President’s Letter – January, 2008

Greetings Fellow Skålleagues!

Our January meeting was held at the Chefs Palette Café and Grill in Ft. Lauderdale. Thanks go to the students of the AI International Culinary School for making the evening truly memorable. The cocktail hour, with open bar, was greatly enhanced by the great hot and cold hors d'oeuvres which they presented. There was more than enough to go around. The staff was introduced to accolades by the Executive Chef Rich Matthews.

The opening toast was given by our new member, Serena Hoermann from eBoat Charters.

With the club 53 members strong we acknowledged the presence of several guests, and perspective members. Perspective members were Diane Fish (a 50/50 winner) of Twin Fish Interline Travel and, the guest of Bernie Falkow, Martin Baum (Tele Travel) a 50/50 winner was present with his wife Ruth. Our new member Liana Gros brought her husband. Our new associate member, John Fatersik who was formerly with Delta Airlines in NYC was also present. The wives of Peter Berlin (Judy) and Bernard Falkow (Marilyn) were charming additions. Wayne Lampert brought Ricardo Bustamante. The following SKAL International Miami member, Al Walleser, was present with his wife Anne. We are continuing to grow.

Member Sandy Saposnik gave a short presentation on Fred Olsen Cruises and her newest line Value World Tours.

By a unanimous vote the following slate of officers for 2008 was elected:

Wayne M Lampert, President
Teresa Nix, Vice President
Paul Cook, Secretary
Dick Stafford, SIUSA Rep.
Beth Cohen Knott, Treasurer

Members of the Board: Paul Alterman, Joe Ogni, Lee Smolinski, and Len Stone were also elected.

The appointment of Carlos Banks as Executive Secretary Treasurer was announced.

The closing toast was given by another new member, Liana Gros.

Those of you who have not logged on to our website recently, www.skalfllpbi.org are encouraged to do so and to check out the pictures of this great January meeting. Additionally, any member wishing to have a link put on the website to their business can do so by sending a 'live link to rwstaff@bellsouth.net.

Those members who have had a change in email address are requested to contact Paul Cook at travelizme@aol.com and inform him of those changes. In addition any other changes (address, phone, etc.) should be made on the NAASC website, www.naasc.com with a copy to Paul Cook.

All members are invited to visit the SKAL International website to check on future conferences at www.skal.org.

The Young SKAL introduction has been put off until our March Dinner due to the past holiday season.

The locations for our upcoming meetings are as follows:

February 19, will be held at the Marriott West Palm Beach - City Place.

March 18, will be held at the Embassy Suites in Deerfield Beach.

Upcoming SKAL events are:

SIUSA will be holding its Governing Board Meeting Jan 31 - Feb 3 in Philadelphia and all Skalleagues are invited. Those wishing to attend can register at: www.siusa.org/phildelphia_guest_registration.pdf.

In May the NAASC conference will be held in Jamaica.

I look forward to seeing you all at the February Meeting.

SKAL!

Wayne Lampert
President