6 November 2009

42nd Annual General Assembly (AGA): The 2009 Interline Celebration
Press Release
The President's opening speech can be found in the News and Press Releases section of the WACA Web site: /waca/news.
Annual Reports
The Executive Committee's Annual Reports can be found in the Forms & Reports section of the WACA Web site: /waca/forms.
Visit to the Pure Life Society
V.P. International Events and Special Projects, Elaine Miller, sends the following report.
On 8 October while attending our 42nd Annual General Assembly, a representation of 20 members of the World Airlines Clubs Association visited the Pure Life Society in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We met with the staff and children and presented them with a cheque in the amount of RM 1,470. As well, we also presented them with four boxes of school supplies. We were delighted with the welcome we received from everyone, especially the children.
The Pure Life Society is a home for disadvantaged children founded in 1949 by Swami Satyananda Phd.D., J.P. During the years 1945 to 1951, he was involved in relief work amongst the poor, the orphans, and the displaced children in Singapore and Malaya, assisted by Mother (then sister) Mangalam. In 1950, as a result of World War II, the first Home was established for orphans and underprivileged children.
We were thrilled with the excitement of the children and honoured when Mother Mangalam, who, at 83, is an inspiration to everyone (another Mother Theresa). Although she had not been feeling well earlier in the day, she came to welcome us and thank us personally for our interest and donations to the orphanage.
We all left with a warm feeling of making a small difference in their lives.

Events Calendar
New Listings
Lots of exciting new tours await interliners in 2010 as follows:
18-21 February, Las Vegas Getaway hosted by the San Diego Interline Club.
14-19 March, Myanmar Excursion hosted by the Airline Club of Thailand.
19-27 March, Thailand Excursion hosted by the Airline Club of Thailand.
27 March-1 April, China Capitals Tour hosted by the Airline Club of Thailand.
9-12 April, Budapest, Hungarian Interline Club.
15-18 April, European Get Together and European Regional Meeting hosted by the Gatwick Interline Club.
7-9 May, North American Regional Meeting, New Orleans hosted by the Pittsburgh Interline Club.
16-21 May, Vancouver Island Wineries Tour hosted by the Vancouver Interline Club.
25-28 June, Budapest, Hungarian Interline Club.
Once received, details on the above events will be posted in the Event Calendar section of the WACA Web site: /waca/events.

Grand Venture Bonanza
And the Winner is ...
The sixth and final draw of 2009 for a package for two donated by the Interairline Club Zurich to its Cheese Fondue Party on Sunday, 24 January was made today by IATA Service Desk Officer, Christian Benson. There were 1,259 tickets in the draw and the lucky winner is Sue Walker from the Gatwick Interline Club with ticket number 26645. Congratulations.

November Newsletter
V.P. International Events and Special Projects, Elaine Miller, sends the following message for November.
Now that October has come and gone and a few weeks have passed since we all returned from our 42nd Interline Celebration and Annual General Assembly in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, it is time to get back to normal and get caught up with communications.
First of all, our gratitude and thanks must go to everyone who worked so hard to make our 42nd Interline Celebration the great success we enjoyed. Your participation and enthusiasm was what made the difference and made all the hard work and planning behind the scenes worthwhile. These events don’t just happen and it takes a great deal of time, talent and sacrifice on the part of everyone involved to make everything come together. Sure there were short comings and some things could have been done better, but overall a good time was had by all. It is always easy to be critical, but remember, we are all members of WACA and work hard to make it a great organisation.
For my part, I want to thank everyone who gave of their time and energy to help with the selling of WACA t-shirts and towels, the collecting of the charity and Tombola prizes, selling 50/50 tickets, preparing for the Tombola, the Tombola itself and especially those who came with us to the orphanage (see write up above).
The WACA t-shirts and towels proved to be popular and were sold throughout the Celebration. Since they are good advertising for WACA, if any clubs or individuals are interested in obtaining some of these items, maybe as a prize or promotion at any of your events, let us know so we can work out ways to deliver them to you. T-shirts are USD 20.00 and the towels USD 15.00.
Our WACA Bonanza for the coming year will be again requesting new prizes. Your participation in buying and selling these tickets at all your events year round helps to make this project successful. We welcome your donations of prizes and encourage more new ideas.
While in Kuala Lumpur, I received many proposals and requests for dates for upcoming club sponsored packages and events for 2010. It promises to be an exciting year for WACA and we will culminate it with our net 43rd Interline Celebration and Annual General Assembly next 17-22 October in Recife, Brazil. I am sure there are others I haven’t received yet and I hope to hear from you as soon as possible about your planned packages and tours in order to have your dates approved for inclusion in the WACA Calendar of Events and the WACA World News. We endeavour to avoid overlapping events.
Our 50/50 draw was very successful this year, due to the efforts of Chris Orton, Ria Bucheli and Mia Zwahlen. Our lucky winners were:
1st Prize, USD 200.00, Mary Ekman, Sweden Airliners Club.
2nd Prize, USD 100.00, unclaimed.
3rd Prize, USD 50.00, Miriam Marley, San Diego Interline Club.
4th Prize, USD 25.00, Bertil Hammer, Sweden Airliners Club.
The unclaimed prize of $100.00 will be given to the WACA Relief Fund for charity.
The Tombola evening, although hectic, was successful from a fund raising point of view. The success of the Tombola depends on two things: donations received and number of people buying tickets. Last year, in Nassau, we ran out of ticket envelopes, so we tried to increase the numbers this year by 500. It is always hard to predict how many donations you will receive and figure out the ratio of prizes to tickets sold. Thank you to everyone who brought items for the Tombola and especially to everyone who bought tickets. A special thank you to Marcy Watt and Debbie Rhein for organizing and wrapping all the prizes and envelopes. This is no small feat and required a big time commitment prior to the event. As this was held the day of the AGA, I depended on these two ladies to wrap, number, set up, and help sell tickets that evening. This is one of the few ways and means WACA has of raising funds so that we can continue to provide an organisation you can be proud of and run professionally. Your participation is what makes it worth the hard work and effort. We would all like to relax and enjoy ourselves but without the workers no one has fun. This year we were able to realize a profit of USD 1,709.00 from our combined efforts. THANK YOU EVERYONE!
All in all this was a wonderful 42nd Interline Celebration and we look forward to next year in Recife.

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