Greetings fellow Skalleagues! It was great catching up in our last meeting with all the members on what exciting things you've been doing this summer. What a great meeting we had this month! Ron Stevens arranged a special guest Rob Lopicola meteorologist from Storm Team 5. We also heard storm stories from other Skalleagues on how they weathered the hurricanes. Rob enlightened all of us how things work behind the scenes at the weather desk and especially how they handled all the hurricanes we had this summer.

In addition to have a very informative and fun presentation by Rob, the club received camera coverage and were seen on the 11:00 o'clock news. Ron was able to tape the segment and we hope to have it available at our next meeting. Of course Ron added some extra entertainment to our evening by introducing our guest with his rain slicker on and have water poured on him. You just never know what Ron will come up with next! So stay tuned… Ron, I think you've earned the job of entertainment/social director!

This past board meeting we approved a new member transferring in from the Miami club, Carlos Banks. We are so pleased to have Carlos become part of our club and think he will be a valuable asset to our club that we have appointed him as our membership chairman. Carlos was not at our last meeting since he left a few days early for the SKAL International Conference in South Africa. Bill Pullen left the day after our meeting to join Carlos at the conference. We hope they are enjoying themselves and look forward to their report when they return.

We've decided to implement a new billing plan for 2005 that we believe will be easier for all members. You will be billed for 8 dinners @ $320, 2 dinners (installment & holiday party to be paid at venues). Therefore, the first billing for January 2005 would be for 3 dinners ($120) & yearly dues ($98) that amounts to $218 with the 2nd billing in May for the balance of $200.

Our Thanksgiving (November) meeting will be held on November 16th at the Palm Beach Oceanfront Hilton in Manalapan. We have an extra special holiday dinner planned for you, and a very extra surprise for everyone that attends this meeting. Please mark you calendars and plan to be there.

Our November meeting is also very important for you attend for another reason. We will be presenting and voting on the name change of the club from Skal International Palm Beaches to Skal International Ft. Lauderdale and the Palm Beaches. You must be present to vote. To change the club's name it will require an affirmative vote of two-thirds (2/3) of the voting membership. We will follow-up with a more detailed message to all the members prior to the meeting with further information on this important issue.

We need someone to volunteer to be our club photographer… do you have a digital and like to take pictures? Then we need you! Please let me know if you can be our new photographer. Any volunteers? Don't be shy.

Mark your calendars for the upcoming meetings: December 21, Holiday party at the Radisson Bridge in Boca Raton and January 18 at the Marriott Hotel at City Place. We have a lot of fun things we are trying to plan for the club at each meeting and we need everybody's participation to be successful. If you have any interesting ideas for our future meetings we'd appreciate your input.

Happy Birthday to our October birthday boys; Scotty Cassidy (October 2) and Wilson Carter (October 7).

See you all in November!