President’s Letter – October, 2007

Greetings Fellow Skålleagues!

Our October meeting was held at the Coral Springs Marriott Hotel. Thanks go to the staff of the Marriott for making the evening a most enjoyable one. The cocktail hour was greatly enhanced by the great hors doeuvres which the hotel presented. There was more than enough to go around.

The opening toast was given by Board member Joe Ogni.

At the dinner we were honored to have the Director of Sales for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau, Fernando A. Harb, who talked about the change in demographics in the Ft. Lauderdale area as regards the influx of new upscale hotels. After questions and answers he was given a loud round of applause. To show our hearts were in the right place we also greeted his winning the 50/50 along with member Bernie Falkow's wife Marilyn with another round of applause.

Our member and treasurer, Carlos Banks, informed us the first Malaysian astronaut had been sent into space. A milestone for Malaysia.

With the club 49 members strong we acknowledged the presence of several individuals, Wendy Rajabpour, Kristina Harmon, and Serena Hoermann who have declared themselves perspective members as did our guest speaker, Fernando A. Harb. We are continuing to grow.

I had the pleasure of greeting and presenting to our newest member, Beth Cohen Knott, the SKAL pin and certificate of membership. As our newest member she honored us by giving the closing toast.

Jawayne Kaiser who is not only a SKAL member but also an officer of ASME reminded us that we are invited to attend their Oct. 29, meeting at the 94th Aero Squadron Restaurant in Miami for lunch and to save the date of Dec. 14th for their annual silent auction luncheon to be held in Ft. Lauderdale (an invitation to each of you will be sent shortly).

Those of you who have not logged on to our website recently, http://www.skal-ftlauderdale-palmbeaches.org are encouraged to do so and to check out the pictures of this great October 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.

I will be attending the SKAL International conference this November in Turkey. All members are invited to attend and can do so by registering on the SKAL International website, www.skal.org .

The locations for our upcoming meetings are as follows:

Please note that the November dinner will be One week early!

November 13, The Columbia Restaurant, West Palm Beach

December 18, The Bridge Hotel (Holiday Dinner Dance and Auction), Boca Raton

Upcoming SKAL events are:

November 4-9 - SKAL WORLD CONGRESS in Antalya, Turkey

December 8-10 - Imperial Majesty Cruise to Nassau (please contact Sandy Saposnick at myvoyager@aol.com or 954 786-9378 to RSVP or get more information)

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

SKAL!

Wayne Lampert
President