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President’s Letter – April, 2007By Dick Stafford Greetings Fellow Skålleagues! Our annual April Installation of Officers Dinner was held at the Hilton Hotel at the Palm Beach International Airport. The black tie event also celebrated our 30th anniversary as an active SKAL Club. Thanks to Fred Ghadimi the Hilton's Vice President / General Manager Hotel Operations and Michael Wright the Hilton's Director of Sales & Marketing, both new SKAL members, for making the evening such a memorable one. The festivities began with a cocktail reception in the Hiltons newly redecorated Club 10 where we enjoyed hors d'oeuvres and live music. The ballroom was decorated beautifully and the 5 course dinner was excellent. Bill Pullen, our most senior Past President and a founding member of the club, began the dinner with our opening Akvavit toast. After dinner, Fred and Michael introduced their Hilton's award winning chef and his staff to a round of applause from the members and guests. With 74 members and guests in attendance, the dinner was the largest function the club has held in its 30 year history. We were joined at the dinner by Abelardo Vara the President of NAASC from Cancun. Abelardo was accompanied by his wife Lourdes and a fellow Skalleague from the Cancun Club, Diego de La Penia and his wife Sonia. Tom White, the SIUSA Region IV Vice President was also with us and Tom assisted me in inducting 4 new members into our SKAL Club - Fred Ghadimi, Michael Wright - both from the Hilton, Nikki Upshaw the Senior Vice President of Sales for Residensea and Ron Stevens the President of Package Tours who re-joined the club after a 2 year absence. Tom reminded all of our members of the benefits of belonging to SKAL and praised our club for our growth achievements during the past year. With over 22,000 member's world wide, there are 475 SKAL clubs in 90 countries. For all of us who travel, either on business or for pleasure, we can usually find a SKAL Club at our destination with members willing to assist us in their hometowns. We should all take advantage of this benefit as well as the opportunities available for networking and conducting business to business between fellow Skalleagues. At the conclusion of dinner Abelardo Vara joined me for the Installation of Officers ceremony. Your new officers and board members for 2007 are:
With the passing of the Presidents chain to Wayne Lampert, we then honored the 12 current members of our SKAL club who have served you as past Presidents. Coming to the podium by name and the year that they served as President were:
(Not in attendance due to trip on the Queen Mary 2)
Abelardo Vara presented each of the Past Presidents with the SKAL Past Presidents Medallion and our SKAL club's mini banner. Abelardo thanked the club for inviting him to be with us on this special occasion and again congratulated us on the success that we have had the past year. Bill Pullen, speaking on behalf of all of the Past Presidents, thanked the club for honoring those present and for giving them the Past Presidents Medallion. Bill took the time to go over some of the club's history and to recognize again the founding members who were in attendance. It was great to have so many old friends travel to Palm Beach to attend this historic milestone for our club. Bill presented then the club with his personal collection of mini SKAL banners and a framed copy of the original menu and program for our first official SKAL dinner meeting held at the Breakers Resort in 1977. President Wayne Lampert presented Abelardo Vara and Tom White with our new club mini banner and invited Abelardo to end the evening with the closing toast. This will be my last President's Letter to you as I conclude 2 years as the club's President. It has been a very interesting and challenging time for our club. In December of 2005 the club had reached a low point with our membership down to 24 members. In 2004, we realized that our Club was not only losing members due to retirement and relocation but more importantly we were stymied in our efforts to recruit new members due to the changing business environment in the Palm Beach County area. As the travel and tourism industry changed with the increased use of the internet and the consolidation of the airline industry, a substantial number of potential new SKAL members were now located in the Ft. Lauderdale area where the airlines and cruise lines had regional offices. It became apparent to us that we had to include Ft. Lauderdale in the name of the Club and commit to hosting a significant portion of our monthly meetings in that area to bring credibility to our efforts to attract new members. We were determined not to let the Club gradually decrease in membership to the point of being de-activated. The Club made the decision to be pro-active and aggressively pursue the name change. As you know, in February of 2006 we received approval to formally change the name of the Club from Skal International Palm Beaches to Skal International Ft. Lauderdale & Palm Beaches. Once the lengthy process to obtain approval for the name change was over, we have had tremendous success in building our membership and enabling all of our members to realize the benefits that membership in SKAL International has to offer. We currently have 47 members, basically doubling the size of the club in a short 15 months, with several more individuals looking forward to joining our club. I want to thank all of the Officers and Board members who have served with me and I would especially like to thank all of our members for their support. It has been an honor and a privilege to have served as your President. The club is vibrant and financially strong and will continue to grow under your new leadership. The locations for our upcoming meetings are:
May 15, 2007 - we will be at the Cypress Creek Marriott in Ft. Lauderdale Upcoming SKAL events are:
June 6-9 - NAASC Congress in Cabo San Lucas SKAL!
Dick Stafford |