The top of the morning to you as one good Irishman would say. The National Convention of 2008 was held in Miami last week. The convention provided valuable information to the Chapter Leaders and Committee Chairman. WAABI 101 was an informative session that will be very useful to all of the chapter leaders and committee leaders. If you were not able to attend the convention, I suggest that ask Jill Hawkins to send your chapter a copy of the 101 handbook. It has some outstanding information, which will help your chapter grow and function affectively.

The future of WAABI is in the chapter's hands. Each chapter outlined the many good deeds and the fund raising events of the past year at he convention. But as we learned at the convention each chapter needs to be communicating to the community the good things that the chapter is developing. Public relations are one of the many areas that were discussed at the national convention and we at the chapter level need to do our share of promoting our activities.

With the heat and humidity in South Florida, the chapter is working on two projects at this time in the comfort of the air conditioning. One project is the scholarship fund. We have 51 applications for the two scholarships that we will give away in the fall. The other project is Serviceman's Lounge at Miami International Airport. Some of our members have donated time and the chapter has donated money for equipment for the Serviceman Lounge. Our congratulations to the WAABI Board of Directors and to Jill Hawkins, the Executive Director, for the time and effort they put in for the national convention and for a training manual that was produced to aid all of the chapters.

Now have a good day.

David Countin South Florida Chapter President