21 December 2007

41st Annual General Assembly (AGA)
Visa Requirements
The Airlines Club Bahamas President, Ann Albury, has forwarded the following link for interliners to find out if they need a visa to enter the Bahamas: http://www.mfabahamas.org/vsiaforforeign.htm. Should anyone require a visa, an application form is attached for your convenience.
Registration Form
An updated registration form can be found in the Calendar of Events section on WACA's Web site: /waca/events.

Poppy Shiakalli Bowen - Last Memories
Please find below further messages received in Headquarters since my last communication about WACA Member of Honour, Poppy.
From Member of Honour, Gayatri Chandra
I new Poppy for along time. Her cheerful face and warmth always made me happy. In Tampa, when we were going for the cruise, she was there and she handed over a big chocolate bar to me and said "enjoy". Poppy has always spread LOVE.
I am going to miss her. She always kept in touch with me via mail. My prayers are with her family. She will be missed by all interliners.
From the President of the Interline Club of Greece, Theo Silvestros
On behalf of all members of the Interline Club of Greece and myself, our sincere and deepest condolences to Poppy's family (husband Roy, children and her family in Cyprus).  Personally I was shocked to hear the bad news and still am. I still can't believe it, since I didn't know she was ill.
May her soul rest in peace. God bless her family and God be with you all. Best regards dear friends.
From Mexico City Interline Club member, Hanan Khoury and husband Gabriel Alvarado
Hello from Mexico to all our friends in WACA. The passing of Poppy was a big loss for everybody. I met poppy in Amman in 1995. I admired her friendly spirit and her professional attitude as the V.P. Public Relations. She liked to join everybody together. I had contact with her through my Club (Jordan Interline Club) then we met again in Vancouver, Sri Lanka, Mexico and then I was invited to attend the European meeting in Cyprus. She was always so very active. Poppy married a year after Gabriel and I married and we moved to Mexico. We kept in contact for a while by mail. She was always trying to help and keep in touch but, unfortunately, I got very busy with the children and lost contact. Anyway, I think that everybody will always remember her with her big smile and the naughty words that she spoke in Arabic!
Good bye Poppy. Rest in peace. We love you. Good luck to you, Roy, she will always be in your heart and in ours. Please receive our sincere condolences from my family and I.
From the Past President of the Interline Club of Hannover and current member of the Detroit Interline Club, Karin Weber
As the former President and WACA Representative of the Interline Club Hannover, I would like to express my deepest sympathy on learning of Poppy's passing. I met Poppy during various interline events worldwide and knew she was a real interliner. She will be greatly missed.

International Events and Special Projects
Acting Vice President, International Events and Special Projects, Elaine Miller, sends the following message:
First of all, I would like to introduce my assistants and the areas of their responsibility:
Britt Akerman, Sports/International Events Coordinator and Promotion;
Chris Orton, Fund Raiser Promoter and Coordinator;
Sheila Read, Charities Coordinator;
Renato Goldenberg, 50/50 Sales Coordinator.
International Events
We will soon begin another year and I would like to have all clubs and members on board to jump start the year. We need to come up with more, and innovative, packages whether they be small friendship weekends or sporting events to larger international get togethers. We all like to travel and what better way to get to know about other parts of the world and meet new and long time friends. We would like to better promote all the events so we need better and accurate information received in lots of time to get the information out to interested interliners. I would request that you e-mail your planned events to myself and/or Britt Akerman as well as Keith Miller at Headquarters. If you are able to include pictures of previous events, I think it would add to the presentation.
Grand Venture Bonanza
Our Grand Venture Bonanza also needs lots of attention and I encourage you to come up with prizes that will help sell the tickets and increase our revenues. Prizes can range anywhere from event packages, monetary donations, condo holidays, airline items, commercial items, etc. Grand Venture Bonanza tickets can be sold throughout the year at all functions and also amongst the members locally. The old membership tickets can be used with the stub returned to Keith Miller at WACA Headquarters for inclusion in the draws. All it costs is USD 1.00 per ticket!  New tickets will be produced soon.
40th Anniversary DVD and the CD-ROM
A reminder that the WACA 40th Anniversary DVDs and the CD-ROMs are available for purchase through headquarters and Vice President, Public Relations, Rosemarie Mamede, for USD 15.00 and USD 10.00 each. These would be an excellent tool to help promote WACA and especially for membership drives. It would be beneficial for each club to have one or both of these tools to help increase their memberships.
Charity
It was wonderful to be with you all in Cape Town and to remember the feelings we experienced whilst listening to the Fikelela Aids Outreach workers at our opening ceremonies. It is our hope to continue our charitable work and encourage our clubs to contribute to the WACA Relief Fund so we can offer help to those who need it most.

Events Calendar
New Listings
Once again, the Interline Club of Portugal will be offering interliners a getaway for "Lisbon Weekends" throughout 2008 and the annual Grande Festa will take place from 9-13 October.
After many years without hosting an event, the Israel Interline Club were encouraged that five interliners attended the recent "Taste of Israel" so the Club has decided to host another "Taste" from 24-28 February.
The ever popular Jamaica Jump-Up will be hosted by the Jamaica Interline Club from 5-8 June.
Updates
The Interline Club of Portugal has changed the dates of the Tennis and Golf Tournaments to 25-29 March.
Information is now available for the exciting tour "Discovery China 2008 - From Cathay to Tartary; From Beijing to Ulan Bataar" being organised by the Hong Kong Interline Club.
Details on all the above events can be found in the Calendar of Events section of the WACA Web site: /waca/events.

Seasons Greetings
President, Maga Ramasamy, on behalf of the WACA Executive Committee, wishes interliners throughout the world the very best Season's Greetings and a Happy, Safe and Prosperous New Year.

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