My dear fellow members, this is my first report as President of our Chapter. I have been in office for about six months now, and for me it has been and still is an honor and great experience for me. The first thing I would like to do is extend a big Thank You to my Board of Directors, who has been very supportive and extremely helpful during my term. I am very proud to say that our Citrus Chapter has a very active and dedicated group of individuals making up our Board of Directors.

Our Chapter has been quite busy and active so far this term. Up to date we have had three successful dinner meetings where we had very good turnouts, a good program scheduled and a good meal. Also I am proud to report that we have signed up several new members and had several renewals at those dinner meetings.

Our Chapter, again this year, ran a Scholarship Contest and the topic was on Global Warming. We had quite a few excellent submissions and a winner was chosen. Look for more information about the winner in this newsletter.

Since we were informed that our chapter is going to be the host for the 2010 AES, the board has been busy, and with the help of our State President and Vice President, I am proud to report that we have found a location and have signed contracts for the locations. The AES Conference will be held at the Riverside Convention Center, and the lodging for the conference will be at the famous Mission Inn in Riverside, CA. We are now in the process of forming a Chapter AES Committee, and are looking for help on this. It will be a big task and will require quite a bit of help. If there is anyone of you, our valued members that would like to help or be part of this committee, please let me or any of the Board members. I want to extend a special congratulation to my Pres – Elect, Parveneh Byrth, for taking the lead on this and getting us a location. Details on the 2010 AES will be forthcoming.

Our chapter also undertook, as an experiment, conducting an On Line Board of Directors Meeting in December. We were assisted in this endeavor be our State President, Tracy Ford. The meeting went over well. The next State CEHA BOD Meeting will also be done as an on line meeting, which will be on Saturday January 24, 2009.

I will be laid up for a while due to needing to have surgery on my foot. I will be going into the hospital on January 24, 2009, and will be hospitalized about five days and then recuperating at home a couple of weeks. Please keep me in your prayers and be supportive to the remainder of the board when asking for help.

Hopefully I will be back on my feet in the near future and be there to serve you again for the remainder of this term. Again I want to thank you all for your support but most of all your friendship.

We welcome and encourage any and all feedback from our membership. Write us and let us know what we can do for you.

Howard Malberg

Citrus Chapter President