PHIL RUDIN
Contributor
As announced in our May Club presentation last evening, your Board of Directors and I have taken a giant stride forward to position the Club for continued growth and greater collaboration with more Underwater Photographers into the future. Our monthly Club meetings will no longer be held at the El Palacio Hotel in Miami. We have secured a phenomenal meeting location central to all Club Members off of Cypress Creek Road between both Interstate 95 and the Florida Turnpike. Many of you know the Club has been in its current location for over 20 years. A change was needed to move the organization ahead for the next 20 years.
About the location:
The new facility is within a Marriott Courtyard hotel. The property is vibrant and very modern with lots of meeting space. It will also give those of us looking for a bite to eat or drink before the meetings to socialize inside the full-service bar/restaurant inside. The site selection criteria was rigorous relevant to safety, cleanliness, open space, atmosphere to socialize, ease of access, and quality but there were two other main reasons for the move. We are pre-emptively making a change in advance of the El Palacio attempting to raise rates for their limited quality offering as well as recognized the northern migration of most Club members over the years and Underwater Photographers in general. The Board took a pragmatic approach to plotting our member addresses onto a map and calculating the midpoint as to where our members reside. That midpoint as stated is a bit North of our current location but accurately reflects the migration of most of our members. South Florida is a growing metropolis from Jupiter down to the Florida Keys. We expect this new site to be able to accommodate more of our Club members to participate in future meetings.
Our SFUPS web site has also been updated to acquaint you with a few photos, general directions, and a map to the new location. Our June 11th meeting will be our inaugural event to celebrate this new facility. Your Board of Directors and I cordially invite you to a reception for this upcoming meeting that we are hoping you will all attend and celebrate to the Clubs future success. We are also planning to have a very special celebrity featured speaker to help get the party started. Chris Parsons, with Nauticam, has an amazing presentation lined up for the Club. There will be more details I will share in the coming weeks on the venue as well as Chris presentation so please mark your calendars. We expect this event to be our biggest ever and will likely issue local press releases. Check out the SFUPS pages for further details: SFUPS News & Events
See and talk to you soon,
Sam Hodge
President South Florida Underwater Photography Society
www.sfups.org
About the location:
The new facility is within a Marriott Courtyard hotel. The property is vibrant and very modern with lots of meeting space. It will also give those of us looking for a bite to eat or drink before the meetings to socialize inside the full-service bar/restaurant inside. The site selection criteria was rigorous relevant to safety, cleanliness, open space, atmosphere to socialize, ease of access, and quality but there were two other main reasons for the move. We are pre-emptively making a change in advance of the El Palacio attempting to raise rates for their limited quality offering as well as recognized the northern migration of most Club members over the years and Underwater Photographers in general. The Board took a pragmatic approach to plotting our member addresses onto a map and calculating the midpoint as to where our members reside. That midpoint as stated is a bit North of our current location but accurately reflects the migration of most of our members. South Florida is a growing metropolis from Jupiter down to the Florida Keys. We expect this new site to be able to accommodate more of our Club members to participate in future meetings.
Our SFUPS web site has also been updated to acquaint you with a few photos, general directions, and a map to the new location. Our June 11th meeting will be our inaugural event to celebrate this new facility. Your Board of Directors and I cordially invite you to a reception for this upcoming meeting that we are hoping you will all attend and celebrate to the Clubs future success. We are also planning to have a very special celebrity featured speaker to help get the party started. Chris Parsons, with Nauticam, has an amazing presentation lined up for the Club. There will be more details I will share in the coming weeks on the venue as well as Chris presentation so please mark your calendars. We expect this event to be our biggest ever and will likely issue local press releases. Check out the SFUPS pages for further details: SFUPS News & Events
See and talk to you soon,
Sam Hodge
President South Florida Underwater Photography Society
www.sfups.org
