Twice a year the Committee organises two-day information sessions for all new staff recruited during the preceding period. The President kicks off the sessions and I end them. I enjoy these pep talks. It’s good to be able to put a face and a voice to the Secretary General. What exercises me, though, is how I (or the administration more generally) can transform this first contact into a sustained dialogue. We are, I believe, a sufficiently small institution to be able to do this, but how? Answers on a postcard, please….