President’s Letter – April, 2006

By Dick Stafford

Greetings Fellow Skålleagues!

Our Annual Installation of Officers Dinner was held on April 18th at the Marriott Hotel in Boca Raton. The evening started out with cocktails and Hors d'Oeuvres on the outside patio followed by a wonderful meal in the ballroom. Thanks to Larry Magor who arranged the evening for us. Larry has left his position as General Manager of the Boca Raton Marriott and is now the General Manager of the Wyndham Resort in Bermuda. We will miss Larry and wish him well in the Islands.

We were honored to have Mok Singh attend the dinner. Mok is the new President of SIUSA and flew in from Los Angeles to be with us. It was Mok's first official SKAL event since assuming the President's position this month. During the dinner Mok shared his vision for SKAL with the members. He was very complimentary about our club and the progress that we have shown in building membership in SKAL International. Mok told us that last year was the first time in several years that the membership of SKAL has increased and pointed out that our club was an example for other clubs to follow.

After dinner Mok conducted the installation ceremony for the Officers and Board members who will serve the club for 2006. Two of the board members were absent due to travel schedules - Paul Alterman was in China and Carlos Banks was in Malaysia.

We had the pleasure of inducting 6 new members during the evening. Neomie Menahem, Heidi Bruni, Peter Berlin, David Goodis, James Horvath and Nicola Iannone received their pins and official SKAL certificates. Scotty Cassidy commented that the new members had the unique privilege of being inducted into SKAL International by the President of SIUSA.

The members were reminded that we have set a goal to build the clubs membership to at least 66 by the end of the year. As fellow Skalleagues, the members were asked to assist in achieving that goal. Currently we have 43 members. If every member brought in only one new member we would have a total of 86 members!!! To provide an incentive in this effort the club will award each member who brings in a new member a $50.00 credit to be used to attend a dinner meeting or to pay for a guest attending one of our functions.

Paul Cook gave an update on this year's golf tournament which will take place on Saturday June 10th. The tournament will be held at the Winston Trails Golf Club in Lake Worth. Paul will need some assistance with the tournament - please contact Paul to let him know what you would like to do to help. We are also going to need auction prizes and look forward to each of you helping out in obtaining gifts for the auction. Our semi-annual auctions are major fund raisers for the club that enable us to support the charities that are sponsored by SKAL International and our own club. Your contribution of things like wine, gift baskets, hotel accommodations or travel certificates and other like items to the auction are important to the success of the event. June 10th is not that far away. Paul has already sent out the flyer about the tournament so get your foursomes together and sign up early. For those of you who will be single golfers, Paul will take care of the pairings. Thanks to Lou Frazer for providing a great room rate at the Holiday Inn in Boynton Beach for our out of town participants.

We had two guests from the Sarasota SKAL Club attend the dinner. Gary Dickinson the club's President gave a presentation on this years summer Region IV Congress that will be held August 25 - 27 in Sarasota. Gary gave everyone literature on the Congress and golf tournament. Don't forget to mark your calendars for those dates. Our club is always represented at this event and I am sure that this year will be no different.

Our locations for upcoming dinner meetings are:

May 16, 2006 - we will be hosted by Denis Herron at the Airport Hilton Hotel in West Palm Beach

June 20, 2006 - we will be at the Buca Di Beppo Restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale

We want to thank all of our members for sending in there RSVP for the monthly meetings as soon as they can - we have been doing much better this year. As you know we have to provide our venues with a guaranteed count several day's in advance of the dinner. It is also important that in the event you find out that you can not attend the dinner after you RSVP that you are coming that you call to cancel. Once the club guarantee's the number attending we are obligated to pay that amount. By cancelling your RSVP you will save the club from paying for your meal.

Don't forget to check the clubs website for additional club news and some great pictures from the Installation Dinner. www.skalpalmbeaches.org Looking forward to seeing everyone at the May meeting at the Airport Hilton Hotel in West Palm Beach.

SKAL!

Dick Stafford
President