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The Skål Asia AGM which due to the Covid-19 pandemic was without a home, instead the 49th SAA AGM was conducted online and turned out to be the highest attended AGM in recent history.
Skål International President Peter Morrison, heading the impressive line up of attendees including National Presidents Ranjini Nambiar (INDIA), Wolfgang Grimm (THAILAND), Tsutomu Ishizuka (JAPAN), and representatives Dr. Elton Tan (PHILIPPINES) and James Cheng (CHINESE TAIPEI).
The meeting host AA President Sanjay Datta opened the meeting with a warm welcome and quickly introduced World President Peter Morrison who in the time-honored Skål tradition offered the Skål toast.
During the awards presentations led by Past President Richard Hawkins on behalf of the international panel of judges consisting of Uzi Yalon, Gerry Perez, and Jano Mouawad. The winners were announced after the panel’s careful deliberations in the weeks prior to the AGM – the following were winners of the four SAA awards 2020:
- Goa won Asia Club of the Year reflecting their tremendous efforts this year
- SKÅL ASIA’s Personality of the Year 2020 was awarded to President Robert de Graaff of Phuket for his contribution to Skål. Robert is a founding member of the club
- The Environment Award 2020 was awarded to Anana Ecological Resort Krabi Thailand, for their outstanding commitment to Sustainability.
- Goa and Singapore shared the Young Skål Best Club Award 2020. Richard excused himself from the vote as Singapore is his home club
The judges said that the standards were very high this year and to pick the winners they particularly looked at the achievements of all entries.
During the bid for the 2021 conference, there were two entries one from Srinagar, Kashmir Northern India, and one from Bahrain.
After the online vote, Srinagar was declared the winner of next year’s congress.
India has thrice held the Congress in 1980 (Bombay); 2011 (Delhi) and 2019 (Bangalore) and Bahrain four times in 1983; 1991, 2000, and 2017.
With regard to turnout, everyone agreed that it was excellent.
Past President of Skål Asia Gerry Perez said “Personally, I do not recall ever seeing the high number of official participants to an Asia Congress”.
