Dear Fellow Skalleagues,

I had the privilege of conducting the November meeting at the beautiful Hyatt Place Hotel in West Palm Beach. Our own Board member and Director of Sales at this trendy downtown location, James Hansen, was a gracious host. Mr. Marcel Girard, the General Manager, also attended as a guest and facilitated ensuring that we had a perfect evening.

We enjoyed delicious hors d’oeuvres and wine during the social hour followed by an amazing dinner by Morton’s Steakhouse, one of Hyatt Place’s catering options. As you would imagine, dinner was delicious followed by sinful desserts! Our opening toast was given by James Hansen who welcomed us to his property. We had quite a number of guests attending, including my guest Jane Carrie, new Director of Sales for Universal Travel/American Express in Ft. Lauderdale and prospective member, Charlie Bieser, Past President of our Club brought his wife Nancy, fellow Miami club member Al Walleser, (soon to be a transfer member to our club) brought his wife Anne, James Hansen’s guest Eva Scott of Expedia and prospective member and members Martin Baum, Bernie Falkow, Alex Gannon, Stefan Richter and Becky Reincke all brought their spouses and or guest. Rounding out the guest list was Jan West our Skalleague from Washington, D.C.

After dinner we enjoyed an informative presentation by our guest speaker, Jorge Pesquera, President and CEO of the newly re-branded Palm Beach County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Jorge brought us up to speed on the latest happenings and accomplishments for 2008 and 2009. One of the highlights is the Bureau’s achievement of the Destination Marketing Accreditation this past summer which denotes "Commitment to Excellence" in Destination promotion. The CVB is now one of an impressive list of 98 Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) worldwide recognized for commitment to industry excellence in destination marketing operations. Jorge also discussed the new and ongoing re-branding efforts and the launch of the updated website. Please visit www.palmbeachfl.com to "Discover the Palm Beaches & Boca Raton"!

Dick Stafford, our SIUSA representative gave a brief overview and report including Carlos Bank’s representation at the Skål International World Congress / Budapest, Hungary.

• Over 1,000 persons from 62 countries attended the Congress which was the largest Congress in over 10 years.
• The SIUSA National Committee Meeting did not have quorum with only 22 out of 62 clubs in attendance not counting the board members who did not answer the roll call per the by-laws for their club.
• There has never been a quorum for this AGM when it has been held at a World Congress. Consequently no business could be officially conducted.
• The Skal members in the United States received more funding than we contributed to the Florimond Volckaert Fund in 2009.
• Mok Singh from the Los Angeles Club was elected as a Director of Skal International.
• The winter SIUSA Board Meeting will be held in San Jose, CA on February 11-14, 2010 being only the second board meeting of the year out of the required four to be held by the current SIUSA administration.
• The 2011 Skal World Congress will be held in Turku, Finland.
• Our Region IV Vice President has decided to hold a monthly electronic conference call with all of the clubs in the region to discuss issues of importance to the clubs and SIUSA.
• Many of the changes recommended to be made to the SIUSA Articles of Incorporation that our Club sent directly to John Britton and Jim Power were approved by SI with others are to be voted on in Quebec.
• After several years of our club’s board working to resolve the issue of which club members must belong to in South Florida, Skal International has made the decision to establish a boundary between our club and the Miami club. The boundary will now be the Miami/Dade and Broward County Line. All new members now must join the club in the area where they live and/or work.

Also announced was the slate of Officers for 2010 which was proposed and accepted by the board and will be voted on by the membership in January:

Teresa Nix, President
Beth Cohen, Vice President
Paul Cook, Secretary
Jim Hansen, Treasurer
Dick Stafford, SIUSA Representative
Carlos Banks, Executive Secretary Treasurer
Board Members: Paul Alterman, Art Stark, Mark Flager, Becky Reincke

Last but not least, please mark your calendars for our 2009 Holiday Party at the Boca Raton Bridge Hotel in Boca Raton. The highlight of the evening includes wonderful music and entertainment, as well as, a great silent auction. SKAL International Ft. Lauderdale & Palm Beaches needs your assistance in gaining donations and charitable items for our silent auction. An in-kind donation would be greatly appreciated for our event. We have had great success in the past years with certificates for hotel stays, gift certificates, gift baskets and golf lessons, or anything you or your organization can contribute. Any type of donation/gift will be accepted and your charitable (and tax deductible) gift will raise funds towards Skål International Ft. Lauderdale and Palm Beaches, the promotion of tourism and hospitality as well as our charitable organizations. Your company and/or organization will be recognized as a contributor and friend of Skål on the night of our Holiday Gala.

Please visit our website www.skal-ftlauderdale-palmbeaches.org to get more information on our club and to peruse the latest and greatest photos thanks to our paparazzi, Paul Cook, who also doubles as our Club’s Secretary. We look forward to seeing everyone at the Holiday party next month.

Regards and Skål!
Beth Cohen, Vice President
Skål International Ft. Lauderdale & Palm Beaches

Holiday Party 2009/2010- FUTURE MEETINGS:

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR OUR 2010 UPCOMING MONTHLY MEETINGS

CONTACT: Teresa Nix – (305) 775-5846 tnix@princesscruises.com /
Dick Stafford – 561 – 627-8859 rwstaff@bellsouth.net
Carlos Banks – 954-895-8732 skalbanks@comcast.net