DIRECTOR ASPLEN: Thank you, Chief.

First of all, I, too, want to thank you for being here today. I'm going to talk a little bit about some of the travels that I've gone on recently to kind of talk about the Commission's work. And inevitably, when I go somewhere, I see one of you folks also or I see one of the working group members and other folks who participate. So we recognized the extent to which your presence here and your participation in the Commission is only one of myriad of things that you do. So we appreciate your time being here.

Quite frankly, I couldn't have planned it any better in terms of the fact that here in Chicago they just lit up Michigan Avenue last evening. It's not snowing. While it is windy, it's actually pretty fair weather here for Chicago. So welcome to Chicago, and we hope that you enjoy the evening here.

In terms of Commission business, and particularly staff business, I just want to give you a picture of some of the ways that we've been trying to communicate the Commission's work to other people at different meetings and other organizations.

Recently at the Promega conference in Orlando, Florida, myself and Dr. Forman and Robin Wilson, along with members of the Commission were present to present at the Commission in a panel forum the work that we are doing here.

And even though we were slated as the last session in a four to five day conference and it was a Saturday and it was the afternoon and it was Orlando Florida, we still kept about 200 people there. Because that was the level of interest among that particular group, and it was substantial. And we got some really excellent, insightful questions and comments and it was a very beneficial meeting for us.

Some other meetings that I've gone to and spoken at, the National Criminal Justice Association meeting in Las Vegas over the summer again to talk about the Commission's work. I've spoken about the Commission's work to the National District Attorneys' Association, DNA training two times in South Carolina.

I've spoken to an organization that advises the National Institute of Justice Office of Science and Technology called the Burkhalter (phonetic) panel and explained to them the work that we are doing. I just spoke on Friday to the Fourth Annual CODIS Users Group meeting in Arlington, Virginia, and talked to them about the work we are doing. And there also got some excellent comments and questions about some of the recommendations that we're considering.

As we go along, when the opportunity arises, I will certainly communicate to you the comments that I've heard, the questions that have been raised.

We actually had one individual who was at the conference on Friday fax me a letter here at the hotel voicing some issues and support for some of the things that we are doing. So again, as we get the opportunity I'll continue to do that.

If there are other opportunities that any of the Commissioners see to get the word out there, I would appreciate hearing about that.

But the important reason that we need to get the word out is not so much our communication of the information, but really what it's about is bringing those other individuals into the Commission process.

That by nature of the fact that I am there talking about the issues and more importantly soliciting their information, their input, it does become part of the Commission process, and from the beginning we have tried to solicit as much information as possible.

The other thing I'd like to do at this time is introduce to you Robin Wilson, who is the most recent addition to the staff who was not here for the last Commission meeting.

Robin, if you could just stand for a minute.

You've probably all heard Robin on the telephone getting you whatever it is that you would need to do your work here with the Commission. But now you will get the opportunity to meet her and she is a wonderful addition to the team. She is a great asset and has already, in a relatively short amount of time, made my life and Dr. Forman's life a lot easier and I hope has really made things easier for you folks also.

I wanted to talk about the structure of the meeting for just a moment. What we did very intentionally was structure today and tomorrow's meeting in an effort to address the concerns that came up at the last meeting. We have invited Dr. Carl Selavka to come and speak to us regarding some prioritization issues. We have also invited Dr. Amanda Sozer to come to speak to us about database collection sample issues.

Those are a direct result of the issues that were raised at the last meeting. You may remember in the context of the CODIS database backlog discussions we began to address those concerns and decided we really needed some more information in order for us to competently and thoroughly address the backlogs.

So we brought these folks in in an effort to do that, to provide the information so we can make some decisions.

Also, the other issue that came up at the last Commission meeting was the issue of privacy in the context of the database backlog. So we addressed that issue specifically in the last legal issues working group meeting, came up with a recommendation in that, and as such we will discuss that at the Commission also.

So again, what we have tried to do is address the issues that were of concern and interest at the last Commission meeting in an attempt to get to some resolution on some of these issues that we're dealing with.

Finally, two things, logistical matters. Number one, I've been asked by the AV people to ask you to try to remember to speak into your microphone when you speak so we have a good tape of the meeting.

But also, if you can think about if you'd like to join us for dinner this evening someplace, we will try to get a head count and make some arrangements at a local restaurant here and perhaps get together as many folks that are interested for dinner this evening. So before we finish here we will talk about that a little bit more. Thank you.

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