, attracting the involvement of 43 separate Alliances.
- Our method of communication has been entirely rethought and placed on the website. The site has been attracting a steadily increasing number of hits, attesting to the interest being garnered by our offerings. Our periodical informational letter, l’AF en Bref, has become the sole voice of the Alliance Française in the United States.
In 2008, the Délégation générale will pursue the following projects:
- The professionalization of the network with the extension of the AF FRAMES project
- The search for new client groups with the introduction of AllianceEnfance 2008-2009 and cultural and artistic offerings extended to new domains.
- The development of partnerships with the goal of receiving private funds to help lower the costs of implementing activities
In order to maintain a high level of efficiency, the hierarchy of the Délégation générale has only slightly changed.
As of September 1, Pascal Saura will become Délégué général adjoint in charge of all things relating to Pedagogy. The position that I formerly occupied, Délégué général adjoint in charge of cultural programming will be taken over by Isabelle Gruet, whom we will have the pleasure of welcoming to our team in a few short weeks.
We hope that by working closely with the Cultural Services of the Embassy, and the Cultural Services of the Consulates, just as with the Fédération, that we will be able to better assist the Alliances Françaises of the United States with their double mission:
- promoting the French language and Francophone cultures
- encouraging cultural, intellectual, and artistic exchanges between the United States and the Francophone world
Finally, I would like to give a warm welcome to the new director of the Alliance Française of New Orleans, Michel Déprez, who began his duties on September 1st. Michel comes to us from Canada, where he has successfully led the Alliance Française of Winnipeg for the past three years.
At the dawn of this two year term, surrounded by Pascal Saura and Isabelle Gruet, and with the encouraging results of the last two years, I am confident in the future of this network, and I invite you to contact me to discuss any project, problem, or initiative concerning the Alliance Française in the United States.
Very sincerely yours,
Thierry