Mark's Message
Once again I greet all friends in our wonderful Friendship Force Club;
Since I last addressed you in the Ambassador we have completed two "exchanges" and both of them were a great success. I have used quotes for the term exchange because the first was not an "exchange " in the strictest sense because many of our friends from Moscow are not members of FFI but were here on a cultural visit. Nevertheless, the "exchange" was a great success and I am sure a great time was enjoyed by all. Our FRIENDS from Moscow crowned their visit with a wonderful show of singing and music.
The inbound exchange from Moscow was shortly followed by our outbound to Leicestershire in the midland of England. Once again we were royally treated by our hosts and we were VERY capably led by our ED, Helen Ida Moyer. I believe Helen Ida will be delivering her own report on the exchange, but I would like to add that the whole exchange was conducted superbly and I am sure all the participants thoroughly enjoyed the event, as well as making many new friends. The home stay was followed by a two day stay in the lovely town of York and a seven day bus tour of Scotland which also was most enjoyable. For anyone who is interested, I have a bunch of photographs which illustrate some of the wonderful places we visited on the exchange.
Following the above exchanges, our next big event is the Summer picnic to be held at the Schwagerls' at 3.00pm on Saturday July 14. All members and potential members are welcome and those who have not yet informed Dee Schwagerl of their attendance are requested to do so as soon as possible.
The subsequent event will be the inbound exchange from Oklahoma and Sarasota from September 22 through September 29 and I understand from the EDs Walter and Ellen Lindenmann that we still need some home hosts. Please sign up at the picnic or give your name(s) to Walter or Ellen as soon as possible. Of course, we wish to have another wonderful exchange.
I am proposing to have our regular (September) Club meeting during the aforesaid exchange and will make a full announcement about this during the July picnic.
Most of you are already aware that we have an outbound exchange to Calgary, Canada and an inbound from Hamburg, Germany scheduled for next year, 2008, and I will be giving you more information on these exchanges in due course.
Meanwhile, I hope you are all enjoying the Summer and I look forward to seeing you at the picnic.
In friendship;
Mark
Fundraising:
FFC is continuing to staff the ID checking at Pavilion for Fridays After Five. We have three more concerts to staff: July 13, August 17, and September 7. We work from 5:15 pm to 8:30 pm. If you have not yet signed up and wish to serve, please contact Cheryl Kasper (589-6148) or Linda Vargas (295-6588). good way for new members to have fun and get acquainted with some of our club members. FFC is paid $220 for each night's work.
Cheryl Kasper
Russian Visitors
Red friendship? well, that was the heading of the photo in the Daily Progress on Thursday, May 10. No article, just a bad photo and a heading that for some was offensive.
The importance of our Friendship Force club hosting 20 persons from Moscow with very little notice, cannot be out shadowed by this small, insignificant and ignorant remark. Red, in the Russian vocabulary, means great or the best. "Red Square", etc.
And as Mark D. said to me " It was indeed a red letter 5 days" When Mark asked me to be the ED for this event, I had to say "yes". After all, I volunteered for the job and I strongly feel that it is more important than ever to maintain a good Ambassador relationship with Russia. Is that not our motto, "A world of friends is a world of Peace"? It was not too difficult getting the hosts. Those who hosted had either been to Moscow or had a strong interest in learning about "The New Russia". I had most of the details worked out before our trip to Australia and New Zealand, and John Webster ably handled any problems in addition to getting the welcome bags together. We did not formalize small dinner parties. They were here for 3 nights and Wednesday, May 9th was the celebration at Starr Hill Brewery. I did ask that hosts organize their own dinner parties and to my knowledge, this was very successful. We were very fortunate to have been able to use Starlight Express for the transportation from Dulles Intl. on May 7th. They came in 3 different groups. Two ladies were in New Jersey and took a bus to Richmond where their hosts, Chuck and Linda Johnson met them. A group arrived at Dulles at 6:30 PM and another at 8:30 PM. Oksana, took a flight from Texas to BWI. Friends from the National Capital Area FFC, were at Dulles to meet them and one member who lives in Annapolis, MD, drove to BWI and met Oksana and brought her to Dulles. We were able to have everyone loaded and asleep by 9:00 PM. We had a good day in Richmond on Tuesday. We had a private tour of the Executive Mansion followed by lunch. Some ventured downtown and others took advantage of the new lunch cafe' and gift shop. The tour of the State Capital was excellent. We were very fortunate to get a tour as that was only the second week after the re-opening.
Wednesday was a free day until 3:45. We toured Monticello and met at Starr Hill Brewery. May 9th is a Russian national holiday celebrating their 1945 victory over Nazi Germany at the end of WWll. Mayor David Brown was our guest and extended greetings to our Ambassadors.
Thursday was the day to tour the Pavilion Gardens at UVA. Some met for lunch on the corner, while others choose to take advantage of the free day. Mostly, I believe that our guests wanted to "shop".
Friday, we met at Christ Episcopal Church downtown for their "Friday's in May Bach's lunch and concert." I tried very hard to get permission to use the sanctuary following that concert in order for our two guests to perform for us. When that effort failed, we were given permission to use Meade Hall. Irina and Galina were magnificent. They and our guests and all of the hosts were so pleased and delighted that they were able to perform. Flexibility.
As we bid them goodbye, immediately afterwards, there were a lot of tears but much joy of their experience. And isn't that what it is all about? On May 17th, we had a good representation (8 members of FFC) at the Russian Culture Center in Washington, D.C. The meeting was arranged by Natalia Guskova, FF in Moscow through the RCC for the celebration of 200 years of diplomatic relations between Russia and the U.S.A. So much valuable information that is important for us to know and keep in mind as the political scenario keeps changing
The meeting closed with a concert by Irina and Galina, which was extraordinary. (They were so happy that they were able to "perform" for us prior in C'ville as it was a good "rehearsal" for them to prepare for their Washington debut.) We were so very fortunate to have been able to hear them and gain their friendship. Following a traditional Russian Celebration Dinner, we enjoyed impromptu entertainment (singing of Russian ballads) in the garden by some of the Ambassadors. A wonderful celebration that indeed lived up to the mission of Friendship Force International.
Thanks to our hosts; Bandy, Cassell, Caulkins, Dryer, Fickes, May Guenin, Johnson, Quantock, Schwagerl, Tom Spraggins and Stoll. Most of all, thanks to my co-ED and friend, John and Shirley Webster.
Thanks to Atlanta for arranging this exchange and to Natalia, ED in Moscow and a special "thanks" to Oksana, whose timeless energy kept all communications translated. What a beautiful person she is.
In friendship,
Babs Fickes
Exchange to Leicester, UK
What did we get ourselves into? When the exchange was first announced we thought that this would be a perfect exchange for us since they speak more or less a language we know and it happened to be the first one that was not during the academic year. Little did we know that we would end up becoming the ED and be responsible for actually making the arrangements for it. Not having been on any previous outbound exchanges, we were not sure what to expect. Fortunately, all went very well! The Leicestershire Club was wonderful to us, the Globus Bus tour of Scotland was excellent, and the two days in between in York served as a nice transition between the two events.
Everyone made their own travel arrangements to get to London and then we met at the St. Pancras train station to travel to Leicester together. The train ride from London to Leicester is just about an hour and the train was right on time. The train was clean, smooth, and a lovely way to travel. Our group was met at the Leicester train station by the members of the Leicestershire Club who took us to our various host homes to settle in.
The next day we started bright and early with a walking tour, in the rain, of the downtown of Leicester. It is a lovely market town that is famous for being the home of the Singer sewing machine company and also the location where the tourist trade was started in 1841 by Thomas Cooke. The first tour that he arranged was for a church retreat and the people traveled by train coal cars! The afternoon was free to get to know our hosts better and then in the evening we had our welcoming party which was a pot luck dinner at the home of the ED. The food was very good and it was interesting to see everyone wandering around without their shoes. The ED had just installed a very light colored rug and did not want any dirt tracked in so everyone removed their shoes at the door. A highlight of the party was the celebration of two wedding anniversaries. Mark and Margaret were celebrating their 9th and Fred and Gloria Johnson, ambassadors from Florida their 56th. Champagne was served and all had a good time.
The next day, Thursday, we started early again by visiting the small town of Loughborough where there is a carillon bell tower dedicated to the soldiers of WWI. We all had the opportunity to climb the tower, past the bells as they were playing. On a clear day the views of the English country side would be spectacular, but it was raining again. After visiting the tower, we went on a tour of the John Taylor's bell foundry, one of only two bell foundries still operating in England. Here we saw them pour two new bells for a church and then we had a tour of how a bell is finished. After dinner, in the evening, we went on a tour of a coal gas museum. Coal gas was produced from coal in England for about 200 years. For the first 100 years it was used for lighting and then the electric light bulb came along and so other used, like heating, cooking, etc., were developed. Gas from the North Sea oil fields finally ended the production of coal gas. It was very interesting to see another use of coal. As it turns out coal is no longer mined in England because it is actually cheaper to import it! Afterwards some of us stopped at the Baker's Pub to have a beer.
On Friday we drove for nearly an hour to visit the Barnsdale Gardens. These gardens consisted of a series of small gardens that were developed for a BBC TV show to illustrate how a particular type of garden could be designed to fit their situation. After this, several of us went to a nearby water reservoir to have a picnic lunch. We all nestled in a grove of trees to get in out of the wind but had to share the space with quite a flock of resident ducks eager to see what we might have to offer them! During the construction of the reservoir, a town had to be moved. The town church, however, was too much to move and so it was left and today the top part of it sticks out above the water. In the evening the group got together at a club to play skittles. This is the origin of bowling but is quite different. It is easy to throw the ball, which is a block of wood, and have it go between the widely spaced pins (skittles). It is clear that none of us are going to become professional skittle players! The food was brought in from the adjacent pub and consisted of faggots (a type of meat ball) or cheese pie.
The next day our busy schedule started early again with some of us driving north to Derbyshire to visit the little town of Tissington, famous for it's well dressings. During the black plague of 1348, the town was spared and the wells were thought to be the reason. At this time they started putting very colorful religious scenes over the wells the week after Ascension Sunday. It was very lovely walking through this typical small English town with its big old manor house and church high on the hill overlooking the town. That afternoon visited Kedelston Hall, which is a very large estate that was primarily built to entertain people. The grounds are lovely with sheep dotting the very green pastures all around it. That evening half of our group met at our hosts' home to have a dinner ordered from a Chinese take out (or "take away" as they say!).
Sunday was a day of rest. In the morning we went to an Anglican church with our hosts whose aunt was celebrating her 100th birthday at the service. That afternoon we drove through more lovely green English countryside with fields dotted with sheep on our way to visit the Foxton Locks, one of a series of 10 locks that are part of the extensive canal system that covers the midlands of England. What a lovely day it was for a leisurely stroll beside the canal! In the evening four of us took our hosts out together for dinner to The Shires, one of their favorite pubs nearby.
Monday morning was free so Pamela took me out to a local tack shop (which turned out being closed) and garden center filled with wonderful flowers while Lee helped John with some computer work, trying to help him set up a website for their local Friendship Force Club. That afternoon we all visited the Framework Knitters Museum where they have 400 year old knitting machines. Their primary product were gloves and socks. The garden behind the museum was a really delightful Victorian garden. All too quickly our week came to an end and we met at a member's home for the farewell party. We entertained the group with a few songs that everyone joined in singing. Some of the hosts thought that the party ended a bit too soon and so kept it going by moving to another member's home for a couple more hours.
The next morning, we got up, had a leisurely breakfast and then met at the train station to head off to further adventures in the delightful medieval city of York and then on to the highlands of Scotland. All of us thoroughly enjoyed our homestay in England and the trip afterwards. What a privilege and truly wonderful experience it is to get to know a country through meeting and getting to know some of their people!
Helen Ida Moyer (ED)
Key Date: September 22
Before you forget, mark that date on your calendar: September 22. It's the first date of the upcoming Inbound Exchange bringing ambassadors from Sarasota, Florida and from the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma area to Charlottesville for a one-week stay.
We anticipate playing host to up to a dozen ambassadors from Sarasota and another dozen from Oklahoma. They'll arrive on Saturday, September 22, stay with us for a week, and then depart on September 29.
Ellen and Walter Lindenmann are the exchange directors for this inbound, and they are anxious to line up as many home hosts, day hosts, and small dinner party hosts as possible. At the end of June, based on the number of home host volunteers we had heard from, we could easily accommodate 18 of our guests. But we'll need more home hosts, if we are to accommodate everyone. There will be a sign-up sheet for home hosts at the July 14 Friendship Force picnic. If you would like to home host, please contact either the Lindenmanns (589-5822 or lindenmann@cstone.net) or Cheryl and Mel Kasper, who will be handling home host arrangements for this exchange (589-6148 or cmkasper@embarq.com)
Details have not as yet been finalized, but consideration is being given to holding the September meeting of Friendship Force on Monday evening, September 24, at the JAG School and having that evening serve as not only our usual club meeting, but also a social gathering and special welcome party for our guests from Florida and Oklahoma.
Helen Ida and Leroy Moyer are serving as program chairs for the inbound exchange. John and Shirley Webster will be coordinating the small dinner parties --- thus, if you would like to host one of those dinner parties please be sure to contact John and Shirley (at 589-9573 or at sawebster@comcast.net or jhwebster@comcast.net).
Have We Forgotten?
I would like to share two experiences that have happened recently. Both having an impact on the health and growth of FFI.
As to the first: many of you, in recent years have taken part in our club's efforts to attract new members. Much time, effort and advertising dollars have been spent telling the FFI story. As we look around the room during our meetings, we can see the new faces and be proud of our labors. At the same time, a few days ago, while in the supermarket, I met a long time devoted member. When I mentioned I would see her at the next meeting, she advised me that she had left Friendship Force. She could no longer drive at night, she felt unable to participate in hosting and we lost a valuable member. Another couple left us because they felt unable to carry their own luggage. A couple, with a wonderful history of participation, left because of personal differences with someone in the club leadership. The list goes on and on. As we reach out to new members through our "front" door, we lose many out the "back."
The second experience is sadly outside our control and that is becoming aware of the passing of Jane Czarniak. Jane loved FFI and all of us loved her. While we cannot avoid our mortality and aging, we can ask our older members to rethink their membership and seek alternatives to resignation.
Our new leadership manual states our objective, to create "...understanding by bringing people together across the barriers that normally separate them." We state again and again, we are not a travel club! We are dedicated to a higher goal if we are not a travel club, then why does our ability to travel decide if we remain a member?
What makes FFI different and important? Our stories! our sharing, our building of relationships. Do older members have anything to impart to newer members? Certainly we do! We can all pass on what we have experienced. We can continue to share our stories regardless of our age. Need proof? Ask for the recent CD prepared by Atlanta and listen to stories from all over the world. If we lose faith in the power of our message then perhaps we have become only a travel club. Don't let that happen. Let's not forget the world we hoped to change through Friendship Force
In Friendship
Bob Schwagerl
FFI General Meeting Minutes - May 1, 2007
The bi-monthly meeting at The Ponderosa was called to order at 7 p.m. by President Mark Dryer. Following the Friendship Force Pledge, Mark welcomed four guests: Elva Hart, Vera Mason, Joan Tepper and Judy Zietler. Also among the thirty-two attendees were new members Sean and Candy Cassell of Lake Monticello.
Announcing the resignation of vice president Brian Bouton, who is moving to northern Virginia, Mark called for nominations to fill his position. Secretary Barbara Kelshaw was nominated by David Lea. The nomination was seconded and approved unanimously.
Nominations for the position of secretary followed. David Lea, nominated by Linda Johnson, was also elected unanimously.
Next on the agenda was approval of the minutes for the March 13 general meeting as they appeared in The Ambassador. They were approved with one correction: the Russian inbound delegation will arrive at midnight (not noon) on Monday, May 7.
Treasurer Bev Hankins reported a balance of $5,131.91 with some membership dues still outstanding. Mark called for any member present who has not paid to touch base with Bev during the meeting. Bev also asked any member needing a nametag to do the same.
In committee reports, Linda Vargas, fund raising committee member with the Friday After Five fund raisers, asked for additional volunteers. Eight id checkers are needed at each of five Friday events scheduled between April and September. At $220 per event, it is a good fund raiser for FF and an enjoyable experience for all who participate. To volunteer, call Linda at 295-6588 or Cheryl at 589-6148.
Social chair Dee Schwagerl asked for an assistant to help out this year and move into her position in 2008. Shirley Webster volunteered. The club's next social gathering will be the summer picnic (and pool party), to be held July 14 at Dee and Bob's home in Keswick. The 5 p.m. pot luck picnic will be preceded by a short business meeting at 3 p.m. Food is needed; to contribute a pot luck dish, please call Dee at 984-1490.
Chuck Johnson gave an overview of FF's affiliation with the JAG School for the benefit of those in attendance not familiar with the joint program. Seven international students are set to arrive this August; FF hosts are in place, but Chuck will maintain a list of alternates should a host asked to be replaced.
A report on the Mid-Atlantic Conference in Asheville emphasized two highlights of the event: a new ED training package, which will be implemented at a June 10 session at the Schwagerls, and a new Power Point presentation on the FF organization which is being made available to local clubs. Arlene Bandy is preparing an in-depth report on the conference, which also paid tribute to Bob Schwagerl, elected "Member of the Year" at the international conference in Atlanta this March.
John Webster reported that the inbound delegation from Moscow is scheduled to arrive around midnight on May 7. Among the 21 visitors are seven Friendship Force members. Following their five-day stay, they will head to Washington, where on May 17 they will take part in a celebration of 200 years of diplomatic relations between Russia and the United States. Charlottesville club members have been invited to attend; John has the details. A run-down of the week's activities include: Richmond, including tours of the governor's mansion and state capitol, on Tuesday; Monticello and dinner at the Starr Hill Brewery on Wednesday; Thursday, free; departure on Friday. All events are open for sign-ups, and there are opportunities to host a dinner party on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
Other 2007 exchanges discussed were Leicestershire (outbound on May 11) and Oklahoma/Sarasota (inbound/ September 22-29). ED Helen Ida Moyer reported 14 ambassadors will be making the trip, including seven from our club. The itinerary includes tours of a garden, a historic home, a bell foundry and a variety of other activities. A Globus bus tour of Scotland follows the seven-day home stay.
Ellen and Walter Lindemann will share ED responsibilities for the September inbound exchange. Home hosts and day hosts are needed for the 24 ambassadors scheduled to visit in late September.
No information is yet available on the outbound exchange to Calgary, according to ED Bev Hankins. Travel will be in June or July. Bob Schwagerl will be ED for the inbound Hamburg exchange scheduled for September.
Bob Schwagerl will conduct an ED training on Sunday June 10 from 1 to 4 p.m. Anyone interested in leading a future exchange is encouraged to attend. Contact Bob at 984-1490.
Friendship Force polo shirts (white with green logo) can be ordered for $27. If interested, call Margaret Dryer (978-7021).
Dick Bandy won the 50-50 draw.
There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 8 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara Kelshaw
Secretary