The inaugural  meeting  of the Association of Human Resource Personnel was held  at  the  Postgraduate Institute of Management on October 4, 2000. The Chief  Guest  was  Mr.  Mark Reade McKenna, The Asia Foundation Residential Representative for  Sri  Lanka.  The  keynote  speaker  was  Dr. Gerald D. Sentell,  Chairman  of  the  Board and Chief Executive Officer of Tennessee Associates International, a world leader in high performance management and change  management  headquartered  in  Alcoa,  Tennessee  with  15 offices world-wide. His theme was "HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: JUST ANOTHER FAD OR DOES  IT ADD VALUE TO YOUR ORGANIZATION?". Over 40 Managing Directors/Chief Executive Officers and over 70 Human Resource Professionals participated.

For  a few  of  us,  this  occasion  was  the realisation of a dream that was conceived  incidentally  at  the same auditorium two years, before 2000. It makes me nostalgic to go down memory lane, reminiscing about the batch of PIM students that I used to belong to in the late 1990's.   Our mentor Professor Gunapala Nanayakkara, who was at that time our Course Director, inspired us in this direction.  As usual, he challenged all HRM professionals who were his students at PIM. In mid 1999, Dian Gunathilake then the Director HR of John Keells, came forward to assist me as a fellow HR colleague, when I was confronted a politically driven IR issue. We faced those challenges with tremendous success. Thus, we experienced the importance being netted together and sharing our experience/ knowledge with each other.  Thereafter, that batch of students and a handful of Human Resource professionals from leading organisations met informally to discuss issues   of   mutual  interest.  Dian  Gunathilaka John  Keells,  Rohan Pandithakoralage - Aitken  Spence,  Widanepathirane - Sampath, Lasantha Salgado - NDB, Prasanna Obadage and Romesh Ranasinghe - Hayleys, Dr. Travis Perera - PIM, Wasantha  Senanayake - BPL,  Chathura Wijesuriya - Bodyline, Ranjeewa Kultunga - Carsons, Isuru Thilakawardene - Union Assurance, Carrine Anderson- FTZ and Chitral Perera- Singer  are a few HR professionals who got involved at the inception. This proved to be both learning and a mutually rewarding experience for all of us. The news of these informal meetings spread among the HR community and as a result our group began receiving numerous enquiries from potential members.  Sensing the need, it was decided to formalise this organisation.

The fundamental rationale for the birth of an association of this nature stems from the gap between Human Resources Management within its status quo and the realisation of its importance within the growing context of the business environment. That was the challenge Professor Nanayakkara posed to us as students.  While  this position could be defined and articulated in many  forms,  restricting  it  to  a  few numerical dot points would create confusion  between  the  very  philosophies  which this movement has been built  upon.  As such, we envisage that this position would change so as to address  the needs of the time and the environment as a whole. However, one paramount  factor  that  needs to be mentioned is the advantage to its members and member organisation would enjoy by the dissemination of knowledge. This would  ultimately  result  in  creating  a synergistic effect in conducting human  resources  activities.   HRP would provide a forum and platform at which these valuable networking processes could take place.

We toil to instill the virtue that "a nation's wealth is vested in its people".  As  such, whilst enhancing the traits of an individual at a micro level,  we  anticipate  that  the synergy would enhance the performance and profitability  and  add  value  to  its  member  organisations. The mission statement  outlined the manner in which we have all agreed to operationalize these wonderful  ideologies.  In order to support this cause, we were very fortunate  from  the inception  to  have  with  us  many professionals and academics  from numerous industries, sectors, and organisations to create a web  of  knowledge  and  information  to work towards a desirable matrix to achieve our ends.  The  think  tank  of  our organisation is aware of the turbulence  created  within  organisations as a result of rapid changes that take place in the environment and we are compelled  to  stretch  our horizons towards meeting these challenges.

At  the  end  of  the  day we must remember that the most volatile resource 'Human  Resources'  is also the most important change agent that we need to face  the  future  with  confidence.  Being able to modify not only their capabilities but also their thinking caps would make the people proactive towards these changes.  In order to create macro economic benefits and to instill  these ideals  within  the  largest  employer of the country - "the Government'  -  is  yet another uphill task which we have taken on board  In doing so, we envisage influencing our policy makers to formulate  a  national  apex body to spread the Human Resources Development activities  far and wide to the four corners of the nation.  We are compelled to stretch our horizons towards meeting these challenges. We will strive to bring HR to the forefront,  where  we  believe  it will become  the "nation's  key  catalyst in the development of work-related competencies in people,  so  that  they  achieve  competitive  advantage  as  individuals, organisations  or  nations  through  the dissemination of knowledge and the creation  of  learning  organisations".  Our vision is to bring HR to the forefront.  The  impact  of  HRP  has  made  during the last four years of its existence  is  remarkable.  One such  project launched  by  HRP towards enhancing  the  level  of  HRM  practices  in Sri Lanka is the National HRM Awards  of  Sri  Lanka  organized  together with  the  Institute of Personnel Management and Postgraduate of Institute of Management .

I  take  this opportunity thank to all our members from the inception to now for  their  support, assistance and guidance during the last four years and hope we would be able to create a better mother Lanka tomorrow. I would like to conclude my journey down the memory lane and wish to repeat which I stated in my inaugural address as the founder President of HRP in year 2000. ‘I have outlined many ideal positions that could be achieved through this association.   But  Ladies  and Gentleman, today is the start of an endless relay  for  operationalising  our vision of Bringing HR to the forefront”.