President’s Corner September 2015 

Fellow Skalleagues,

We met in September at the newly renovated Hilton Downtown in their stylish Restaurant 211.

Thanks to our hostess for the evening Frances Ramirez.  The hors d’oeuvres were fantastic, especially the flat breads!  The board of directors recognized Colette Florido with our first Skal Baby Shower (she is due at the end of September) at the end of our board meeting.

Tim Coultas opened the dinner with the Skal toast. We welcomed several guests and potential members:  Mike Falconer the DOS of Le Meridien, Kimberly Scafidi-Sullivan the DOSM of Jackson’s Bistro, Tyler Scarborough with Network Limousines and Kaila Sanders from St Leo College… along with a few “better halves”.

The Hilton served a delicious dinner with choice of lobster bisque or cucumber carpaccio salad, French Cut Chicken with truffle potato puree and seasonal vegetables. A classic NY style cheesecake with raspberry coulis was the final touch!

We gave our appreciation to Roberta Blum for the planning of the enjoyable membership recruitment reception at Ulele on August 27^th.  After our golf rain out in July, I was delighted to announce our October 12th dinner will be back at Belleair Country Club (Host Ed Shaughnessy).  Dan Peretz gave a brief recap of the SIUSA National Committee Meeting which he attended in August. Tampa member Mark Hubbard will be attending the Skal International Congress in Malaga, Spain in October. Members were reminded what great travel opportunities are available with Skal.  Our Salute to Tourism will be on Thursday, November 12^th. Mark your calendars as we will again be at the Tampa Convention Center.  Rick Hamilton and staff promise as memorable of an evening as we enjoyed last year. Also, coming up on Monday, December 14^th is our Holiday Celebration, Wine Pull and Silent Auction at Andy Brouilliard’s TPepin’s Hospitality Centre!

Members were reminded to please “like” the Skal Tampa Bay Facebook page and to “check-in” on occasion.  Members were also encouraged to let George or Steven know if they have any interest in serving on the Board of Directors in the upcoming year as the nominating committee will meet soon.

Also let us know if you would be willing to serve on the Salute to Tourism committee or the Christmas/Auction committee.

Please start collecting wine to donate for December ($10 minimum retail value) which you can bring to the October and November dinners.  We also encourage donations of room, attraction, services and restaurant certificates for the auction in December.

Congratulations to Oliver and Allison Kugler who won the 50/50 drawing ($105).  Tyler Scarborough won four passes to Dali, Colette and Tim won Hubbard’s excursion certificates and dinner for 2 at the Tradewind’s “Palm Court” was won by Dan Peretz.  John Heather from St. Leo College led our closing Skal toast.  Thanks to everyone that attended a very enjoyable evening.

George Hoch

President