Outlining the missionary work and humanitarian assistance his agency provides. This is about 45 minutes. Good morning. I am thehodes moderator of this mornings press conference. At the istanbul ataturk airport was thomas kemper, the ceo of the United Methodist church, was in a lounge when three men arriving from a taxi began firing guns at the terminal entrance as they made their way inside the airport. The terrorists were quickly shot by security and then blew themselves up. This was another in a series of terror attacks in turkey in the past year. According to the new york times, kurdish and Islamic State militants have staged attacks across turkey killing more than 280 people. Thomas kemper, our speaker today, says the events that he witnessed and survived has become transformative for him personally. His moments with other survivors of the attack, people of many nationalities and cultures, has brought renewed determination to connect with people of all faiths and nationalities and examine what it means to be human, to be understanding, and to care about strangers who want to feel safe and want to be able to live their own lives. It is this moment of transformation and a lasting sense of importance of the dedication he brings to life, he will be discussing this morning. Just a few procedural notes as i turn the floor over to mr. Kemper, please remember to turn your cell phone to mute. Once mr. Kemper has completed his remarks, i will open the floor to questions. Priority will go to credentialed media and National Press club members, so when you are called to pose a question, please identify yourself by name and organization. Mr. Kemper . Mr. Kemper good morning and thank you for this opportunity to speak to you. I am grateful for the journalists. The experience in istanbul has changed my view of journalists. It started that night with Anderson Cooper and the way he interviewed, the possibility to not just give some background of what happened and eyewitness reports, but also to be able to express something i felt inwardly and also as a person of religious faith. Thank you for this and it is exciting to be here. Why was i in istanbul . Really, i was there on a layover. There is nothing more dramatic to it. I wasnt even there to visit some of our partners. I was there because i had a layover on the way to japan, and i had chosen to fly a Turkish Airline that had brought me. That was the reason i was there. But i am traveling a lot, you can see on the map, global ministries is the mission and development and Disaster Response arm of United Methodist church. We have projects in 125 countries. We have over 350 missionaries. Traveling and being at airports is part of my daily life. Global ministries understands as humanitarian network, a network of global health, Global Mission connections around the world. To give you some highlights of our work, very briefly so you understand the context of where i come from, here this is a picture from the kurdistan region of iraq. The United Methodist committee on relief, we work to supply food to give to internally displaced people in iraq from iraq war. This work is being done together with the International Blue crescent, the Muslim Partnership of the International Red cross, based in turkey. Another example of our work is in bangladesh. We have just we have just broken ground. Here you see the first result for recovery work after the cyclone there. These children are now able to go back to school on this path which was constructed. Here, our partner is muslimaid. You have partnerships with other faith organizations, especially in countries where it would be or difficult as a Christian Organization to be present and be in solidarity, especially after disasters. One Big Initiative of United Methodist church in the last year was what we called imagine no malaria, a campaign to raise funds. We have raised 69 million for fighting deaths from malaria around the world. What is important for us is that we are not doing this alone. We have partnered with a global fund in geneva to fight aids, tb, and malaria. 28 million of the funds we have raised, we have pledged, and 28 Million Dollars has already and 28 million has already been given to the global fund. We cannot do this alone. If we are not connected, we cannot build partnerships and it is not working. We were blessed to have the u. N. Foundation and the melinda and bill Gates Foundation to give us a start up for this campaign. So far from our side, we have impacted 4. 6 million lives through net distribution, training of midwives, Community Health workers, especially in africa. And we are now moving this campaign into the next step where we hope to reach one million children with lifesaving interventions. As part of a worldwide campaign, the u. N. Calls it every woman, every child, reducing child mortality. This is part of the Sustainable Development goals that the World Community has agreed on. We want to do our part in this effort. We hope to reach one million children with lifesaving interventions, remote breastfeeding, promote cures and prevent childhood diseases. In order to be an organization that helps someone else, we recognize the Health Challenges and issues here, right here in the United States. As part of the campaign, we are challenging our churches that we find 10,000 churches in the next four years that signup and are ready to engage in some healthrelated work and ministry in their community, and their neighborhood where the church is situated. It could be a physical activity, healthy diet and nutrition, tobacco and drugfree living, or issues around Mental Health, education, and Mental Health promotion. If you only look at this one number here about obesity. It has risen two times in children and four times in adolescents in the United States in the last 30 years. So we have Serious Health issues also in this country, especially for children and young people. As part of our work, we have missionaries, and i wanted to be very clear, these missionaries may look very different of what traditional people still think missionaries are. We call them missionaries from everywhere to everywhere. And minorities are from the United States. We have a program in the congo with our United Methodist church where we have an aviation ministry. Several planes, small cessna planes, which could reach any part of the congo and fly medical supplies, they do is location missions. They do in vocational evocation missions, and are an essential part of the ministry of the church. They are maintained by the missionaries of global ministries. Back to this fateful day in june in istanbul. As i said, i was on a layover. I was just there to rest at this airport, and here you see the lounge. This is a picture i took when everyone had left already come after the attack in that part. The lounge is a place of safety. You go there and you feel much calmer. I was stretched out. I had taken off my shoes. And i was sleeping, waiting for my next flight. While i was sleeping, suddenly i heard this blast, very loud, and then shooting. You dont think it is happening. At this moment, i really thought it is a film, it is a dream, nightmare. But then people started running by the bench where i was lying on, like in real panic. I did not think much, i just grabbed my shoes, i didnt put them on, i grabbed my bag, and started running as well. But then people came towards us from the other direction and we almost stumbled over each other and crashed into each other. And you can see this here, what really happened that we did not know at the moment, only later be found out, is that there were three bombs almost at the same time. It was not surprising in the lounge where the red arrow is pointing, there was a bomb very close to us. When we started running away from it, we ran into the other direction with the other bomb had gone off. It created an incredible panic for all of us. And i was really scared. I think, in the minds of everybody, ok the bomb has gone off, the panic is there, but now they come for you. It is this image since orlando, since paris, which was in the mind of the people. Where are these terrorists now . We have no information. We did not know these were suicide bombers. We thought now, they come for us. This was a room where i was hiding. It was behind the kitchen in the lounge. I found a little room. There was an asian man. We could not communicate, but we saw the fear in our eyes. We were hiding in this room here and others there was a young man from france and he was there with his girlfriend. He grabbed a chair and banged it against the glass windows trying to get out because we were kind of trapped in that corner of the airport. Everybody trying to hide. Everybody trying to find a place to survive. I posted from there shortly after and that really started this whole media interest and conversations and the many opportunities to speak. What i said here was, very scary, i am safe now, but terror coming so close. Let me give thanks for my life, to fight hate and terror everywhere. And it leads us into deeper solidarity with all who experience terror and violence. Not just once but every day and every night. That was really very deep inside me that i felt, for me, at this moment, i was terribly scared, i panicked, i was doing things just out of instinct. I was terrified. But i thought, there are people who experience this every day and every night. I dont know if you had a chance to listen to the audio on the new york times, if you days ago from aleppo. Just two or three minutes. If you hear this every day and every night, how can we be more solidarity with people who experience this every day, and not just once like in my case . And also as we were hiding and then being guided out of the airport, into even more chaos outside, i met people who opened my eyes, how especially muslims are mostly victimized by this terrorist violence. I set i sat next to a young woman who had a head scarf on. I would not have spoken to her, but she cried so much. She spoke some english and she told me, you know, i am from istanbul. I was here only to see off a friend at the airport, but then the bomb went off and i started running in now running, and now im at the wrong side because they would not let people out without showing a passport. So it took hours and hours to leave the airport. So she was there on the wrong side because she started running and now she had no passport. She did not know what was going to happen in the midst of this chaos. I was with a young man who was sitting next to me and we started talking and i met his whole family and he was from egypt. He had just his family had visited him and he had finished his tourism studies in italy. A muslim family from egypt, scared, and all of us wanted to see our families again. All of us wanted to live in wanted to survive. I felt an incredible connectedness with all of these people. As we moved out, we had to go through baggage claim, and really through the area where the area where the bombing had happened. We moved out and we passed the conveyor belts where people had left their luggage. They were not able to claim it. It is probably difficult to see it, but this is a flight from brussels. I could not believe it, there was these nonclaimed suitcases and baggage from brussels, where the last attack happened. We had two of our directors from the board of global ministries from africa. They had made the connection that day in brussels and were stuck for a week. There was this connection to people who had gone through an experience like this. Right there when i saw the flight from brussels in the unclaimed baggage. Outside, we were all put onto buses. It was extremely wellorganized. That was extremely chaotic, but if you think what had just happened, with so many people injured, so many deaths, the chaos in the airport, the turkish authorities worked really hard to allow us to get to hotels. This was the bus i was traveling with, and the two ladies in front of me, which you can see there, we were together with their family and we started talking together about our shared experience. And you wont believe it, they were from holland and live as refugees in holland, were on their way to mogadishu in somalia. And the son was sitting next to me, who spoke good english, saying, what the heck . He could not believe it how this could happen to a somali in istanbul. That is what they were used to in mogadishu. He said, these terrorists are attacking us everywhere. It came from a somali sitting there with me on the bus and we were traveling together to the hotel. And then, as i had said, this post led to a first interview on that night with Anderson Cooper on his 360 show on cnn. It was so interesting that i tried to say that we needed to come together as people of faith and nonfaith, if we really want to make a difference and overcome violence and terror and hate in this world. I got so many invitations to speak and to share this experience. And they opened up to share this from a perspective of faith and from a call to share responsibility as leaders of faith. That night, and the next 24 hours, there were interviews with cnn, al jazeera, bbc. For me, it was an opportunity to cope with the situation because i can talk about it, i could digest it. It opened a window to say, for me, to say, we as people of faith have to stand together. We really have to share in our humanity and our shared humanity to work for difference. I got back to the lounge two days later, and when we look into what i have learned and what we want to do is an organization in the future, i came back to the lounge two days later because my flight to japan was gone, the meeting had ended, and i was going home. There was still traces of the attack, the shattered glass, they had done an incredible job starting to repair and do everything, but you can still see the traces. I went back to the lounge and what was surprising to me, i did not feel secure. Although everything looked like normal. People were working on their laptops, having breakfast, they were talking to each other, reading the newspaper, but i wanted to cry and say to them, dont you know what happened here two nights ago . I was here for hours, and i feared for my life and that night i connected to so many people who were there. Now, it is like if nothing had happened. I felt more lonely at that moment in the apparent security of that moment, because i was not able to connect at that moment. And that led me to this a lot which i want to share with you. There are really two parts to afety, i feel. One is a path through connection, and the other is a path through separation. And, i lived for many years in brazil. I was myself a missionary there. We have this story out now, did he lie . Everybody could imagine that Something Like this could happen in brazil. Violence is a daily experience for people there. This is a picture from brazil. Gated communities, higher walls. I was there in the 1970s and it already started in the 1980s. Every time i go back to brazil, the walls are higher, the Security Systems are more sophisticated, but it does not stop the violence. The separation is not able to transform the society into a safer place. Brazil is an example of this. During our time of the ebola crisis, there was an incident a few of you have read about. The liberian government in monrovia sealed off a whole slum area. From one second to the other, out of fear of ebola. Then an extremely violent clash broke out which created even more cases because people fought each other. It only changed when the approach of the government changed from separation to, of course separating the ill and the diseased, but in a way to keep them connected to society nd in a way they can treat the complications. So safety through separation in this case can lead to more and not less violence. So, this experience in istanbul. We are walking out of the airport, this was right after the attack as we are waiting for the buses, thousands and thousands of people, this feeling of being connected with so many different cultures and faiths and no faiths at all. It led to this quote which i found by brene brown, where she ays, vulnerability is the birthplace of connection in the path to the feeling of worthiness, if it doesnt feel vulnerable, the sharing is probably not constructed. Vulnerability is the birthplace of connection. Could this be, for us, a path to safety . Could this be a path to overcome hatred and violence if we are ready to share our vulnerability . If we are ready to share a vulnerability in order to connect across different faiths, across different ultures and countries . During the ebola crisis, i already quoted it, one very interesting experience was a joint task force of religious leaders. The chair was the bishop of United Methodist church in sierra leone, who was also Vice President of our board. We were very intensely connected with this whole effort. The religious leaders in sierra leone at that time came together because there was a need for technical responses. You needed a safe suit as a medical professional to be able to treat people. You needed to build hospitals from the ground quickly with military help in order to treat patients, but it was equally important to work for behavioral change, for changing the burial rights. Death and funerals are extremely important, and to touch the dead and to wash them and prepare them for burial was something that was done for generations with the blessing of the imams and the pastors. So to tell them not to do it without the blessing of the religious leaders, without the theological accompaniment of them, would not have been possible. Leaders doing this together, preaching this together, was essential for combating ebola at that time. And, of course, you can see this in the picture. You didnt touch each other when you met in the street, which is a revolution in africa. Any time you meet an african in africa, you touch, you greet, you hug. And you develop the whole culture of bowing and greeting people in a new way. And the religious leader led this movement, and it really reduced the infection rate during these months and time of ebola. Another example i wanted to give is where we really found a good cooperation with a londonbased muslim Disaster Relief and aid organization, muslim aid. We have worked in many parts. I sure do the picture from bangladesh. This is from sri lanka, where i think the example and the model of twofaith organizations from different faiths working together in a country which has one through a long time of civil war between the north and the hindu base, and the south, buddhist, bengalis, is an example which helps people to connect, and create an alignment in safety and reconciliation in a country like this. And lastly, as a german, allow me to mention an example that came to me since istanbul in a very strong way. I would never have imagined in my lifetime that we would have a united germany. That is something until 1989, i would not have believed. It was so clear that these were two systems and there was a wall that separated the systems, and everyone was working on keeping us separate and their never would have been unification. But one cornerstone of unification, our chancellor who also won the nobel prize the east politic, and he had a famous slogan, change through approximation. He make concessions. He made gestures of asking for forgiveness when he kneeled in warsaw. He worked so there would be Family Exchange and travel, and the wall became a little bit more easier to cross. This created an atmosphere which was an important stone of this building of trust that later broke down the wall and the iron curtain. He called it change through approximation. But i felt it really was in this idea that we can create safety through connection, even in the larger political context. The church also struggles. It would be, on the one hand, naave, and also not very honest, if i didnt say that the United Methodist church struggles with the question of separation and connection. The church in general struggles with the question of separation and connection. In many ways, in theological issues, and normally when i get on a plane, i grab some newspapers or magazines i have not had time to read. This is the methodist recorder, the oldest methodist newspaper, and they call themselves the worlds leading methodist newspaper. It is published in london since, i dont know, many many years. They had this title a week ago, the need for vigilance. The need for vigilance. I thought, isnt that interesting coming here to the press club . It is in response to the killing. And the statement here which they quote is from the british methodist church, saying, we are reminding all of our churches of basic security measures, and of the need to be vigilant. However, our churches will continue to seek to offer a warm welcome to all. You feel the tension. And then the British Government had just started two weeks ago a program for eight weeks where places of worship can apply for government grants to make places of worship more secure. You can get an application from the u. K. Guidance places of worship security funding scheme. I thought, isnt this in a way iic as i was talking about this, how we struggle. Security, vigilance, and then also our desire to keep the church open, to build relationships and offer a warm elcome to all. On going for several months now over 500 people have been killed. You know that east congo is one of the most violent region in the world, thousands and thousands of women have been raped really as an instrument of war, thousands of people have been killed and just recently over 500 in this region. And we had given a grant to this very superintendent to rebuild some of the churches and some of the work. Then last week he loses his two sisters in yet another attack from the islamist group. What do i tell him . You connect . So its a challenge to make the connection in a situation where its a matter of death and life, where you have experience and terror attack, and still we believe and i believe strongly that we need to work towards connection. I still believe that if we in the end want to overcome hatred and violence we have to open ourselves up to risk being vigilant, being cautious. But at the same time taking the risk to connect and taking the risk to build bridges and create the shared humanity with people who are different from us. One of the founders of the united of the methodist ovement wrote a lot of hymns for followers and we sing them ll over the world. Many englishspeaking christians sing an advent as well. Come the long expected jesus born to set my people free from our fears and since release us. Let us find our rest in thee. Its an expression and its 300 years old. Its an expression of 300 yeerings that we as methodists and others in this hope that christ release us from our fears so that we are open to take risk, that we are open to build bridges, and that we create this community of people of faith and nonfaith, to create a world where connection is key and not separation. Come our long expected jesus from our fears and since release us. Thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] thank you for your compassioned and interesting interpretation. We are opening up to questions anybody here who would like to ask any questions. Yes, sir. Thank you, thomas. I promise not to break in to hymn singing here. Identify yourself. Yes, im mike, also a member of the press club. Im curious, as you trace through this and think about the difference between separation and connectedness if you could translate that work into what you do as the general secretary of the board of global ministries. Is that causing you to think about Program Activity and where we direct the resources of the church and how we do this work . I mean, youve described mission. Mission alism is now a very different thing than as we think about it in terms of sort of the culturally imperialistic times. But is this giving you a very different sense of what the Mission Global ministries should be for the minister church . Thank you for the question. Its definitely something where we already, and i gave you some examples, where were already trying to be connected and say we cannot go it alone. Imagine the malaria cam pain was an example. We need to partner. We need the global fund to fight, to join in this. So i think this is an attitude. Its an openness which should permeate all our programs and all the work we do. We are also introducing a stronger emphasis on interfaith dialogue in our training of missionaries, in our training of our own staff so that they learn more of other faiths but so lose some of the long perceptions or even prejudice because we have a view of opportunities. So i think what is happening is we are not necessarily creating a new program area but whatever we do, the emif a sizz on partnership, the emphasis on what we call a roundtable approach where people sit around the table and jointly define priorities and ways forth, for the work we are doing, that is something we are emphasizing more. For instance, this work in bangladesh with muslim aid has really grown over the last year. So we are left that since 2007 we have that relationship. But i think we have not appreciated as much as i do it now after the istanbul experience. So there is already something which we are doing but we will intensify and expand this. Anyone else . Ive got the microphone so i will. Ask a followup. Several of us here from the wesley seminary community. But what thoughts do you have for thee logical education generally . We have a whole group of institutions of Higher Learning that are preparing people who are going to go out. What kinds of curriculum or what kinds of Program Activity do we need to have within the ranks of theological education to kind of prepare for the world that youve now experienced and that you would like to change . There has been a Research Done by the World Council of churches which had about 5,000 or 6,000 responses from around the world about what are the needs for theological education for future pastors of the 21st century. And the top result was crosscultural communication and skills. That was first before the testament or what you traditionally think. So that was a key element from all around the world where people said, if we live in this world now we have to have the skills to grow beyond our own conference, beyond our own experience of religion and culture in order to be relevant in this world. So i think that is key for all theological education. So the exchange with other schools, not only christian schools. The opportunity for students to have firsthand real Life Experience of other people and people of no faith. I think that is key in any today. Ical edication i want to pick up on the work you do and what i might say are the two havels of what the board does. One you mentioned the slides the emergency relief arm. But then theres the longer Term Development arm. And i wonder if youd comment on the connection between the two maybe with a specific example. The young boy whose name ive forgotten who is pictured now on the back of an ambulance in al epo. A powerful image. I imagine a whole lot of Immediate Response to that kind of image and that kind of attention. I imagine youre getting a lot of requests for people who want to support that child and that cause. But what do you do the next day and the next year and the next five years . Our principle has been not necessarily to be everywhere on the ground ourselves. That is very, very important for us. There have been situations like in haiti where you have the major specific disaster where we created an office, had a real presence as the United Methodist committee on relief. But for instance in the middle east, its very helpful for us that we have trusted partners. We have worked before the war for many, many years, the middle east council of churches, the orthodox relief and development committee. So these are partners of decades. So they come as trusted partners in these moments where almost nobody has entry any more, and we can work with them because an established relationship. And this will not change. It will rather intensify in moments of crisis. But i think this policy to say it does not need to be us everywhere in person. But we vet our partners, we work with them, we build trust so we can immediately react in a moment of crisis because theyre already on the ground they know the culture they speak the language. I think thats the strength of our work for many, many years. As i said, this is very often a methodist church, a methodistrelated organization but it could also be a Muslim Organization if this is how we best can be in solidarity with the people in that organization. Anyone else . I have a question. What can people who are not necessarily men of god or missionaries do to help promote this mission of understanding and connecting this . I think you dont need to be in the nary to be mission of crossing cultures. Going out to your neighbors. It is probably be on the subway and greet somebody who looks different from you and have a word with that person, and that could make an incredible difference. My experience in the airport, i was a bit shy to talk to that woman who was so much covered and you have all this idea she would never talk to you. But this moment brought us together and we could talk and we could share. And people felt confidence through this connection. So if anybody anywhere could reach out to people who look different, who have a different color, who may use a scarf, and try to create this bond even in small gestures of communication, i think that could be a start of making a difference. All right. Do we have any more questions . Anyone . Ok. Thomas do you have any last words youd like to say . I want to say thank you for the opportunity. I think its just amazing. And as i said, i appreciate those journalists i had the chance to be interviewed who are open to go beyond the sensational, who were open for room for some conversation and some challenge so that we all created the atmosphere which is more an atmosphere of trust building, an atmosphere of bridge building, than an atmosphere of fear. And that was an incredible opportunity. And i want to say thank you to those journalists. They do their job so well. Thank you. Ok. That wraps up this newsmaker. Thank you, thomas, for this presentation. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National able satellite corp. 2016] captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption contents and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org what were trying to do this week is get an assessment of where we are state by state. These groups g to and find out what we need. We are going to start deploying people to the states. Im also happy to announce that were working very closely with the rnc, got a great relationship with the chairman talk to him daily now. And we as a campaign are going to expect the chief strategist to be spending more time with us. Joining your campaign . Spending more time here. One final question. A few weeks ago mr. Trump told me he didnt like the date and he wasnt sure about the moderators. Is he now prepared to accept the moderators and dates chosen by the commission on president ial debates . What were doing is talking about all the particular logistics about the debate but were also doing debate prep. And were doing that in many different ways but hes a natural communicater, a natural communicater with people. And the debates are a fabulous opportunity to force a conversation on substance. Again, what i learned this week, we had a great week thus far. But the other thing i learned is donald trump is back in Hillary Clintons head. If you look at the way they responded. And thats where he needs to be occupying serious real estate. Now are you ready to accept the dates . We are discussing that. You are looking for somebody to find to play donald trump in mock debates for Hillary Clintons debate prep. Somebody who is going to bring up some topics that your candidate probably would rather forget. Have you settled on that person . We havent yet. Its very hard to find someone to mimic the reckless temperament and hateful and devicive instincts with donald trump. Preparing for him is a challenge. You will see a real difference between steady leadership. Is it that or find b somebody who knows Hillary Clinton who is willing to say some tough things to her . Shes been in this game a long time. Shes had had a lot of tough things said to her. The challenge is finding someone who can recreate the kind of reckless temperament, the kind of hateful language, and devicive language thats become trumps hallmark. But well get it done. Were looking forward to the debate. Green Party President jill stine talks about how her campaign is doing nationally. Has only begun to come up on our campaign. Actually with the cnn townhall meeting the other night. Were encouraging other stations to also hold townhalls. The American People deserve to know who they can vote for. Im running 4 to 6, even 7 without any national coverage. Largely from a Millenial Generation that is locked out of the future right now. And im in this running not only as a medical doctor practicing political medicine because weve got to heal our sick political system, but im in this as a mother very concerned about the future that our Younger Generation doesnt have. And thats whos mostly paying attention. But i think there are others here because if we dont have a future they dont have a future. They are locked in debt, dont have jobs, and a climate unraveling on their watch. Unheard of flooding now in louisiana and unprecedented fires in california. Heat waves. This is what the future looks like because i am not captured by the usual suspects i have the liberty to stand up and all for importantly our main platform, which is an Emergency Jobs Program to address the emergency of Climate Change. Were calling for a Green New Deal that will create an emergency transition to 100 lean renewable energy. Book tv live beginning at 7 00 p. M. Eastern. Race in america. A Panel Discussion with authors and educators about Race Relations examining the relationship between police and the African American community. Urban Radio Networks washington bure chief and author of the presidency mod rates the discussion. Msnbc anelists include correspondent, author of fracture, barack obama, the clintons and the racial divide. Prince ton center for African American studies chair, author of democracy in black. And are we better off . Race, obama, and public policy. Stand your ground. University of Baltimore School of law interim dean, author of ghosts of jim crow. Ending racism in post racial america. Watch live tuesday at 7 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan 2. Now a discussion on the 100th anniversary of the migeratri bird treaty, an reement between the u. S. And england. Migeratri Bird Conservation. This is about 90 minutes. We have a very interesting program, an interesting collaboration on many levels. The Wilson Center is a president ial memorial created by congress, and a special memorial in that it is a nod toward wilsons career as a scholar. It was created and continues in efforts to create public policy, to analyze big issues, and to have actionable recommendations on those. It is a preeminent think tank in the world. It has many institutions under is, two of which are most important to us today. One is the canada institute, which is run by lord dawson, and the other is the mexico institute, and he is here. There he is. Two very dynamic institutes and they give the Wilson Center something quite unique for north america studies, because it is the only place where you have two institutes of such that are focusing on the issues of the other countries in north america out of the United States. They are the cohost with the Nature Conservancy for this program today. My name is jim. I am very fortunate to be here. I worked for the state department, but this year working for the Wilson Center where i get to focus on the north america region. I served at the u. S. Embassy in mexico for five years earlier in my career and left last year after three years serving as the consul general in canada. I have been able to experience the opportunity that the three countries working together provide all of us. The three leaders of north america met in ottawa active north american Leaders Summit in june, and they had a long list of actionable items and areas in which they plan to work and have their three bureaucracies, governments work. They recognize this particular initiative of the migratory for treaty as a model and something to work on. At that conference, they also announced that there would be a stakeholders dialogue created to accompany the now north american Leaders Summit process as it goes forward. They asked the Wilson Center to host that, and we will be hosting that in the fall. It will be an important step to bring in outside interests, including those like the Nature Conservancy that can get involved in the discussion leaders take up every year. I will not go into a lot about the treaty except, because we will get into it a bit, but it is a delight for the Wilson Institute be involved in a program is based on a treaty that was signed by president woodrow wilson. And it was also signed at that time by the king of england representing canada at the time, and in a few decades later by the president of mexico, lazaro cardenas, and was the first of such an agreement. Thank you all for coming. Thanks to the panelists for being here. I will turn it over to your moderator from the Nature Conservancy, david mehlman, and i will not go deeply into his file because we have a lot of information here. He is director of the Nature Conservancys Migratory Bird program, and he has been with the organization more than 25 years, which means he started s an intern, and will be moderating the panel, and i will ask him to introduce the panelists and take it away. Thank you. Mr. Mehlman thanks, jim. My name is david mehlman. I work for the Nature Conservancy, based in arlington, but i working out of albuquerque. Before i introduce my colleagues, you may or may not realize that this evening is the beginning of one of the largest if not largest conference of ornithologists in north america, maybe in the entire western hemisphere, but this is the start of the sixth north american ornithological conference, and we have crazy bird people from all over the u. S. , canada, mexico, many countries in the hemisphere, and some outside who are gathering at the washington hilton to talk about nothing but birds and Bird Conservation for the next couple days. It is great fun to be here. As jim said, for those of us in the bird conversation field, it is a wonderful coincidence to be here at Wilson Center as we celebrate today, the 100th anniversary of the signing of this first Migratory Bird treaty. I have been in the conservation field a long time, and it is one of the almost, not the first, but one of the very first pieces of conservation legislation enacted here in the United States, and it is sometimes hard to imagine with all the things that are going on now that 100 years ago there was enough foresight to join for two Different Countries to join in forces for nternational resource. What jim did not mention is over time, in addition, mexico joined the treaty, the u. S. Has also signed treaties with japan and russia, so it is truly a multinational thing. I will introduce our speakers today. To my immediate left is dr. Charles francis, the manager of bird Population Monitoring with the canadian wildlife service, a part of the environment and Climate Change canada. Next is deb hahn, the International Relations director at association of fish and wildlife agencies, and we will hear from humberto berlanga, from the National Biodiversity commission, conabio. Charles, i believe you are up first. Dr. Francis i will talk to you about this project that we had started on north american birds. This is the project that brought together experts from three countries. It is the first for us to try a joint report. There are copies of the report outside the door, and it is the state of north american birds. This is the first time to try to bring it together and the first time to do a comprehensive report looking at all species. We are working with the initiative which is a 20yearold initiative that brings together some of the top bird experts and federal government between the three countries to work on this. Dr. Francis one of the motivations for doing this report is it is the centennial today the signing of that treaty, but also the 80th anniversary this year of the signing of the treaty between exico and the United States, so it is not technically the same treaty, but there are treaties that unite and give us among other things federal jurisdiction for working on these species. There is the report cover. Next. So essentially what this report involves was scientific experts and some of us at this table were participating on that. I was managing everybody to make sure everything was getting put together across the three countries, but for 1154 species, they look at population trends, ovulation science, breeding and winter ranges, and those were ggregated to create scores that gave the value of the conservation concern for that species. This was done for all of 1100 species and broken down for brought habitat species, boreal forest, temperate forest, tropical forest, oceans, and oasts. I will give you all of the details. The rest of the details are in the report, but i will summarize the most important findings, and my colleagues will talk about what we do with this report, how are we going to use this to help birds. Ext. The bottom line, or top line, as we laid out the report, is that 37 of the species, nearly 40 of the species has serious conservation concerns. That could be major population eclines. It could be threats that imply there is ongoing decline. It happens to be high on several different factors to get on the watch list. Not only do they have large declines, but they have restricted ranges and threats as well. These are species we need to be concerned about some of the species are already listed as ndangered. This is so we do not have to take what we have the e. R. Response which is what the endangered species act is. A lot of work for trying to recover species, and for 430 species could be a challenge. How th