PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

The Chapter’s fifteenth Annual Mid Summer Classic is now history and what a great
history it is.  To our surprise, we received many entries near the deadline, and this
ended up being our second largest competition. I would like to take this opportunity
to thank the many dedicated folks of SouthernStar who once again made this day
possible.

Our competition organizers, Michael and Beth Nolan, once again did a tremendous
job in organizing the heats and communicating with dancers all over the USA. The MSC
is my favorite comp because they take the time and effort to organize heats so the
dancers will have rest time in between in order to be at their best on the dance floor.
A huge thank you to the Nolans for their hard work!

Our Friday welcome party is courtesy of Scott and Sarah Coates, and it is always
well attended and appreciated. This gives us a chance to socialize and get a quick
warm up for the big event. Thank you Scott and Sarah.

Our super newsletter editor and webmaster, Nikki and Jerry Dvorak, did their usual
fine job in getting the word out on the Web Site and in print. Thanks Nikki and Jerry!

A series of thank yous go out to Richard Collett for MC duty and to Ted Famularo
and Stan Sheppard for maintaining sanity in the parking lot. I always enjoy Richard
at the microphone. He is always great to work with.

Speaking of maintaining sanity, I must be sure to acknowledge Bonna Tannenbaum,
Kathy McCollister, and Debra Kobritz  for handling the front desk like the pros
they are. It’s a tough job keeping everyone straight and accounting for money throughout
the day, but these ladies always come through; they have my sincerest thanks for another
job well done!

Edy and Louie Sequeira were also on hand to help the dancers find the dressing rooms,
restrooms, etc. The Sequeiras are always willing and eager to help with whatever needs
to be done, and they have the thanks of the entire chapter for their dedication.

A special note of thanks to Terri Lynn Barrow for being our Deck Captain for this
competition as Linda Gioino has been under the weather lately. I kind of talked
Terri Lynn into this adventure, and she sure had her hands full of wandering competitors.
Terri Lynn, I owe you at least a couple of your favorite dances next time we meet up
on the dance floor. In the meantime please accept my mega thanks for handling a tough
but critical job that kept the competition on time.

Also crucial to the timely operation of a competition is the communication of judges’
scores to the scrutineer. This is accomplished by having “runners”  throughout the day,
and I would like to acknowledge them  for their selfless contribution that day. A big
thank you to: Gayle Butler, Edie DeOlivera, Elaine Derby, Terry Irmis, Anita
DeMarco, Yashima, and Egland Sliwa (Hi Egland).   A little inside joke folks.

Refreshments were once again handled by our old friends, Carol and Pete Peterson.
Carol and Pete have been involved in all 15 MSC comps and were with us once again
to provide lunch for the judges and snacks for the competitors. Pete and Carol are the
official “color guard” for the chapter as they present the flag of the United States for
our opening ceremony’s National Anthem. This has been a patriotic tradition of the
chapter since the beginning. Pete is a veteran of World War II and served in Germany
with the First Infantry Division. Thank you Pete and Carol for all you do, and for your
involvement of the past 15 years!

I especially want to thank our chapter members and all USA dancers for being such a
great audience and cheering on their favorite dancers all day long. We had a great time
and now we have almost a year to recover. See all of you for MSC XVI on July 25, 2009!

Mike