I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season full of love, joy and happiness. My dear wife, Ivone, gave me a gift that I cannot open for 9 months. Imagine that !  Having to wait that long.
Oh well  I’ll keep shuffling along till then.  
If you haven’t guessed ….our daughter Isabella will be born on or about 4 July 2011.

The new year has started and I am excited to begin my term as President of the International Shuffleboard Association.  I am proud to have a great team of  Directors (Dieter Hussmann, David Earle, Beth Allen, Pam Hill and Earl Ball in the background ) and together we will continue to keep the ball or should I say, disk rolling on the International Scene.  I foresee a small problem with being the very first President to reside outside the USA and somewhat distanced from daily happenings of Shuffleboard however with the internet and constant updates we will try our best to reduce this to a minimum.  Communication between all of us will be extremely important.  My first task will be to make the necessary updates to the ISA website. The newly elected President of the “ABS” ( Brazilian Shuffleboard Association) is Dr. Luiz Pimentel.  Please welcome him aboard and I will be looking over his shoulder from time to time especially with translations.  Our first priority will be to assist the Team from Dieppe with any requirements they have with setting up and hosting the 2011 ISA World Singles Tournament.  Very soon, I will be establishing the cutoff date for entrants into this tournament and begin allocating all unused slots to other participating nations.  Secondly, I will be asking the National Presidents to start putting together nominations for the ISA Hall of Fame 2011 induction in Dieppe.  I’ll be sending a formal request for nominations in the near future.

Finally, we are saying Goodbye to Gus Bondi as Past Vice President and sadly he will no longer be an ISA Board Member as Earl Ball steps down and takes his place of honor.  Of course, I will from time to time, seek advice from Gus and the past Presidents regarding technical and sensitive decisions.   Happy Shuffling and remember to be successful in shuffleboard always keep an eye on two things, the scoreboard and the Shuffleboard website at www.world-shuffleboard.org.

We’ll talk again,

Michael R. Zellner