This meeting was held in Cincinnati, OH - April 20-22, 2018 and replaced our Southwest Conference.    
It included three provinces:
  GREAT LAKES
  MIDWEST
  SOUTHWEST

Felicity Sentance reports:

I attended this conference for the Great Lakes, Midwest and Southwest clubs held in Cincinnati, April 20 – 21.

There were about 105 attendees from all areas together with Allison Lindsey, Senior Regional Support Manager, from FFI.

Aside from all the social interaction – one can’t do without that at one of our conferences – there were breakout sessions on topics such as ‘Moving FFI into the future’, ‘Marketing Friendship Force in the 21st Century’ and ‘Strategic Planning’.

Prior to the conference I went to Dayton, Ohio for a really interesting 4 night homestay. Apart from learning about the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur (Orville was the snappy dresser, by the way), I discovered the soda and beer can tabs and the electric starter were invented in Dayton.

If you haven’t been to one of the conferences, Regional or International, I recommend attending.

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Communications

Don’t forget to post your Club information on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/FriendshipForceDallas/?ref=bookmarks
However, remember Facebook rules: Anyone may post comments or photos on our page, but only posts about FF are acceptable. The club can get in trouble with the IRS for posts that advertise or endorse commercial products or businesses, so please do not do that.

Remember - you can order your own FFD business cards from Mary Williams. Give them to people who ask about Friendship Force. This service is free.

Other News

The next Board meeting will be Tuesday, May 29th, at 1:30 pm at Julia Cooper’s house. All members are welcome to attend.

Send any changes of address or email to edward perez who manages our database - erperez@acm.org. When you receive changes, please update your yearbook and email list.

When you get mail from our FFD e-mail address, please do not hit REPLY; that address is not monitored every day. Reply to the person organizing the meeting or exchange. Our address and email:

   Friendship Force of Dallas
   P. O. Box 551151
   Dallas, TX 75355
   friendshipforcedallas@yahoo.com


Photography Cluster

FFI has introduced "Photography Club Clusters." Mary Latham is heading our Dallas group - opern to anyone who is interested in joining other club members to learn more about being a great photographer.  We have had a member of this photo club drop out – presently the members are Mary Latham, Mary Williams and Al Currie.

Please contact Roz Worrall, FFIPhotoCC Coordinator at ffiphotocc@gmail.com and cc our members, if you’re interested in joining.


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Shuttle Service

A BIG THANKS to our six Shuttle Drivers for providing  rides to/from the airport

And a BIG THANKS to our members who requested rides and contributed $800 to our club (about 13% of total club revenue).

Remember, this shuttle service is available to any FF of Dallas member who needs transportation from their home to either airport or from the airport to your home. You can also use this service to destinations other than airports. After your ride, you make a donation to FF of Dallas.

If you need a ride, send an email to ffDallas-shuttle@googleGroups.com [or call 214-699-7574] and all club members who are shuttle drivers will receive your request.

If you would like to be a shuttle driver, contact edward perez and he'll add you to the list. Take this opportunity to help out your club while meeting and learning about your fellow club members. You are not obligated to handle every request, but please do what you can.

If you would like to manage the shuttle driver list, contact edward perez and he'll help you learn how to manage the list. It's very easy - you just need access to email and the internet.

In friendship,
edward perez
Shuttle Service Manager

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Member News

Membership News and Updates
edward perez, Vice President, Membership

Welcome to spring!!

Welcome to four more people who have joined our club in the last few months (see below) bringing our membership numbers to 85 (79 regular, 3 emeritus and 3 associate members). Attendance at monthly meetings has remained around 30-35 members and guests. If you know a member who has not be attending recently, please give them a call and invite them, perhaps offering to carpool with them. Pages 23 & 24 of your yearbook lists members by zip code.

By attending our programs, events and journeys, you'll learn about and can share with other members, our club, other clubs, and Friendship Force. You can also visit with another member by using or being a driver in our volunteer shuttle service to go to/from a local airport or to/from an appointment (see back of yearbook). Finally, share your Friendship Force experiences with your friends and invite them to attend an upcoming monthly meeting, an event or an inbound or outbound journey (just forward the emails we send out).

Want to travel elsewhere with another club? You can do like Leyla Akgerman and Terry Gibson just did - they contacted the journey coordinator for a journey to Charlottesville, VA, were accepted, traveled there and just returned (that was the first city Leyla lived in when she moved to the USA). Just go to the FFI website (http://friendshipforce.org/journeys/), find a journey, then contact the journey coordinator to let them know you are interested and are a member of the Dallas club. The FFI page currently lists 13 interesting journeys - to Europe, Russia, Asia, Middle East, Africa, Canada, Australia, Guadeloupe learning history, arts & cultures or getting out in nature (biking, hiking, etc).

See a complete list of 2018 journeys at http://friendshipforce.org/resources/ - click on the "Complete List of Journeys and Regional e-Flyers".

Want to read about other ambassadors' experiences? Then head over to http://friendshipforce.org/stories or click on the "Tell Your Story" button there to share your own experiences. "Experience Different Views. Discover Common Ground."

We held another "Friendship Gatherings" on April 5 at Banana Leaf in North Dallas. 12 members attended - we learned about each other, our trips, and enjoyed the delicious Thai and Asian foods. Our next gathering will be in eastern Dallas County on a weekend, perhaps at Lake Ray Hubbard? These are casual events either at lunch or dinner time and either on weekdays or weekends. If you know of a restaurant than can accommodate 10-20 in a separate space, please let me know. And if you know about wine tastings, arts performances, or other events, let me know and I'll share to the club.

If you move or change your contact information (phone number, email address(es), let me know so I can update the records and let others know (telephone tree, email list manager, etc). I will publish a list of updates every few months which you can use to update your yearbook and email address book (next update in late June or early July).

New members

A BIG Friendship Force of Dallas WELCOME to our newest members!
* Beverly Travis (friend of Mary Williams)
* Gail Coyle (friend of Haiya Naftali - will be on the Israel outbound in October)
* Freda Pattillo (friend of Haiya Naftali - will be on the Israel outbound in October)
* Martha Marin (friend of Dale Klosterman)

Please extend your hand in friendship the next time you see them!

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Sunshine Report
Cathy Ignatin, Sunshine Chair

Lee Latham is continuing with his treatment.

I’m happy to say that Sharon Rettmeier is healing well following her hip replacement and is now able to walk without a cane. If you know of anyone that needs anything from Sunshine please give me a call. Sometime I don’t hear of a need until they are well. Thanks

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Save the Date - 2019 International Conference

New location and dates for the International Conference in 2019

Due to the lasting impact of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico, the Conference location has been changed to Boulder, Colorado July 23 – 27, 2019.

FFI - US website


FFI has a new website specifically for this country where you’ll find helpful information and some of the following training and which some of our club have attended. https://sites.google.com/thefriendshipforce.org/usclubs/home


Training Opportunities

Thinking about being a Journey Coordinator but not really sure what that entails? Want to know how to organize one? Our Field Reps have put together a webinar program - you take it online. Kay Binder, our Field Rep, conducted these two this summer and will present more as requests for future trainings keep coming in.

We've had approximately 130 people take advantage of the Journey Coordinator Training webinars training that have been offered so far.

Kay also presented Everything Google Training webinar about how to use Google products to coordinate Club and Journey Events. We will let you know when more will be offered.

More information from Allison Lindsey - allison@friendshipforce.org
 
E-checks

FFI has introduced e-checks as a form of payment for travel insurance, Journeys and club dues. This will be a form of payment directly from your bank to theirs. Unlike credit card payment, which are immediate, the process will take up to 7 days to process but, like credit card payments, are secure. For more information look for the ‘Payments’ tab under the member resources section of their website here https://www.thefriendshipforce.org/resources/

Stories of Friendship

Send stories of your FF experiences that have helped eliminate barriers that separate us and bring us closer together. Send to: http://storiesoffriendship.org/

Rick Steves' book

Rick Steves' second edition of his excellent book, Travel As a Political Act is out.  Friendship Force is listed with an endorsement of FFI!

2018 Board Meeting

An article summarizing the 2018 Board meeting is on the FFI page.

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When you travel with another club you help fill their seats and make new friends in another club as well as your destination club.

See the FFI openings: https://www.friendshipforce.org/journeys/

They are also listed on our website on our Other Clubs page.

If you are interested in any of these journeys, contact the Coordinator ASAP. The decision for a journey to go or to cancel occurs at least 90 days preceding a scheduled date. Notice of remaining seats can be out of date as journeys fill and there are cancellations. Contact the coordinator concerned for the most current information.

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We have received information from the Fort Worth club about their pending Journey to Morocco.
November 1- 5, 2018
Total cost for home stay, FFI fees and tour is $2,270.00.
Contact: Linda Doyle - ljdoyle@wildblue.net

If you are interested, here is where you find out more:
Morocco-FW-2018.pdf
Morocco-FW-prices.pdf
MoroccoTour-FW.pdf

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