President’s Letter
April 18, 2017

For those who celebrated let me wish you all a belated Happy Easter and Happy Passover. Seeing the car movers heading north marks the official end of "Season" here in South Florida. It was most noticeable when it only took me twenty minutes to get from Palm Beach to the Doubletree Hotel in Deerfield Beach for the Installation Dinner on Tuesday. I have dubbed it "Installation Lite" because the majority of our Officers and Board Members are staying except for Jerry Eastep who has left Skal and Paul Cook who has been ill but is out of the hospital in New York and recuperating at his daughter's home. So, we only have one new Board Member and that is Terese Ternullo, owner of Hibiscus Travel who unfortunately was unable to attend the Installation Dinner due to illness. Terese I hope you are feeling better, you were missed.

The Doubletree went above and beyond with great service and a wonderful meal. It was wonderful to see, Fran Bannon stop by to say hello, who is now the Director of Catering at the Doubletree and has assisted Dick with the dinner arrangements at the Waterstone and other Hilton branded properties over the years. Thanks as always to Teresa Nix for producing the Year in Review video showing all that the members and club had experienced and participated in last year which everyone saw during the evening.

As I hope you all know our Skål Club's 40th Anniversary celebration will be at the Riverside Hotel in Fort Lauderdale on June 13th. We are very excited that we will have several Skal Executives in attendance including David Fisher the President of Skål International from Kenya who will join us for the celebration before going to Toronto to attend the NASC Congress which starts on June 15th. Also, attending will be Holly Powers the President of Skål USA and Burcin Turkkan the current Skål USA Vice President of Administration who has been to our club several times when representing Region IV and other members of the Skål USA board. It is going to be a wonderful event so mark you calendars now and keep an eye out for the Evite and please consider bringing a guest. We will also be doing our annual wine pull and auction in conjunction with this event so please get your items to Dick or bring them to the May meeting. You will receive a reminder email requesting donations next week.

Best wishes to our members celebrating birthdays this month:

Which brings me to the May 16th dinner meeting which will be at the Palm Beach Airport Hilton - I hope you all can attend. We also want to give you a heads up to save the date for the annual Discover the Palm Beaches Industry Icebreaker that will be held at the Bowery Restaurant at City Place in West Palm Beach on July 19th. Our Skål Club is an Organization Partner for the event and we look forward to having a booth at the Icebreaker again this year to promote Skål. Remember to log onto our club's website www.skal-ftlauderdale-palmbeaches.org to get more information on our club, event pictures and the upcoming Skål Monthly Reception and Dinner Meetings.

Until we meet again, safe travels and may all your journeys be an adventure.

Skål,

With Hospitality,

Ian
Ian Black
President Skål International Ft. Lauderdale & Palm Beaches
Skål International Ft. Lauderdale & Palm Beaches