President’s Message
Welcome to the Merry Month of May and Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers. Our April meeting was well attended and included a fascinating program on “Moscow”, Russia. The speaker, Michael Romm, born and raised in Moscow, but now an American, gave 1st-hand insight of life in Moscow. His acquired American sense of humor added to the audience’s enjoyment. Brenda Pearson was kind enough to select floral plants for best appetizers. 1st prize went to Carlos Martinez for his delicious empanadas. We will continue judging and presenting a prize for the best snack "offering" each month.
6 of our members, (along with members of other US FF clubs), have returned from Vietnam. We heard a brief summary of their exotic and fabulous trip from Brenda Pearson and Carol Tatum. 14 of our members leave for the Madison, Wisconsin Exchange, May 19th - 26th, led by ED Nancy Alongi.
Mary Prokop, the ED for our August 1st incoming Austin, Texas Domestic Exchange, will continue soliciting members to volunteer. Tom Schulz, the ED for our Sept. 25th incoming International Exchange from Leuven, Belgium, will coordinate to insure equal coverage of members’ participation for both. Carol Tatum, our Exchange Mentor is diligently helping them both to gather Home Hosts.
Thanks to Bob Traber for printing our Membership directories (available for $5, as a club fundraiser) as well as one that you can print yourself from our secure website (at friendshipforcesandiego.org).
Now that our outgoing and incoming Journeys for 2018 have been assigned, it isn’t too early to seriously think about whether you will go. The outbound “journey” to Moscow, Russia (either Spring or Fall) is our International Exchange. We are now taking applications for ED. Please call Carol Babbitt, immediately, if you are interested. Your Board will choose this ED at their May meeting. Long Island, New York is our outbound Domestic Journey (suggested September).
The incoming Domestic Journey is Flathead Valley, Montana (early 2018) and the incoming International Journey will be Gisborne, New Zealand (suggested July 2018). Please consider volunteering for these ED positions which will be especially easy (since all correspondence will be in English).
The next board meeting will be held (not at Tom Schulz’s, but) at the home of Carol Babbitt (Monday, May 8 at 1:00 PM).
There will be No General Meeting in May. Our next General Meeting will be Saturday, June 17th at Joyce Beers Community Center at 1:30 PM.
In Friendship,
Carol Babbitt.
President