Today I was invited to join the Management Committee of the Sydney chapter of PEN, the international organisation dedicated to freedom of expression, and after a conversation with the organisation’s president I’ve decided to accept the honourable invitation. After all these years of wearing so many different professional “hats”, it feels good at last to be putting my varied publishing, marketing, writing, research and fundraising experience into the service of a non-profit organisation whose mission aligns with my primary interest, which has always been the freedom of ideas and the world of the mind.