Kia
ora. That's the Maori welcome or hello. In a few days, 15 of us and 5
from other clubs will be heading to New Zealand for 20-30 days. edward
perez will bring you a full report with slides at the June meeting. We
hear the Kiwis are wonderful and the scenery spectacular.If you want to go to a small group dinner in members’ homes on March 9, be sure to contact Henny Houston. Check the flyer and more information elsewhere in this newsletter.
Two members (Mary Williams and Felicity Sentance) are going to the Regional Conference in Albuquerque, NM March 21-23. Hope they learn some new information and make more regional FF friends. There is still time to register and go to this conference. Check our SW Conference page for information. Any member of Friendship Force may go to these conferences.
In May, 12 members of our club will be going on the Iron and Ice cruise through Europe. I look forward to their report.
We are hoping for an inbound exchange with Tuxtla Gutierrez Mexico in late May. Michael Wald is the Exchange Director for this. Let him know if you can help with home or day hosting or if you can host a group dinner. In April, we will have a speaker and slides giving us information about this area of Mexico.
Patty Niemeyer, Exchange Director for Columbia Cascades and Olympia WA outbound exchange, reports that she has 19 applications for the trip. Should be a great place to be in late July while the Texas heat is upon us. These two clubs will be return visiting us in 2015.
And we should know by the end of February from FF International what the proposals are for our outbound and inbound exchanges for 2015. International is late this year getting out the proposals as they are breaking in a new "matchmaker." Remember to check the exchanges from other clubs on the FFI website as you can apply to go on these as well.
Five new members joined us in Feb. Welcome! See bios elsewhere in this newsletter. Isabella Iverson, our intrepid Membership Chair, promises a new member party and information get together in April.
A big welcome to the Board to Lou Ann King who was elected Treasurer in January. Her bio is elsewhere in the newsletter as well.
Lots going on and lots to come. Looks like a fun new year!!!
In Friendship,
Paula Rose, President
Top
Date: Sunday, March 9th
Date/Time: April 13th – 6 pm 
On January 12th Mary Williams gave a presentation on the recent
International Conference in New Orleans. The culture of the host
city of New Orleans was featured with additional music provided by
edward perez from videos he took. 
In
February the club dined at two restaurants - Cedars Mediterranean
and Mon-Ami Cafe with interesting food and conversation.
Leaving
in a few days, Paula Rose is leading a group of 20 people to Taupo and
Nelson New Zealand for what promises to be a very exciting exchange.
Michael
and Jackie Wald are working with Tuxla-Guttierez to set up an exchange
for May of 2014. Contact one of them to help with the exchange.
We
have received our assignments for 2015 exchanges and the Board has
apporved them. Now the clubs we are matched with will also need to
approve. We should have some confirmations very soon. If you remember,
our three choices for an outbound were Azerbaijan/ Republic of Georgia,
Peru, and Mexico and we did receive one of these as well as two
interesting inbounds for April and October.
Good
job and thanks to Patty Neimeyer. After taking over the position of
Domestic Exchange Coordinator at the end of last year, Patty immediately
set up an exchange between Dallas and the Columbia-Cascade and Olympia
Friendship Force Clubs. This was a monumental undertaking as the Editor
well knows. It is very difficult to set up an exchange with one club let
alone two that occur back to back. 
There
are 19 members signed up with room for one more. Contact Patty if you
are interested: 
The Board of FF Dallas per bylaws recently elected Lou Ann
King to serve as treasurer. Lou Ann recently retired from 15 years in
the credit card and banking business doing IT work. Her MBA is from the
University of Tulsa. She is married to Galen King. They have three grown
children and five grandsons. Two of her sons (twins) live in Hawaii and
she and Galen plan to spend time there this summer. They have travelled
extensively. Lou Ann and Galen will be making their first Friendship
Force trip with the group going to New Zealand. They joined Friendship
Force Dallas in 2013. Thanks for jumping right in and helping the club,
Lou Ann.
Judith
Self has lived in Dallas since 1996 to be with her family.
Since 1982, she has worked in Denton at Jostens, a company that produces
"specialty" rings for several organizations, among them, military,
N.Y.P.D., and Super bowl. She loves her work making rings. She has two
grandsons who are great. 
Nechama
(Niki) Baron grew up in Israel and moved to Mexico City in 1967
to teach Hebrew in an Elementary School. She lived in Mexico for 16
years, learned to speak Spanish and met her husband there. They moved to
Dallas in 1983 with a son and a daughter. Their five grandchildren were
born here in Dallas. They are still getting adjusted to the Texas
weather and the Texan English language. Since she retired from teaching
she spends her time enjoying the grandchildren, reading and belonging to
three book clubs, taking classes in community college, working out and
traveling. She looks forward to having the opportunity to meet people
from different parts of the world through the Friendship Force club.
Dave
Brown & Dee Ann McFarlin
And let Henny Houston know about anyone who needs a little
“Sunshine” – 
Dates are set for March 21-23, 2014 in Albuquerque. This will be fun
and informative – put it on your calendar! Cllcik for a
Planning is already underway for next year’s World Conference in
Auckland, New Zealand. The conference will be held from October 14
to 16, 2014 at the Rendezvous Grand Hotel in Auckland. Registration
will begin in early 2014. Click
FFI is thrilled to announce that the 2015 World Conference will be
held in Vancouver, Canada. The conference will take place September
11 to 14, 2015. More details will be available as the time
approaches.