President’s Letter – October, 2008

Greetings Fellow Skålleagues!

Our October meeting was held at the Hilton Resort on Singer Island. The venue for this casual outdoor dinner meeting could not have been finer and the weather was perfect. Thanks go to the staff of the restaurant for making the evening a most enjoyable one. From the wine bar cocktail hour with hot hor's d'ouevres thru the sumptuous dinner, everyone was sated. All of our members were in agreement that the food provided was sumptuous. The opening toast was given by Serena Hoermann.

Guests at the meeting included Mike Hartfield and his charming wife JP, Steve Crist of the Palm Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau and Marcel Girard (Hyatt Place Hotel WPB) both were guests of James Hansen, Scotty Cassidy brought his delightful wife Marianne as well as retired SKAL member Peter Pinkas and his wife Valasta. Winter must be coming as we welcomed back Bielefeld, Germany SKAL member Michael Werner and his always welcome wife Ingrid. Becky Reincke honored us with the presence of her fiancé Dave Herman.

I attended the SKAL International conference in Taipei just last week along with Jan West from the DC club. It was both an enjoyable and educational time. The opportunity to meet with fellow Skalleagues from around the world in both a social and B2B setting was great. At the meeting it was again announced that the 2009 meeting will be in Budapest, Hungary Nov. 1-6. All members are invited to attend and can do so by registering on the SKAL International website, www.skal.org. In addition it was decided that the 2010 conference will be held in Sydney, Australia.

It was my pleasure to present to Becky a corsage in honor of her upcoming wedding this coming weekend and a boutonnière to her fiancé Dave.

Art Stark presented the club with the banners he had collected over the years from his attendance at various SKAL International Conferences. They are a welcome addition to our collection and will be displayed at future dinners with great pride. I was able to present Art with his SKAL Ft. Lauderdale & Palm Beaches badge. I also gave the club those banners which had been presented to me at this most recent conference.

Teresa Nix, who with the help of Serena Hoermann and James Hansen are helping to form our Young SKAL group, announced that the November dinner meeting will include future Young SKAL members. This will be repeated in February, 2009 with hopefully a growing cadre of youthful members.

James Hansen has been heading up our drive for auction items for the upcoming December 16th holiday black tie dinner. So far his results have been nothing less than spectacular and with each members help this will truly be a memorable silent auction. He can be reached at 561 707-0230 for any additional auction item donations.

Next months venue is the new Hilton Resort and Spa in Ft. Lauderdale on Nov. 18th followed in December with the Holiday Party at the Bridge Resort in Boca Raton. January will find us at the Chef's Palette in Ft. Lauderdale.

December 5th, ASME and fellow SKAL member Jawayne Keyser, has invited all to attend their holiday luncheon to be held on Las Olas in Ft. Lauderdale. They will be having a raffle with great prizes.

Our closing toast was given resoundingly by Scotty Cassidy in honor of his 35th year as a SKAL member. We wish you many, many more.

Those of you, who have not logged on to our website recently, www.skal-ftlauderdale-palmbeaches.org, are encouraged to do so to see all of the pictures from the October dinner and other club news. Additionally, any member wishing to have a link put on the website to their business can do so by sending a 'live link' to rwstaff@bellsouth.net .

Those members who have had a change in email address are requested to contact Paul Cook at travelizeme@aol.com and inform him of those changes. In addition any other changes (address, phone, etc.) should be made on the SKAL website, www.skal.org with a copy to Paul Cook.

SIUSA and NASSC will hold their spring general meeting this coming May 6-10 in Anchorage, Alaska. All SKAL members are urged to attend. The meeting will be followed by a one week cruise to Vancouver. For more information check the congresses link on skal@skal.org.