A Message From Our President - September 2018

Boy does time fly! Summer is long gone; the kids have been in school over a month now, and football season is in full gear. We have a fantastic line up of events planned for you this program year. We just had our first monthly networking event at The Florida Aquarium, which was a beautiful venue with two great speakers talking about the high-level operations of the aquarium and the great research and preservation work that The Florida Aquarium does for our community. Who knew right here in Tampa is where the the swim bladder for the Leafy Sea Dragon was invented?

Chapter membership remains strong and vibrant and our sponsors continue to be the backbone of our professional organization. I welcome each and every one of you to get involved where your interests take you. We have several committees that would love your participation and we have created two new committee’s this year. The first is an interim committee to support our sister chapter for the 2019 FEI National Summit, which will be held next May in Orlando at Disney. The second is a committee that many of us will benefit from throughout our career and that is the Career Management/FENG (The Financial Executives Networking Group) Partnership Committee co-chaired by board members Art Singleton and Rob Taylor.

Speaking of board members, we have six new board members that were selected over the summer: Don Cleveland, Tim Delikat, Alex Maggi, David Pincus, Rob Taylor and Mark Winkler. We have purposefully expanded the board to provide the opportunity to have co-chairs for each of our key committees: Membership, Sponsorship, Philanthropy, Communications, Career Management, and Programs.

Finally, I would like to thank both Randy Lay and Joe Price for their many years of membership, board service, and leadership as they have accepted Board Emeritus positions where the chapter can continue to tap into their wisdom and guidance as the chapter continues to grow and provide meaningful opportunities for our professional community.

As always, we welcome your comments, suggestions, and participation. I look forward to seeing you at our October event.