Dr. Lucia Franchini was appointed as new Regional Ombudswoman of Tuscany.

The I.O.I. Board elected a new Executive Committee in October 2010: New Zealand Chief Ombudsman Beverley WAKEM was elected President. Northern Ireland Ombudsman Tom FRAWLEY will serve as Vice-President and Hong Kong Ombudsman Alan LAI was elected I.O.I. Treasurer.

The I.O.I. Board of Directors meeting is taking place in Bermuda from 16 to 20 October 2010 and is hosted by the Bermuda ombudsman Arlene Brock.

The I.O.I. General Secretariat will be hosting a first training programme in Vienna from 14 to 17 November 2010. So far 40 staff members of ombudsman institutions coming from 17 countries and four I.O.I. world regions have confirmed their participation.

I.O.I. Secretary General and Chair of the Austrian Ombudsman Board Peter Kostelka participated in the 10^th international conference of National Human Rights Institutions that took place in Edinburgh from 7 to 10 October 2010.

The Norwegian Ombudsman Arne Fliflet recently became member of the European Board by a vote in the General Assembly of the European region of the I.O.I. Arne Fliflet replaces the Greek Ombudsman Yorgos Kaminis in this function. Fliflet was elected Norwegian Ombudsman for the first time in 1990. He has subsequently been re-elected five times, the last appointment being in 2009.

The I.O.I. is pleased to announce that Diane Welborn, Ombudsman, Joint Office of Citizen Complaints for Dayton, Ohio has been elected as the new Director for the IOI North American Region. Diane Welborn will replace Bill Angrick after his retirement in June 2010.