Chairman's Acceptance Speech
Ashwin "Ash" Patel
2008 Chairman, Asian American Hotel Owners Association
March 29, 2008
 How was the convention? I thought it was great!!! I hope you
all have enjoyed yourselves here and that you have taken advantage of
the exceptional value and educational opportunities AAHOA has offered
over the last few days.
I don’t want to keep you from tonight’s excellent
entertainment and food, so I will keep things quite short.
I look forward to a great year! I hope that everyone present here
tonight will attend next year’s annual convention in Washington
D.C. for our march to celebrate our 20th Anniversary. We need to let the
Hill know that AAHOA is here and that we are “THE voice
of owners in the hospitality industry.”
We have set some very ambitious goals for AAHOA, and I hope to help
us reach all of them. In the last year, we have reached new heights of
membership numbers, ending 2007 with 8,743, 1,091 of which are Lifetime
Members. So far this year we are well ahead for membership renewals in
comparison with years past. I see no reason why we should not reach
10,000 members, and I hope to see at least 1,000 more of you pledge your
support by becoming Lifetime Members. Our strength is in our numbers,
and as they increase so does our influence in the hospitality
industry.
There are several other points I would like to make while I have the
opportunity. I believe it is important for AAHOA to work towards some
level of financial independence. In addition, I would like to see 2,500
more hotels join the AAHOA credit card processing program with Chase
Paymentech, which would increase our revenue share to at least one
million dollars.
A key element of AAHOA’s success is our dedication to the
pursuit of fair franchising. We have taken the lead by initiating the
Performance Appraisal program, and I believe that our Progress Report
shows that we are making some progress. We will continue our work
towards achieving complete compliance with our 12 Points in hopes of
creating well-balanced relationships between our franchisors and our
franchisees.
As many of you are aware, AAHOA has a new slogan, which we hope will
help brand our organization and enhance our visibility. We are
“THE voice of owners in the hospitality
industry.” To achieve the sort of name recognition we
hope for, we need to have a solid PAC fund. My goal is to encourage our
members to pledge to donate to the fund for the next five years so that
we can reach $100,000 for our chosen political sponsorships. AAHOA is
proud of our commitment to offer superior educational opportunities to
our members. We will continue to provide new and cutting edge seminars
at both our conventions and at our Regional Meetings.
What would this speech be without thanking some of the people who
have helped AAHOA get where we are today? During his year as Chairman,
Mukesh Mowji brought a new vision of sustainability and continuity to
AAHOA. He was a key player in starting the alliances between Officers,
which helped AAHOA establish meaningful goals as an organization.
Of course, I need to thank Danny Patel, our exiting Chairman, who has
sacrificed more of his time and energy than any one else I know. Join me
in thanking him for his perseverance and volunteerism. It is definitely
going to be hard to fill Danny’s shoes.
I would like to thank Tarun Patel and CK Patel, my fellow officers,
who have supported AAHOA and me as we move ahead toward another
successful year.
I thank the outgoing board of directors, who will continue to be
assets to AAHOA and, I hope, to be ambassadors as well.
I am going to thank our new board in advance for their support as we
pursue an ambitious agenda for our march to Washington, DC next year to
celebrate 20 years of AAHOA.
A special thank you to the members of the staff, who help us put our
ideas into action. In particular, let’s all thank Fred, who is the
constant and pillar of AAHOA. At this point, I think we should establish
a new position for him, so from now on you can address him as Fred
Schwartz, AAHOA President AND Historian.
I would also like to thank all of our members and the ambassadors who
continuously work to promote AAHOA’s Unity of Vision and
Community of Strength.
If there is one thing I have learned, it is that none of us would be
able to volunteer our time to AAHOA if our families were not also making
sacrifices by allowing us to do so. I extend an enormous thanks to my
family - my mother and father, who are in the audience, as well as the
person who has supported me for the last 5 years without question
– my wife, Asha. She is the one who holds our family together. And
a special thank you to my 12 year old son, Niklas, who has been hurt the
most by my absence.
None of us can achieve anything without the support of our friends,
so a special thanks goes out there to my friends from Luanshya, Zambia -
”The Luanshya Boys.” Are you guys out there? I cannot hear
you! Can you please stand up and be acknowledged? I’ll see you all
in Vegas in a month.
I think I must have thanked more people than one gets to do at the
academy awards!
In closing, I ask for both your support and your commitment to AAHOA.
We can only be as good as our members, so I challenge each of you to be
an active, participating member of this association of ours.
Please enjoy the night, and god bless!!! Thank you!
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