President’s Letter – February, 2008

Greetings Fellow Skålleagues!

Our March Annual Meeting was held at the Embassy Suites Resort and Spa in Deerfield Beach. The cocktail hour, with wine, was greatly enhanced by the hors d'oeuvres which they lavishly presented outside our private dining room. There was more than enough to go around and the presentation was to be applauded.

The opening toast was given by our incoming Executive Secretary/Treasurer, Carlos Banks.

With the club 51 members strong we acknowledged the presence of many guests, and perspective members. Perspective members were, the guest of Carlos Banks, Todd Stevenson (Holland America Line), and my own guest Clothilde (Cloie) Morales (Majestic Travel - Boca Raton) who shared the spotlight by also bringing her friend and SKAL member from SKAL Viken, Norway, Vesla Jakobsen. The wives of Bernhard Kainer (Nancy) and of SKAL Bielefeld, Germany, member Werner Michels (Ingrid) both of whom added to our enjoyment of the evening. Bernie Falkow brought Robert Betancourt a golf pro at the South Florida Golf Academy in Pompano Beach as his guest. Bill Decker had as his guest, Dean Morton, a retired executive from American Airlines NYC and previous member of our club and Gail Freedman had Mike Kerry as her guest. We are continuing to grow.

We are continuing to have discussions with SKAL International concerning our Ft. Lauderdale name and have a meeting with the President of SKAL set for May here in Florida.

The state of our club messages were delivered by myself, Carlos Banks and Lee Smolinski and we are in good shape both financially and with regard to membership growth.

Our 50/50 winners were guests Todd Stevenson and Dean Morton.

The closing toast was given by SKAL Viken, Norway member, Vesla Jakobsen.

Those of you who have not logged on to our website recently, www.skal-ftlauderdale-palmbeaches.org, are encouraged to do so. 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 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.

The Young SKAL program was conducted by Teresa Nix and Gail Freedman who had as a guest of Princess Cruises potential Young SKAL member Trina Jackson. Ms. Jackson was asked to give a brief talk at the meeting and she challenged the cruise lines to make their ships more accessible to those just learning and entering the industry. We look forward to having a growing Young SKAL program in the future.

The locations for our upcoming meetings are as follows:

April 15th: The Hilton West Palm Beach will be the site of our Annual Black Tie Installation Dinner. Members Fred Ghadimi and James Hansen have promised us a great stay over rate at the hotel for those wishing to do so that night.

May 20th: our meeting will be in Bogart's Bar & Grille at the Muvico theater in Boca Raton.

Our annual Golf Tournament is scheduled for June 7th at the same location as last year.

June 17th we will have an informal meeting at Bucca di Beppo restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale jointly with ASME.

Remember that unless otherwise indicated all our meetings are on the 3rd Tuesday of each month except July and August when no meetings are scheduled.

SKAL International has challenged all members to help recruit new members and is offering 10 Nikon Digital Cameras to every member who introduces a new member from 1 March through 30 September. The 10 prize winners will be drawn at the International Congress.

Upcoming SKAL events are:

In May, the NAASC conference will be held in Montego Bay, Jamaica from May 15th - 18th, and in October the SKAL International Annual Conference will be in Taipei, Taiwan from the 12th to the 17th. All are welcome.

I look forward to seeing you all at the April Installation Dinner.

SKAL!

Wayne Lampert
President