Martin Knights - First 100 days as ITA PresidentJust three months since the ITA Congress in Prague, and Martin Knight's election to the presidency, and already two ad-hoc meetings with the ITA Executive Committee have been held in Toronto and Lisbon, with the next full Excom meeting scheduled for Madrid in November. The joint International Congress "Tunnels: drivers for change" arranged by the Spanish Tunnelling Association (AETOS) together with the Swiss, French and Italian national tunnelling organizations takes place at the same venue.At Lisbon, ITA signed an agreement for closer cooperation with the International Society of Rock Mechanics to facilitate more integration and participation at appropriate ITA functions and events. Professor John Hudson, the new president of ISRM, is based at Imperial College in London, not very far from Martin Knight's office, making personal communications much easier. Martin is due to participate in the forthcoming PIARC Congress in Paris in September. He will also attend the inauguration of the new Tunnelling Master Courses at Lausanne in September, and at Turin in December.ITA has been invited by the Chinese Government to organize a rolling programme of Technical and Management tutorials and lectures to be held in China this November, and thereafter at regular intervals. These will be similar to the successful seminars that ITA organizes each year ahead of the annual World Tunnelling Congress. This is an exciting opportunity to enhance ITA influence in China, and bring together the best experts. It will also be a model for imparting knowledge and good practise in other countries that wish to promote the Art of Tunnelling for transport, water and other construction needs. For instance, Thailand is holding an ITA-sponsored conference in December to promote its government's wish for more tunnelling.Plans are in place for the ITA president to attend congresses on tunnelling in various parts of the world, and these visits will afford opportunities for meetings of the ITA Excom and talks with the host tunnelling organization. Contemporary issues, such as infrastructure security and climate change, have direct consequences for the tunnelling industry, as underlined in a recent London conference on safeguarding the operation of sub-aqueous tunnels. Droughts, rains and floods in Western Europe are causing water utilities to consider the adequacy of existing underground infrastructure to cope with meteorological predictions. Plans to develop the newly-agreed strategy for ITA over the next three years are beginning in earnest. These include: a new appointment to replace current Secretary General Claude Berenguier in the next 12-16 months; reorganization of resources at the ITA headquarters in Lausanne to ensure they are appropriate and sufficient to deliver the agreed strategy; attracting new sponsors and members to ensure that ITA is actively supported in its aim to be the International Voice of tunnelling; and upgrading the association's website with a template that fulfils the requirements of members and is attractive and useful for visitors.The first full ITA Excom meeting in Madrid next month will see a number of decisions made regarding progress towards achieving ITA strategy aims. Contact secretariat@ita-aites.org for more. 34/07.