For the second time the Sharpening Your Teeth Training for staff members of ombudsman institutions was hosted by the Vienna-based General Secretariat. The I.O.I. financed nine scholarships for participants from Lesotho, Tanzania, Uganda, Mauritius, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia, Sint Maarten and Romania.

Hans Gammeltoft-Hansen has written to inform the Danish Parliament that he wishes to retire as ombudsman at the end of January 2012. 

According to his annual report, Alex Brenninkmeijer, the National Ombudsman of the Netherlands, received almost 14,000 complaints and 31,000 telephone calls last year.

The Bylaws and Governance sub-committee of the Board met in Vienna in late May. Building on the work begun at the Board meeting in Bermuda, Mats Melin produced a refined draft of possible changes to strengthen and clarify the role of the I.O.I. in a changing world.

This morning, Secretary General Peter Kostelka officially opened this year's SYT-Training in Vienna with a short introductory speech about the IOI and the role of Ombudsmen in general. 37 Participants from all over the world then engaged in the first session.

The Bylaws, Membership & Governance Committee, appointed during the Vienna meeting of the I.O.I. Board of Directors in 2009, held a meeting at the I.O.I. General Secretariat in Vienna on 27 May 2011. I.O.I. President Beverley A. Wakem chaired the Committee session.

Iowa's Ombuds Office received over 4700 contacts for assistance in 2010, according to a report released 1 June 2011. Over 80 percent were complaints or information requests about state and local government agencies.

Today, Newfoundland and Labrador's Citizens' Representative, Barry Fleming QC, released OCR Insights. This is a quarterly newsletter containing news, updates, case summaries and other short bursts of information, distributed to the public, the Newfoundland and Labrador public service, legislators, community-based groups and friends in the Ombuds community.