"It's been a very challenging year for me, to say the least," he said.

But, he added, "this was a tough quarter in a challenging year even before the events of Sept. 11."

"This is going to be a challenging year for making sure we spend the people's money wisely," he said.

Such actions were to shape the strategy for the company for its coming challenging years.

In a challenging and difficult year, these are three reasons to be positive about our future.

It'll be a very challenging year for volunteers, I'm sure you'll all agree.

His most challenging years were still ahead of him.

"It is a more challenging year for us, very competitive."

"It has been one of those challenging years when we had some things not go our way," Slocum said.

"I think we will have a difficult second quarter and it will be a very challenging year over all."