YCS President’s Message, 2023-24
Bruce L. Ballard ’60
Greetings to all Yalies in our Yale Club of the Suncoast area.
For those who are members, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting you and greeting you at our monthly luncheons. To those in the area who have not become members of YCS, perhaps you will see if you view our Website the many interesting activities of the Yale Club and those will entice you to join us. I have the pleasure for the next two years of serving as President of the Yale Club of the Suncoast. In coming into that responsibility, I must thank our Past President, Elizabeth Spahn for her stellar leadership during the difficult time of coping with the COVID pandemic. It has not been an easy time for any officer at the helm of an organization such as the Yale Club, but she is most persistent, seems to be able to be everywhere one can be in service to the Club, and always carries on with the strength and determination our university shows and deeply appreciates. My personal thanks to her!
In addition, YCS is lucky to have an extraordinary, dedicated board who do not hesitate to take on multiple responsibilities, all voluntary, and they plan their personal and business time to be on the team that leads. I am happy to report that we have had some new, interested, and creative members to join the board — an essential updating that portends our club will continue to operate with vigor, planning events that continually refresh our activities. It is also a sign of our strength that members who have chosen to move on from board activities continue to offer advice, counsel, and wisdom to the board, as well as taking the lead in planning some activities! They may have left the board but their interest and loyalty to YCS remain, and we all must be continually grateful for their work on our behalf.
We have a great season of activities currently in the works. Our last seasons have met with success, and the current season will be exciting. We must recognize at the same time that we like interesting events and like to have a good time at them. After many years of trying to cope with aspects of cost of events, the remarkable talents of our board members cannot reduce the overall local and national inflation of prices that accompany holding gatherings so everyone can have lunch and/or other amenities (it’s fun and none of us forgets that), so you will note an increase in cost of events.
Many of our members are away on vacations and family visits during the summer, but we will have Tuesday drop-in lunches at Marina Jack during those months. They will be coordinated by a member of the club during those meetings. They are informal, but the Website will list who is the host during those gatherings. Those who wish to attend will see on our Website who is the host, and those persons should notify the host, who can then inform Marina Jack how many will be attending lunch. Each person pays for his or her own lunch during those gatherings.
Our fall will begin with a Welcome Back Party at the Sarasota Yacht Club on Sunday, November 5, 2023 from 4:00 – 6:00 PM. Our schedule of Tuesday luncheons begins November 14, 2023 with Peter Rothstein, the new Producing Artistic Director at the Asolo Theater Company. Our luncheon on December 12, 2023 will feature the City Manager of Sarasota as our speaker. During that fall season we will gather with the Harvard Club to view the annual Harvard-Yale football game at Evie’s Tavern in Sarasota. Another event in the planning stages is a lunch at Der Dutchman with a talk about Sarasota’s famous Pinecraft area.
Stay tuned as a number of activities take place in 2024, with exciting luncheon speakers, tours, and other social gatherings during January through May.
I welcome hearing from any of you about your concerns, interests, or ideas about YCS. Please do not hesitate to contact me.