We should also thank Paul Cook and Paul Alterman for agreeing to serve in their positions as Secretary and Treasurer for another year. They have done a great job and will continue to do so this year. Neither of them could be here tonight, Paul Cook is out of town on business and Paul Alterman is with his daughter who is having a baby.

We are pleased to have several new board members this year. Their addition to the board will bring new ideas and energy to the club as we work to build our membership and create new events for our members. Welcome to Stefan, Wayne and Carlos.

It is always nice and especially helpful to have existing board members continue to serve. Cindy and Sandy will be great assets to the board again this year.

The cruise ship tour and luncheon that Sandy hosted for our members was a terrific event. We hope to have more special events like that this year. Mike Gulotty and I have discussed several ideas and as our new Vice President, Mike will be bringing his thoughts and plans to the board for their approval.

To be successful in maintaining and building our membership we need to have a vibrant club that brings tangible benefits to our members over and above our ten monthly dinners. We will work towards this goal by holding more special events for our members and their spouses or significant others. We would also like to develop a program that would generate more business contacts and mutual benefits between our members. You will hear more about these ideas in the months to come.

We encourage all of our members to offer suggestions to the board including ideas of ways to improve the benefits that we derive from the club.

This is your club and as members we all have the responsibility for its stability and growth. We each have an obligation to introduce potential new members to the club.

Above all, the club needs participation from its members whether it is simply in responding to requests for information for the website or actively participating in as many club events as possible.

As of this month our club has 29 members - tonight we have 12 members present. Six of our members are absent due to personal or business reasons which still leaves 40% of our members who did not respond to the Call to Meeting for the Installation of Officers Dinner.

We need an active club to recruit new members and remain viable.

I am sure that you have noticed that Mike has been and still is under the weather suffering with a bout of pneumonia. Needless to say he deserves a round of applause for presenting the club with a wonderful meal and hosting a very enjoyable evening. His only problem now that he is charge of our venues is that he has to keep having more great evening like this for us.

For those of you who have been asking about Scotty Cassidy's operation, Scotty is now at home recuperating from knee replacement surgery. The operation took 45 minutes and was deemed successful. Scotty wanted to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and well wishes. He hopes to be able to join us at the May meeting.

On a final note, for our May meeting we will be returning to Pete's Restaurant in Boca Raton. They did a great job for us last year and we are looking forward to a repeat performance. Mike will provide all of the details when he sends out the Call to Meeting.

I want to thank you; it is an honor to serve as your President. I can assure you that the board and I will do everything possible to make this year a positive, interesting and fun year for our club."