15 May 2009

Executive Committee Meeting
A summary of the Executive Committee Meeting held in Montreal 27/28 February is attached. [info]

42nd Annual General Assembly (AGA): The 2009 Interline Celebration
Additional Nights
The fabulous and historic Palace of The Golden Horses will be the 2009 Interline Celebration's hotel and a special room rate of MYR 380.00 (approximately USD 103.00) per room nett has been arranged for extra nights immediately prior to or immediately following the AGA.
Pre-AGA Tour: Langkawi Tropical Get-Away
There are now approximately 25 places remaining on this tour reports Secretary General, Julian Chau.
Post-AGA Tour: The Borneo Adventure (Packages A, B and C)
Interliners are reminded that all three packages are now sold out and a "standby" list is now in effect.

44th Annual General Assembly (AGA): The 2011 Interline Celebration
In accordance with 2.4.1(a) of the WACA Bylaws, the Africa, Indian Ocean Islands and Middle East Region has submitted a bid to host the 44th AGA in Cairo in 2011. The Region will make a formal presentation at the 42nd AGA in Kuala Lumpur where the Assembly will vote in accordance with 2.4.1(e) of the WACA Bylaws to approve the time and place to hold the 44th AGA. Sincere appreciation is expressed to the Africa, Indian Ocean Islands and Middle East Region for making this bid.

Membership Dues
V.P. Finance and Treasurer, Judith Guevara, advises that she has e-mailed the membership dues invoices to all Member Clubs.

WACA Contact
The Vancouver Interline Club has a new Web site: www.vancouveric.weebly.com.

May Newsletter
V.P. International Events and Special Projects, Elaine Miller, sends the following message for May.
It has been some time since I have communicated with you so I will start with wishing you a HAPPY SPRING!  It has been a long winter for those of us who reside in the northern hemisphere and we are looking forward to longer daylight hours and seeing the seasons change to warmer temperatures and little green sprouts peeking their heads out of the ground.
Since my last newsletter, many things have changed in our lives and we are trying to get back to normal and catch up. We have officially made our move across the country from Calgary and now reside on the east coast of  Canada in a small university town in Nova Scotia called Antigonish. Why, after so many years of living in Calgary, would we make such a drastic move? Believe me, we have asked ourselves this question in the last couple of months after experiencing what such a gigantic move entails. We have built a new retirement home here that will meet our needs for the future. We also have a lot of family close to Antigonish and look forward to making new friends, renewing others and welcoming all our friends who might like to come for a visit. Packing and unpacking has pretty well taken up all of our time as we try to get settled.
By now, most of the regional meetings have taken place and I hope progress was made and many important items to our various regions discussed and solutions found. The situation our world is experiencing currently with recession and many people worrying about jobs and futures can’t help but impact on us as an international organization. Although attendance may not have been what we would like to have had at our meetings and packages, we should not be too discouraged as we know from past recessions that “this too shall pass” and life will go on. This is not a time to be concentrating on the negatives and dwelling on past problems but a time to rebuild and refocus on where we want to go and what we want to achieve. This is still a beautiful world and there is so much to do and share, especially in our world of travel and airlines. Those who only see gloom and doom will never get going again. Positive thinking and action is needed if we are to survive for the future.
I am encouraged by the numbers planning to attend the Interline Celebration in Kuala Lumpur in October and know Julian will be sending out complete updates and information as we draw nearer to the event. Many questions have already been asked and answered from what we can expect regarding our regional nights/afternoons and what we can bring in the way of alcoholic beverages. It sounds like it would be best to purchase some of these items locally in Kuala Lumpur, as we can only bring 1 litre of spirits.
I will, once again, be requesting your generosity to donate special items for our planned “TOMBOLA”. This proved to be great fun and added to excitement and entertainment. We are also planning to have souvenir items available in small quantities for purchase during the celebration. We will be advising everyone later what our charitable donations will be and the organization receiving the donations. It is always overwhelming what we can do as an organization when we give in small ways as individuals to help those less fortunate. This is an important part of WACA and always gratefully received.
We are well into our 2009 Calendar of Events. For clubs who have already hosted their events, don’t forget to fill in the form found under Forms and Reports that should be completed and copies forwarded to myself, our VP Finance and also Headquarters. We need your assistance with this to help improve our overall picture and how we can improve for the future. There are still many interesting and exciting events coming up and we hope many of you will be able to attend. We all enjoy the write ups and pictures of your adventures and Rosemarie needs your input to promote in our WACA World News.
Congratulations to the North American Region on their informative regional newsletter. It helps to learn what is happening in other regions with innovative ideas and a positive input from their clubs. Other Clubs, such as Singapore do a splendid job of keeping its members informed and active with many interesting events. This attracts new members and shows what can be accomplished. Keep your local newsletters circulating through out WACA so we all can learn and benefit with new ideas and events.
It is exciting to learn that our membership has voted to hold the 43rd International Celebration and Annual General Assembly in Recife, Brazil in 2010. This will certainly be a different destination and one many of our members will plan to attend. The Interline Club of Portugal is to be congratulated  for its efforts and organisation to take us for the first time to Brazil. I encourage all our Clubs and Regions to get behind our colleagues in Portugal and help to make it a great success.
The Bonanza remains one of our main fund raisers and I appeal again to each Club to come up with a prize donation to help promote and make it work. A big thank you to all who have contributed so far and congratulations to those who have won the prizes. The package for one, on a twin sharing basis, to the 42nd Annual General Assembly (AGA): The 2009 Interline Celebration will be drawn by the end of June, so get your Bonanza tickets into our WACA Headquarters soon and sell, sell those tickets at all your events.

Yours in interlining,

Keith Miller
Manager, WACA Headquarters
World Airlines Clubs Association
Tel.: +1 514-874-0202 (ext. 3243)
Fax: +1 514-874-1753
info@waca.org
www.waca.org