PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

The biggest thing affecting the League this month is the office move. With the concurrence of the Executive Board, Bob Blymyer, our Executive Director, located an office space at 1620 35th Avenue, opposite the northern end of the Executive Airport. We all inherited the current location, near Tribute Road and Expo Boulevard, but few of us have been real keen on the location. With rent increases facing us over the next few years, a search for another location was immediately launched. Since Bob is by far the principle user of the office, a location close to his home in the Greenhaven area was attractive. Bob found a nice 4-room office space, about twice as large as the one we currently occupy. There's a large reception area, a "Board" room, an office for the Executive Director, and a small storage room with a sink (and a shower?). The move will be done "in house" and is scheduled for Friday November 30th. Although this move may seem sudden to some of you, our Long-Range Planning Committee Chairman, Bruce Lee, has provided us with some tools to help the League plan for the more distant future. But right now, the League's focus is on building a new foundation of membership, both business and individual, for the next generation of "tax fighters."

As a follow-up to the recent articles on sub-prime loans, I just finished a conference call on that subject, and the problems that could be caused for the taxpayer if a government "bail-out" was the chosen remedy. The bottom line of the conference call was that the best solution is for the "guilty parties" (the borrowers and the lenders) to get together and renegotiate the terms of the loan agreements. This would get the government, and ultimately the taxpayer, out of the way of those responsible for such loans.

Once we get somewhat settled in the new office, we'll have to have an Open House sometime early next year for our members and guests. In the meantime, I hope to be seeing as many of you come out to our monthly meetings as possible (the third Thursday of each month at Zigato's Restaurant off Highway 160).

Ken Payne