Thankfully the end of 2020 is near, and a vaccine is in the mail, as they say!  

It has been a pleasure and an honor to serve as your SAAGNY President for the last two years.  The term for President is one year with an option for a second year - I thought 2019 went well and decided to take on another year, who know the second year would be consumed by COVID-19!   With COVID-19 affecting us since early March, SAAGNY was only able to produce one live Trade Show during all of 2020 but SAAGNY, like all of us, is resilient and we forged on with 15 Virtual Trade Shows held in June and September and other numerous virtual events and educational webinars.  

As SAAGNY President, I was looking forward to our new and second end user show, to be held in Melville, NY in the Spring of 2020 but that will have to wait for another year.   I always enjoyed our lively in-person Board Meetings, but like everything else all were held via Zoom.   SAAGNY was proud to announce mid-year that Promotions East was back under the SAAGNY umbrella.  A Promotions East Committee was formed and look for some exciting announcements from SAAGNY in 2021 regarding this show.  The landscape has certainly changed but SAAGNY is still your source for all things Promotional Products. 

I will now serve as Immediate Past President and will assist new President Rachel Levin and the 2021 Board in SAAGNY’s endeavors for the coming year.   We have three new Board Members joining us, Jeff Jacobs, Eric Levin, and Joe Favre.  They have already participated in a meeting or two and will hit the ground running January 1 with the rest of the Board.

Many thanks to Trish Glazer and Irwin Kotcher who are leaving the Board.  Both have served SAAGNY well and it was a pleasure to work with them.   They are both aware that if needed, they will be called upon to help us get through 2021!   SAAGNY is also saying goodbye to its current Immediate Past President, John R. B. Cudahy, MAS.  John has served on the board for more than thirteen years and his knowledge, experience, and point of views have been a true asset to SAAGNY.  He will be missed but we know we can reach out to him at any time for help and advice.   Finally, I was fortunate enough to have DJ as our Executive Director.  She always made me look good, offered great advice, and was the rock for SAAGNY to get through 2020.

Thank you to all for your patience with me as I learned on the job.  It was a fun ride and I hope I am leaving SAAGNY a little bit better than when I arrived.

Happy Holidays and hopefully a much better New Year.

All the best,

Paul Sprunk