I do not want to see our president involved in IR. The kind of connections that Altmann brings to the table involve institutional players, and I have seen his presentation for myself. I think the fact that he secured a couple of analyst recomendations and has attracted several analysts to visit the mine, these are a measure of the contribution he was brought in for. Altmann knows how to present the story to the suits. An IR firm is brought in to assist with generating interest from retail shareholders, responding to enquiries, attending public shows, etc. We are basically talking about two separate functions.

As for share ownership, I would agree that its a good idea if the senior management are shareholders and not just holding options that were awarded. I am not about to throw anyone under the bus if they are not significant shareholders, but it sure helps to motivate people when they own a piece of the action.

I have given up looking under every rock trying to find out WTF is going on with the share price. Someday I think I will look back and be very happy that I had the chance to add cheap shares, and that I had the sense to take full advantage of the opportunity. For now, I am frustrated all to hell with the way all the juniors are trading. I have never been more fed up. If I was not convinced the market was toast and that the economic situation stinks, I would dump all my stock and just ride out the rest of this bear market.

It is very difficult to hang in through all of this, but if it was easy, everyone would be rich. Most people are far from rich and it does not surprise me that some retail shareholders sell into weakness everytime the sector gets thumped and silver is driven lower. People have short memories.

cheers!

mike