President’s Letter – February, 2009

Greetings Fellow Skålleagues!

Our February meeting was held at the West Palm Beach Marriott Hotel. The cocktail hour and dinner were presented in the private dining room. From the delicious fresh Corvina to the well prepared steak the meal was well received by all. Mike the chef, Danny the restaurant manager and Rima our server were all given a hearty accolade.

The opening toast was given by our member Jawayne Keyser of Martinair in recognition of the contributions she has made to our silent auctions over the years.

With the club 42 members strong we acknowledged the following guests: SKAL member Jan West of the Washington, DC club, Mike Hartfield and his wife JP were welcomed once again along with Charlie and Nancy Beisler and Marianne Cassidy as guests of Scotty Cassidy: Our newest board member, James Hansen brought Lucia Ganoza of the West Palm Beach Airport Hilton as his guest and Paul Cook had Bill Lackey of All Aboard Travel as his guest. Our newest membership applicant, Robert Betancourt was also present as well as Basant Nadani, manager of Le Passage to India. Basant is a former Skal member from India and a prospective member of our club. We are continuing to grow again despite the attrition we have experienced as a result of the current economic conditions and transfers to other distant clubs. We currently have 2 new member applications pending.

The SKAL Passport and membership card were presented to Tom Miller, Director of Sales and Marketing at the West Palm Beach Airport Hilton.

At the dinner James Hansen, Director of Sales and Marketing at the new Hyatt Place Hotel in downtown West Palm Beach, announced its opening on Feb. 19th, 2009 and a grand opening celebration on March 19th to which our members will be invited. Sandy Saposnick gave us a brief update on her new alliance with TradeFirst.com. Scotty Cassidy again reminded all of us what SKAL is really about and the camaraderie and long lasting friendships that can come about from participation in the clubs events. Teresa Nix, President elect, announced the possibility of having the December Christmas party onboard a 3 night cruise to the Bahamas. More on this will follow shortly.

Our 50/50 winners were members Jawayne Keyser and for the first time Dick Stafford. The closing toast was given by our member, Heidi Bruni of NCL.

Those of you who have not logged on to our website recently, www.skal-ftlauderdale-palmbeaches.org, are encouraged to do so to learn more about what is happening and see the pictures from the dinner meetings. To comply with Skal International rules, you will now need to use a password to log in to access the membership roster. The password will be sent separately to all members. 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 travelizeme@aol.com and inform him of those changes. In addition any other changes (address, phone, etc.) should be made on the SKAL International website, www.skal.org with a copy to Paul Cook and Carlos Banks.

All members are invited to visit the SKAL International website to check on future conferences at www.skal.org or the SIUSA website www.siusa.org for national news and updates.

The locations for our upcoming meetings are as follows:

March 17, will be held at the Le Bistro Restaurant in Lighthouse Point. This is our clubs General Annual Meeting at which officers will be giving their respective "State of the Club" messages. This promises to be an exciting dinner, with it being St. Patrick's Day the chef has promised a special Irish dinner to help us celebrate. In addition anyone attending wearing something green who buys at least $5 worth of 50/50 tickets will receive a 'luck of the Irish' bonus of 1 ticket for each multiple of $5 they purchase.

April 21, The West Palm Beach Hilton Airport will be the site of our Annual Black Tie Installation Dinner. This too will be an exciting night with an added bonus to those attending.

Remember that unless otherwise indicated all our meetings are on the 3rd Tuesday of each month except July and August.

Upcoming SKAL National and International events are:

In May (6th - 10th) the NAASC/SIUSA conference will be held in Anchorage, Alaska and in early November the SKAL International Annual Conference will be in Budapest, Hungary. Go to either www.siusa.org or www.skal.org for more information.

San Juan, Puerto Rico has invited SKAL members to help them celebrate their 50th anniversary in San Juan, April 3-5. Go to www.Skalpr.com for additional information.

All are welcome and urged to attend any and all of these events.

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

SKAL!

Wayne Lampert
President