Newsletter
Hello FFDallas,
I had a great time in New Zealand but am sure glad to be home. Thanks to
the 20 ambassadors who went on this exchange. We had some fun. Be sure
to read all about it later in this newsletter as our intrepid newsletter
editor Dale Klosterman is writing a report about this trip. And prepare
yourselves for a program full of breathtaking slides to be presented by
edward perez and others from the exchange in June.
The unfortunate news is that the inbound exchange from Tuxtla-Gutierrez
Mexico which was scheduled for May has been cancelled. Thanks to Michael
Wald and the folks who had volunteered to help put this together.
We do however have a really good program scheduled for May: Isabella
Iverson and Gerry Arens will present their FF trip to Morocco.
Also, the Board is working to either have a
domestic or last- minute international group come in October. In addition, the board voted to
revive the tradition of mini-exchanges (long weekends) with members from
our own district. Hopefully we will have some company from these sources
in October and/or November.
Our new members, guests and the board met for lunch at Brud Kisner's
home on April 26th from 1-3 pm to learn about the opportunities
Friendship Force has to offer. Thanks to hostess with the mostess and
Membership chair Isabella Iverson for arranging it.
Happy Spring. Hope to see you soon.
In Friendship,
Paula Rose, President
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May Meeting
Date/time: Sunday, May 18th – 5 pm Note – 3rd Sunday to accommodate
Mother’s Day
Program: Isabella Iverson and Gerry Arens – presentation of their FF
trip to Morocco
Location: REI - Large meeting room on 2nd floor (elevator available)
4515 LBJ Fwy, Dallas – westbound service road east of Midway
Phone:
972-490-5989 or 972-490-5989
Food: There will be no food at this meeting; members may go to dinner in
groups afterwards. There are restaurants in the area and suggestions
will be available at the meeting with groups forming for dinner out.
Cost: Free meeting; dinner on your own
Reserve: By May 15 to Felicity Sentance at
fsentance@gmail.com
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June Meeting
Date/time: June, 8th at 6 pm
Location: Raymond's Barbeque, 10920 Garland Road, Dallas 75218
Food costs: Meat eaters - $9.99 for 2 meats and 3 vegetables, Texas
toast and other sundries
Non meat eaters - $5.99 for 5 vegetables, Texas toast and other sundries
Please note the above cost is for the food only - drink, tax and tip are
extra. Everyone pays their own check there.
You may bring in beer and wine if you wish.
Program: edward perez and friends will give a presentation on the recent
FFD exchange to New Zealand
Reservations: To Felicity Sentance at
fsentance@gmail.com by deadline
June 5.
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by Dale Klosterman
What is this? A Kiwi tattoo?
The Dallas Club must be in New Zealand.
Friendship Force members from Haliburton, Ontario; Sarasota, Florida;
Mt. Laurel, N.J.; and Columbia, MO Joined our Dallas exchange for a
visit to New Zealand, the land of the Kiwi bird, during this past March.
Twenty members spent two weeks in the cities of Taupo, Wellington, and
Nelson on the northern and southern islands.
The northern island is
known for its active volcanoes and thermal vents caused by continental
drift, while the south has beautiful mountains and glaciers. The mayors
of both cities welcomed the FF clubs with short speeches.
When the first two weeks were over, eight of the original
travelers were joined by four members from the Cheyenne, WY Club for a
week-long van ride through the south island. Six of the members were able to take a helicopter trip up onto the Fox
glacier where they could walk around and take pictures.
The helicopter ride
Taking photos on the Fox glacier
The ladies wanted to know how old the pilots were
The highlight of this third
week took place when one of ladies did a bungee jump! She was 80 years
old!
The Kiwi
New Zealanders like to call themselves “Kiwis.” This is a Wingless bird
that is practically extinct. Mary Latham and Dale spent $30 each to see
what they were told was a Kiwi in an exhibit at the Franz Joseph
Glacier. The room was too dark to see anything. We could only hear
something scurrying around. (Mary may wish to dispute this.)
Cathy Ignatin -
Cold morning break for tea
From Cathy Ignatin:
Hello Fellow New Zealand Travelers -
Many thanks for the heart-shaped plaque with the great thought about the
friends we make on our journey through life. I was beginning to think I
was holding the rest of you back and your gift did so much to lift my
spirits. How true that we continue to make new friends through our
entire life, and I can’t think of a better place than through Friendship
Force. Thanks again.
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by Ray Enstam, International Exchange Coordinator
The successful outbound exchange to New Zealand has now returned
and you will hear more about that elsewhere from those that
participated.
Looking forward, we have some sad news and some good news. The sad news
is that we have lost the inbound from Tuxtla-Gutierrez, Mexico scheduled
for the last week in May of this year. The Tuxtla club was distracted
with an inbound about the same time and we couldn’t get enough
information to make arrangements. The Pike’s Peak club, which was their
other destination, also had to cancel for lack of information. That was
our only international inbound for this year.
The good news is that we now have our proposed exchanges for 2015. These
exchanges have been accepted by the Dallas Club board and by the other
clubs. Our outbound exchange is a two week combined exchange to Tbilisi,
Georgia and Baku, Azerbaijan. They are neighboring countries and can
easily be combined into one exchange, a week in each country with very
little travel time between them. This is a very interesting part of the
world with two great clubs. It will be sometime in late May or early
June of 2015, a good season to be there.
We have also been assigned two international inbounds for 2015. The
first is from Bandung, Indonesia in March of 2015. This would be a new
adventure for the Dallas Club as we have never had any contact with this
interesting part of the world. The second inbound would be from
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in October of 2015. Since the
International Conference of Friendship Force International will be in
Vancouver in November 2015, and many of us will be attending that, this
inbound is of special significance. It looks like a great year coming
up!
Since the Exchange Director for our international visit will have
his/her travel paid for by the club, the position will be advertised in
the near future.
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Pacific Northwest Exchange
Eighteen
members are making final preparations for their July/August Domestic
Outbound with Columbia Cascade (Portland) and Olympia Washington.
The weather will be cool and the scenery magnificent! These clubs have
some great tours lined up: Mt St Helen's, the Pacific Coast, Columbia
River George, Mt Rainer, and the Olympic National Forest. Cost $480
Total + Transportation to and from the Northwest, plus inexpensive train
trip from Portland to Olympia. Both clubs are able to host 20
ambassadors so if you're interested in going, contact Patty Niemeyer
(ED) at
peanutpatti1@verizon.net.
March
In March small dinners were held in homes. Thanks to hosts Pat Andeweg,
Joan Mirabal, Lee Latham, Leyla Akgerman, Robin and Dan Yaklin, Mary
Jane Wilson and to coordinator Henny Houston.
April
The April FF meeting was held at Hacienda Ranch restaurant with a fajita
buffet served. This meeting was designed as an introduction to our
incoming exchange from Tuxla, Mexico. Even though our Mexican visitors
are not coming for an exchange, we had the opportunity to learn a little
about the state of Chiapas and see some beautiful pictures of the area.
Chiapas is the southern most state in Mexico, bordering on Guatamala,
with mountains, jungles and the seaside. It has many beautiful
waterfalls and the state provides hydroelectric power and is a major
agricultural area. It produces coffee, bananas, corn, cacao (used to
make chocolate) and cattle with a diversity of crops grown. There are
several Mayan ruins, including Palenque. Many Indian languages are still
spoken here.
Our speakers were Jennifer Apperti Ochoa, Cultural Attaché with the
Consulate of Mexico and Clara Borja Hinojosa, Founding Director of the
Mexico Institute.
There were four guests:
Adriana Cobo (guest of Henny Houston)
Jackie Ingram (guest of Judy Cline)
Kenneth Hays (guest of Judy Cline)
Amy LaSalle (guest of Dava Thomas – a previous guest of Isabella
Iverson)
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New Member Luncheon
New members and guests were honored at a luncheon at the home of Brud Kisner on Saturday, April 27th. Several Board members presented information about the club and encouraged questions. We welcome all newcomers and hope you enjoy the benefits of the organization.
Mona Elia, Patricia Bailey, Judith Self, Niki Baron, Eli
Baron, Virginia de la Garza
FFD Monthly Meetings
by Felicity Sentance
As a result of the increasing costs for large meetings held at
restaurants, the paucity of such locations and in an effort to keep the
meeting costs down for our members, the club has subsidized several of
the latest meetings. For example – the meeting at La Hacienda cost
$21.39 per person, but members were charged only $18 each and the club
paid the remainder for each attendee – a cost of approximately $120.
Another example – Aboca is paid a flat rate of $1,160 for the use of
their restaurant and the food. Should we not have sufficient attendees
to cover that cost, the club again subsidizes the difference, which took
place at both the meetings we held there. The club subsidized about $200
for each meeting. The total prices above include a 20% tip.
I can hear you saying, and I agree with you, that the food’s not worth
that amount of money. We have to remember, though, that included in that
price is the use of the meeting room or restaurant and the cost of the
people brought in to cook and serve the food.
In May, our meeting with a presentation will be in the meeting room at
REI on LBJ which, for now, is free. Our contract with REI states we will
not bring any food or drink to the meeting room, but we will have a list
of a few nearby restaurants so those who wish to go out to eat
afterwards can get together. That kind of meeting, coupled with those in
members’ homes and continued large meetings in restaurants will,
hopefully, keep the financial outlay for all members within a reasonably
comfortable range.
If you would like to volunteer to help organize meetings, contact
Felicity Sentance at
fsentance@gmail.com. Helpers are always needed and appreciated.
Ideas regarding locations are also very welcome - remembering the
criteria mentioned on the recent questionnaire: We need a space that is
sufficiently large and has a separate room (or at least well away from
distractions), easy access to electrical outlets, good free parking, on
the first floor, and preferably closed on Sundays. It would be great to
keep the meal price (including drink and tip) less than about $15, but
realistically we are frequently going to have to go over that amount.
Shuttle Service
Remember to support our airport shuttle service. The passenger(s) make a
donation to the club of $30 per ride ($40 north of Plano), helping our
club. Directions are on page 42 in your yearbook to request a ride or to
be a driver.
Sunshine and Newsletter
Let your newsletter editor, Dale Klosterman
(daleklosterman@sbcglobal.net) know what you are doing these
days.
And let Henny Houston know about anyone who needs a little
“Sunshine” –
hennyjack@att.net.
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Lilliana Hollister
from Dallas Morning News
“Lilliana Pejovich Hollister, a member of FF Dallas since 1996, passed
away gracefully after a long battle with cancer. She persevered in her
struggle with her illness for over three years and far surpassed
expectations…Lilliana was born 1, 1933 in Beograd, Yugoslavia [now
Serbia]. She was penniless when she migrated in 1958 to the US in search
of a better life for her self and her family. She spent her years
working in international affairs and in her later life received a
Master’s Degree in Nutrition and focused on service and care for the
needy and less fortunate. Memorial services were conducted at Restland
Abbey Chapel in Dallas, Texas on Monday, March 3, 2014. Comforted in the
knowledge that she is thought of by many.”
Dale and Hilda Klosterman
Congratulations to Dale and Hilda who are celebrating their 50th
Anniversary this month. Dale has said that marrying Hilda was the
smartest thing he ever did!
Updates
E-mail for Mary Hanna:
maryhanna123@yahoo.com
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by Mary Williams
On the weekend of March 22-24 the nine clubs in the Southwest Region met
in Albuquerque for our mostly annual conference (we don’t meet when
there is an international conference in the US). Note: The Rio Grande
club has closed. Ruth O’Keefe chaired the event for Albuquerque.
Present were FFI President Joy DiBenedetto
(left)and Laurie Ann Scott,
consultant to FFI who updated the participants on trends in the
organization and discussed results of a survey of club presidents in the
US and Canada. They discussed clubs’ demographics, challenges,
successes, exchanges and ideas that are working.
General sessions included Joy and Laurie Ann’s talks; a presentation by
Jeff Gilkey who flies an ultra-lite trike with a camera on it
photographing the inaccessible canyons of New Mexico and Utah; a
presentation by Benedict Valentiner, former manager of the Blair house
speaking on the property and its famous visitors; and Bob Duncan,
Regional Field Rep leading a discussion of club activities, exchanges
and new ideas - including a revival of the weekend exchanges among SW
Conference clubs.
Breakout sessions were held on leading exchanges (example from an
exchange to Nepal and extension to Bhutan), lessons learned from the
presidents’ survey, exchange photography and Southwest wildflowers.
Mariachi musicians entertained at the Saturday evening banquet.
Mary Williams represented the Dallas club.
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2014 International Conference
Planning is already underway for next year’s World Conference in
Auckland, New Zealand. The conference will run from October 14 to 16,
2014, and it be held at the Rendezvous Grand Hotel. Auckland.
Registration has begun, with information available on the
FFI website. There are several exchanges
scheduled in New Zealand and Australia close to the conference dates.
2015 International Conference
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.
More information on
Past
International Conferences.
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Remember you are welcome to join other clubs on their exchanges if there
is room. Please contact clubs well in advance, as an exchange may cancel
if the Exchange Director doesn’t know about your interest. Some of our
club members do this on a regular basis.
See
http://www2.thefriendshipforce.org/exchanges/ for more details, or
go to the
World of Friends Catalog that has a listing of all exchanges.
There are more exchanges listed on the
Other Clubs
page of our website.
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