Dear Skålleagues,

As you catch up on all the Skål Australia news in our fantastic May edition, I will be travelling to New Zealand to attend the Skål New Zealand Congress. With a quick stopover in Wellington on the way to visit family and then onto Christchurch for their May luncheon, we then head to picturesque Queenstown in the stunning Otago Region where I am looking forward to re-connecting with our Kiwi Skålleagues at their National Congress. Our Skål International Region 12 Director and International Vice President Denise Scrafton and Australian Director Melinda Brown will be attending along with a few other Aussies for what will no doubt be a very productive weekend.

Following my visit to New Zealand, I will then travel direct to the Kingdom of Bahrain on the Persian Gulf to attend the Skål Asia Area Congress where I am also looking forward to reconnecting with our Asian Skålleagues to strengthen our relationships and promote business opportunities between our regions. We have a small delegation of three people visiting Bahrain, myself, Jensen Skjellerup from Broome and Michael Collins from Perth, our numbers are small but our presence will be large!

I wanted to thank everyone who very passionately participated in celebrating 90 years of Skål International on World Skål Day last month. The video came out really well and it was certainly shared far and wide amongst our global Skål network. Thank you to Director Melinda Brown and Vice President Tara Strickland for co-ordinating and putting the video together, I think Australia was by far the biggest celebrators on the day!

We recently corresponded with Club Presidents and Secretaries to advise that Skål Australia plans to take a leadership position in promoting a responsible and sustainable culture within the travel and tourism industry. Through our various clubs and membership network, we can lead the way in promoting a cleaner and greener future for travel and tourism and Skål International. Each club has been asked to nominate a Sustainability Champion who will have the responsibility of driving sustainable projects and initiatives within their club, and to participate in a national sustainability subcommittee to be led by Alfred Merse, past Australian President, International Skålleague of the Year, and International Sustainability Committee member for Region 12.

To get this project underway, we are requesting clubs to please appoint and report their Sustainability Champion by the 31st May.

With no solid news or progress regarding the Skål International websites, the end of April deadline has passed. We are still in the planning phase however on my return to Australia we hope to move to the execution phase for new Australian managed websites. I am however looking forward to having some in-depth discussions regarding the international websites in New Zealand with our Digital Transformation & Technology liaison and Region 13 International Director.

Without stealing the limelight from our Vice President Tara Strickland - Industry Engagement & Events, this month ATE24 will be hosted by Melbourne, and Vice President Tara along with the Melbourne Club will be hosting a "Skål Meet" for those attending. I encourage any Skålleagues attending ATE24 to register through our newsletter and take full advantage of the opportunity to network with Australian and International Skålleagues.

We are working with the Cairns Club to finalise our mid-year National Assembly to be held 6th - 8th September with further details to be released soon!

The website and registrations are now open for the Skål International World Congress to be held in Izmir, Türkiye 16th - 21st October. For any members who are confirmed as attending please email me at president@skal.org.au so we can add you to the WhatsApp group so we can liaise on any travel plans, pre and post tours, issues (there are a few current glitches being addressed at the moment) or any questions - this group will also be our main communication channel when in Türkiye. I am really hoping we can get a large delegation of Aussies attending for what will be a sensational World Congress!

Yours in Skål,

Ash Munn
President - Skål International Australia
Partnerships & Technology