President’s Letter
October 10, 2017

Greetings fellow Skålleagues,

It seems such a long time since my last Presidents letter. As we all know a lot has happened and I hope you and your families, both here and elsewhere affected by our active hurricane season, came through OK. Let's keep those who are still being affected close in our thoughts. More about that later in the letter. Last Tuesday we had our first dinner event since July and I think all who attended will agree that Cecilia Hudnet and the team at the Chesterfield Hotel went above and beyond to make it a most memorable experience. Thank you.

We had quite a bit of old and new business to cover and here are some of the highlights. As mentioned above we have had a very active Hurricane Season with a lot of Skål families directly affected here in Florida, in Houston, Puerto Rico and the Islands. There have been several requests for hurricane relief donation's received by our club. Of course we would love to be able to help everyone as an individual club, but of course we cannot. Your Board of Directors has elected to follow the directive and join Skål USA in making donations to Tourism Cares through Skål USA. At the dinner on Tuesday and for the next few meetings there will be an extra basket on each table to collect loose change (and bills) that will go directly to Tourism Cares. Thank you for the wonderful outpouring of support so far. We even had the 50/50 winner donate their winnings to the basket.

We also announced our proposed Slate of Officers and Directors for our clubs 2018 Board of Directors which will be voted on by the membership during the November 14th dinner meeting at Maggiano's Restaurant in Boca Raton. We would love to see a great turnout for this dinner.

Here is the proposed slate of officers for your consideration:

Carlos will send out the notices for your 2018 membership dues in November. We are pleased to announce that the dues for Skål International, Skal USA and our club will be the same as last year and not change for 2018.

We also talked about the upcoming Wednesday December 13th Holiday Party at Benvenutoœs in Boynton Beach. Our annual Holiday Party as usual will include a silent and live auction and we need all of our members to try to contribute an item for the auction. You will receive an email later in the week with the information about the auction, what types of items to look for and who to contact with the information about your contribution. Thanks for your support to this important event.

After carefully reviewing the dates of other organizations for their monthly meetings that conflict with our scheduled dinner meeting date of the 3rd Tuesday of each month, we also officially announced the change of our monthly dinner meeting dates to the first Tuesday of the month (except where it is effected by a holiday or special event on which months we will revert back to the second Tuesday - three were identified not counting the normally scheduled December Holiday Party). Hopefully this will reduce the meeting dates that our members have conflicting functions to attend. Please see future dates starting in January 2018 below:

Best wishes to our members celebrating birthdays this summer:

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the November 14th dinner meeting. 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.

Wishing you all safe journeys and may all your travels be an adventure.

Skål,

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