Skal National Assembly Adelaide - September 2016

As Vice President of our club, I had the privilege and honour of representing Broome at the recent Skal Australia National Assembly in Adelaide. It was my second National Assembly, the first being Broome which we hosted back in March 2015 and it was a sensational few days. 

Our first day was spent on a day tour through the Adelaide hills and into the wine region. Our first stop was a town tour in Hahndorf a small German settlement just outside of Adelaide, we then went on to the prancing pony a boutique microbrewery where we got to taste their entire range which was interesting, some tasty, some not so, I wouldn’t recommend the stout. We then moved onto the Hastwell and Lightfoot winery for some lunch and wine tasting. It was a fun filled day catching up with skalleagues I met in Broome and of course meeting new skalleagues from clubs across Australia. 

That night we attended the welcome cocktail function which was held at the Adelaide oval. I had the honour on behalf of the club to stand up and say a few words about our beloved Ross, it was a very special moment for me to acknowledge and pay tribute to our Past President and very dear friend. Adelaide oval was a great venue; we had the function in the premier suite which overlooked the entire oval which set an amazing atmosphere. 

Saturday was the national assembly itself located at the Mayfair Hotel and it was a very productive meeting. The big focus for the meeting was membership growth and every club was tasked with a target to improve their club numbers. Broome's target was to increase the membership from 67 to 80 by March next year. I encourage all of our club members to bring along industry guests and be active in nominating potential members. National President Fiona McFarlane has said those clubs who meet their targets will get a very nice reward, so let’s work hard at it! Another task, this one set by the Honourable World President Nigel Pilkington was to reduce our average age by 5 years in 5 years. It is essential for the future of Skal to encourage younger professionals to join the organisation, and in turn draw on the wisdom and experience from the older generation. Our club has the lowest age average nationally at 48 years of age with the average Skål age being 55 years so we are certainly off to good a start. 

We were also given the opportunity to stand up and present a 2 minute club report. I found it both interesting and beneficial listening to the other clubs challenges, the vast initiatives in place to drive Skal, and the different meetings and activities organised at club level. I certainly left the National Assembly with some great ideas for our club moving forward and I'm certainly looking forward to implementing them.  Other items that were discussed during the meeting were; the new social media platform 3 bays over, encouraging clubs to take part in the sustainable tourism awards, the creation of the new members video, 2 new Skål clubs Alice Springs and Mackay to be launched soon and the lack of member engagement regarding Skål newsletters both national and international which will be addressed over the coming months.  

At the conclusion of the National Assembly we were invited to the Hennessey Roof Top Bar for a President's shout. The bar is located in the loft of the Mayfair Hotel with spectacular views of Adelaide city. 

The Gala dinner was held at the Adelaide Convention Centre. After drinks and canapés on arrival we were then ushered into the room and welcomed by the Australian girls’ choir who sang us all a few songs including "I still call Australia home." Throughout the night we raised money through various activities including a wine guessing game which was lots of fun. The food was impeccable and we were entertained with live music with much dancing.

It was a privilege representing our Broome club at the National Assembly and I very much look forward to representing our club in many more!