President’s Letter – March, 2005

By Cindy Christen

Greetings fellow Skålleagues!

Looks like spring has arrived, the warm weather, the tourist, the traffic and the allergy season all here with a vengeance! With spring's arrival is also time for our installation of new officers, kind of changing of the guards so to speak. This year has flew by for me, and being a real novice at this job I am very grateful to the current officers, board and our members for all their help and guidance. It's been an interesting year, and I thank all of you for you support and belief in the club.

Our March meeting was held at Boca Raton Marriott. We had a really nice turnout of members and guests. Our host Larry Magor, General Manager did a great job! We were treated with a superb happy hour with scrumptious appetizers and an excellent dinner. Thanks Larry, it was a very enjoyable evening.

During our dinner meeting we voted on a new name change for the club that would also represent part of Broward County. It was approved at the meeting that we would request a name change from SIUSA of our club from SKAL Intl Palm Beaches to SKAL Intl Palm Beaches/North Broward. The club also voted and approved our sponsorship of a new Ft. Lauderdale club with recommendation that Carlos Banks be in charge of the formation.

Sandy Saposnick from MSC Cruises and one of our board members is hosting our club with a luncheon onboard the MSC Lirica, Thursday, March 31 at Port Everglades. For those of you that RSVP'd I look forward to seeing you there. The ship inspection followed by lunch begins at 11:30a.m.

Our April 19th Installation of Officers dinner meeting will be at the Waterford Hotel in West Palm Beach. If you have attended Mike's past venues you know he pulls out all the stops and I know he'll do it again for us on this special meeting. Please RSVP for this formal dinner to Dick Stafford rwstafford@earthlink.net or 561 627-8859 by Friday, April 15. Spouses and guests welcome. This meeting has not been included in your dues and will be an additional charge of $50 per person. This can be paid in advance to Paul Alterman at 7850 NW 5th Place, Plantation, FL 33324. Please remember that the club no longer accepts credit cards for payment.

I like to extend special thanks again to Sheila Schwartz from Lots of Yachts who invited all SKAL members and guests to a "Pisces Party" on board the Mariner III earlier this month. There were several SKAL members who took Sheila up on her offer and we all had a wonderful evening.

Please visit our website www.skalpalmbeaches.org for all the latest club information.

Mark your calendars for next month's meeting, as we need everyone's participation to welcome our new officers and board for the new year. Bring us your interesting ideas and recommendations for upcoming venues. Get involved!

SKAL!