June 7, 2021
Dear Fellow SKÅL Member,
As President of SKÅL International USA I thank you for attending our recent AGM/NCM. For many of us including the SKÅL USA EC it was the first time in 17 months that we were able to meet face to face and it was joyous to say the least. And we have discovered that we can now have highly effective hybrid meetings. Here’s a summary of our May 20 meetings.
Thursday morning we met with the Membership Committee to discuss how we can best help struggling clubs and where there are opportunities to open new clubs. Clubs are struggling for a variety of reasons and there is no single solution. We plan to work with each club to identify and help to come up with clear and visible plans to build membership. Regarding new clubs we identified three metropolitan areas: San Diego, San Antonio and Santa Monica. We ask all of our members to be a part of this process by providing the names of possible members in the target areas.
Thursday afternoon despite some minor technical obstacles we were able to present the AGM/NCM as a hybrid meeting that was attended virtually by over forty of our clubs. Our SKÅL International President, Bill Rheaume, addressed the group as did our own Burcin Turkkan, Senior VP SKÅL International. Members from SKÅL Orlando, SKÅL Miami and SKÅL Washington were present in the meeting room. Voting was done electronically instead of with our legendary colored cards. All of the proposed amendments to our Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws were approved and will be sent to SKÅL International for final approval.
A special thank you to SKÅL Orlando President Ross Burke and his amazing team for hosting us. We look forward to returning next May for the 2022 NASC. I also thank our hard-working Executive Committee: Holly Powers ISC, Richard Scinta VP Administration, Art Allis VP Finance, Tom Moulton VP Membership, Pam Davis, VP Communications and PR, Morgan Maravich, Director of Membership and Robert Lowell, Junior Auditor, who made the trip to Orlando. And thanks to Mark Irgang, Director of Membership, and JoAnne Ford, Senior Auditor, who attended virtually.
I sincerely hope that all of our clubs are holding or planning in person meetings again. We all know that’s what we want. But don’t forget the power of Zoom. We can all hold hybrid meetings and include other clubs. We can build our networks and support each other. We are a global SKÅL family. Whether you think locally, nationally or globally SKÅL is the place to be.
Thanks and SKÅL,
Jim Dwyer
President, SKÅL International USA
