Florimond Volckaert Book

Dear Fellow Skålleagues:

We would like you to take a few minutes of your time to help your fellow Skålleagues. As you may know, we have an established benevolent fund for all Skålleagues, called the Florimond Volckaert Fund. This Fund, named after the first President of the international association, has been established for years, to help provide care for Skålleagues that may have financial or health challenges and in time of need.

Every year, your Skål organisation assists many of your fellow Skålleagues with a grant or loan when they are experiencing hardships. I know that Skålleagues have received assistance in most countries around the world.

We want to continue to raise funds for our Florimond Volckaert Fund, so we can maintain our ability to provide assistance and help to Skålleagues in difficulty. We have thus decided to complete a unique fund- raising project and need your assistance and not financial.

We all have encountered or heard of funny travel stories about clients, friends, family or even ourselves……… so we have decided to publish a book of humorous travel stories submitted by Skål members. We have arranged with a professional author to compile these stories received from Skålleagues and write a humorous travel book. This book will be available to all Skålleagues and also be sold in airport travel stores around the world. We will also be able to promote more knowledge of Skål in this publication.

Please take a few minutes to read the following information about the author and the stories we need. Your stories may not make you famous, but you will receive a FREE copy of the book if your story makes the final cut for our book, and at your request, we can give publicity to you and/or your company if you wish.

About the Author:

I am a Canadian journalist and author of over a thousand national articles and three dozen books. I have been authorized by the Skål Executive Committee and commissioned by Thom Vincent, International Skål Councillor for Canada, to create a win-win project for the thousands of Skål members around the world.

I will be writing a book of humorous stories, to raise funds for Skål’s admirable charity, the Florimond Volckaert Fund, which assists Skål members who may have economic, family or health challenges. As many of you have had years of experience in the tourism and hospitality business, I know you have a few great stories to tell. Please submit as soon as possible to amgould@sympatico.ca

CONTENT: To jostle your memory of special situations you have encountered.

• Any of the most hilarious, embarrassing, meaningful, unforgettable, and true experiences that you have encountered in any aspect of the travel industry: airlines and airports, hotels and motels, trips and packages, uproarious moments of conflict, lost/stolen luggage, customs or security problems, surprise landings in the wrong city or the Hudson River, misplaced pets, children or husbands, etc.
• Stories of acts of kindness are welcome, along with rudeness, surprises, joys, ruined weddings and saved weddings, and laugh-out-loud moments.

FORMAT: To guide you.

• These emails can be as brief as a paragraph or as long as several pages.
• It is essential that this book contains only experiences which have actually happened, although names of people, hotels, tour guides and even cities will be changed when requested.

Every person whose story is chosen for inclusion in the Skål book, will receive credit at the end of the entry (Jane Smith, Smith & Jones Travel, Pittsburgh, for example), will be mailed a FREE copy and, in addition, will be given a large discount if additional copies are purchased. Our goal is to make this book available in every major airport around the world.

At first, this book will be published in English, but French and Spanish translations may be made available, should sales and fund-raising be as successful as we expect. All Skål members will have the opportunity to purchase copies at a steep discount, to be given or sold to their clients and employees, used as fund-raisers, placed in hotel rooms, and/or included with travel packages, etc.

This book will be a powerful document which you and the industry will be proud of. We also will have a great opportunity to promote and brand Skål in this book, outlining our goals and objectives and giving us terrific Public Relations. Everyone enjoys relaxing and reading funny travel stories, and I know you have one to share, if not several.

We eagerly await your submission; multiple submissions are encouraged. Please forward as soon as possible as we want to start editing in November 2009 and have the book ready for sale at the International Congress in Sydney in October, 2010.