Honorary President's Departing Message

LONG LIVE THE SOCIETY! But how?  Well, tune in for just a moment.

Covid could have sounded the death knell on an organization founded on the precept that people thrive when seated at a table with wine, food and uncovered faces at our elbows.  It didn’t. It hasn’t.  Unmasked conversation is flowing again.

Two years in, and we’re living with this new threat by being vaccinated and using common sense.  Branches all around the world are meeting again.  The Society lives.  And I have a secret for assuring that each of our 130 branches everywhere can continue to survive for generations.  But you’re going to have to wait a bit for the reveal.

The most effective way to guarantee continuity in a Society branch is to have all of its members invested.  They know when joining that they immediately will be involved in important committees and will help organize dinners & events.  And, yes, some of these friends are “volunteered” for positions.  (Don’t worry.  They’ll learn.)

But here’s my guaranteed method of keeping a branch going for decades and decades:  BUILD A WINE CELLAR.

I’ve traveled the world, and the one consistent marker of a flourishing branch is a deep and desirable “wine cellar”.  Every member knows that they’ll be drinking marvelous wines in the coming months and years because they were the ones who bought and stored it.  They tell their friends about this Society which regularly puts away great wine for the future.  They also tell their sons and daughters.  Who then tell their friends.  It all works like a charm.

But it takes more than money to get a cellar up and running.  It also takes discipline, knowledge and a willingness to share this experience.  Decisions should be made by a broad and knowledgeable committee of the members.

Good graciousness.  I’m about to repeat myself.

Build. A. Cellar.

Dave Felton