Southwest Conference

2013 Southwest Regional Meeting

Regional meetings for US club members will be held in New Orleans at 6 pm on Friday November 22, led by our regional Field Representative Bob Duncan from Baton Rouge. This is our opportunity for our regional clubs to meet prior to the International Conference.

Southwest Regional Conference 2014

March 21-23, 2014 Albuquerque
Fun and informative – put it on your calendar!

Southwest Conference 2012

MARCH 23-25, 2012 – Nine Dallas members attended the Southwest Conference hosted for the first time by the Kansas Club in Wichita, which joined the SW Conference several years ago. 

FFI President George Brown conducted a meeting with club presidents on Friday evening and addressed the whole body addressing the Challenge of Leadership on Saturday. He also led one of the workshops on themed and global exchanges. Hearing George is always inspiring, reminding us of the good we do and looking forward to great adventures ahead of us.

The featured speaker, French transplant to Kansas Claude Puntel, spoke on cultural differences. She noted that some language and body language differences can cause misunderstandings that perpetuate stereotypes and are unfortunate and sometimes dangerous. An example she gave was that the French tend not to smile in public settings, especially those living farther north. They are then perceived by Americans as being standoffish or rude, while the French see Americans as pushy and intruding on their privacy. Her workshop was practical and informative.

Other workshops topics included how to be an Exchange Director, recruiting new members, photography, use of Internet and social media to promote your club, and travel insurance including TravelGuard.

A hospitality room, luncheon and banquet gave members a chance to mix, mingle and meet new people from the 10 clubs in our region. The Hotel in Oldtown was a perfect venue, in a remodeled historic building in quaint and restored old town Wichita. Conference Chair Lottie Miller and her committee did an outstanding job of making the conference run smoothly. We appreciated the work they did on it. The Stahls also stayed for an enjoyable 4-day homestay following the conference.

Stan and Taylor Parker, Jim and LaNell Naughton, Ed and Dora Stahl,

 Mary Williams, Carolyn Williams and Jim Bourn.

Top

Southwest Conference Clubs (not up to date)

Louisiana Members: 61
Website: www.ffbr.org

New Mexico Members: 104
Website: www.friendship-force-new-mexico-usa.org

Oklahoma Members: 60
Website: http://friendshipforce.homestead.com/oklahoma.html

Kansas Members: 92
Website: www.friendshipforceofkansas.org

Austin Members: 58
Website: www.ffiaustin.com

Dallas Members: 110
Website: www.friendshipforcedallas.org

Fort Worth Members: 58
Website: www.fffw.org

Houston Members: 53
Website: www.ffhoustontx.org/

San Antonio Members: 51
Website: www.friendshipforcesa.org  Not working

Rio Grand Valley - does not have a website

SW Conference hosting schedule

2002 New Mexico
2003 Houston
2004 Austin
2005 Ft. Worth
2006 Oklahoma
2007 San Antonio
2008 Baton Rouge
2009 Dallas
2010 Rio Grande Valley
2011 Skipped because of fall 2010 international in US
2012 Kansas 
2013 Skipped because of fall 2013 international in US
2014 New Mexico
2015 Houston
2016 Austin
2017 Skipped because of fall 2016 international in US
2018 Fort Worth
2019 Oklahoma

Dallas hosted a successful conference in 2009. 

See Conference Handouts that are available at the bottom of this page.

See a slide show of photos taken at the 2009 SW conference and put into a PhotoDex presentation by Ken Walker. There are two ways you can see it, and you will leave this site by clicking on either of these links:

See video on the new Performing Arts Center as shown by Donald Winspear at our conference.

(You will leave this site by clicking on this link.)

Some feedback:

From: Robert Urban <bob-stella@att.net>
Subject: Thanks for the wonder conference.

Bob and I wish to thank everyone for the wonderful Southwest Conference. I did not think anyone could top the one that was held in Baton Rouge but you all pulled it off.

The workshops we attended were so interesting and informative, the food was the best I have ever eaten at a hotel and the accommodations were great.

I know if takes so much work and many volunteers to put on a conference such as this, so to all....thanks for your hard work.

Stella Norman
Bob Urban

[erperez note: stella got us some free audio tourguide tickets for the King Tut exhibit! gave them to the 10 folks who went!]

============================================================================

From: Debbie Powell <dpowell@thefriendshipforce.org>
Subject: Sincere thanks to The Friendship Force of Dallas

Dear Wendy and members of the Dallas conference committee:

Greetings from Friendship Force International! It’s Monday morning and I’m back in the FFI office in Atlanta . I wanted to thank you all again for your warm welcome and hospitality this past weekend. I enjoyed getting to know some of you for the first time and becoming reacquainted with old friends in the southwest region. Your choice of speakers and the workshops that I personally attended were all well-prepared and very interesting. I should mention that I took extensive notes during Michael Colatrella’s talk on handling disputes and hope to present a condensed version to our staff here in the near future. His tips are something we can all benefit from.

Kudos again to everyone who participated in the organizing of the SW regional conference, or presented or moderated a workshop. It was certainly a real success.

My only regret, of course, is that we ran out of time Saturday afternoon for further Q&A from the attendees. I do hope that anyone with questions for the Friendship Force International staff will contact me, or one of my colleagues, anytime by email or phone. As always, we look forward to hearing from you and assisting you.

In friendship,
Debbie Powell
Director of Program Planning and Development

============================================================================

From: Jim Young and Berry Bock <jim_and_berry@hotmail.com>
Subject: Great Conference

Congratulations on a great conference. We appreciate all the work that you and so many to the Dallas club did to make it such a success.

Did the SMU professor who presented the conflict resolution material leave a copy of his presentation? If he did, I would like to have a copy if possible. I would also like a copy if his hand-out which I missed. This would be very good for us to remember.

Jim

NOTE: See below.

Southwest Conference 2009

Hosted by Dallas Club

When:     Friday - Sunday, February 6-8, 2009

Where:    Crowne Plaza Hotel North Dallas-Addison

14315 Midway Road, Dallas, TX  75244. 972-980-8877

website: http://cpgalleria-nr.crowneplaza.com  Hotel rate $79+tax

Fee:         $90  

Thanks for coming!

edward perez: erperez@acm.org.  
Registrar, Friendship Force 2009 Southwest Conference
Treasurer, Friendship Force Dallas

Workshops and Events

We had three sessions running simultaneously in the morning and three in the afternoon. Each of our three rooms was dedicated to one theme or subject matter during both sessions. They follow FFI's theme of explore, understand, and serve - exchanges, communication, club administration. We are excited about the quality of the presenters and relevance of the topics.

Handouts received are available at the bottom of this page and on request.

10:45 AM Room 1, Communications      It’s One World After All
Sue Jones, guest presenter from Richland College-DAL – Cultural Sensitivity Workshop: interactive activity
Moderator: Teresa Wilkin 

10:45 AM Room 2, Exchange Management      If You Build It, They Will Come 
Ed Edgren-DAL – Domestic exchanges; Jerry Tuttle-FW  - Outgoing exchanges; Joyce Rulon-OK –  Recruiting ambassadors; Randy Thomson-FW – Directing an inbound exchange 
Moderator: Jim Bourn 

10:45 AM Room 3, Club Administration      Moving Into the 21st Century 
Mary Suther-DAL and Ray Enstam-DAL –  Tax update for non-profits and new 501(c)(3) regulations; Ken Walker-DAL – Slideshow presentations; edward perez-DAL – Finance record keeping and software 
Moderator: John Whaley 

****************************

1:30 PM Room 1, Communications      Ben Franklin Would Love It 
Ken Walker-DAL – Newsletters; Mary Williams-DAL - Designing websites
Moderator: Chris Michalek 

1:30 PM Room 2, Special Exchanges      We’re Off to See the Wizard 
Ed Edgren-DAL – Planning a special exchange; Dave Kalan-Wis – Eco-adventure tours; Peggy Benton-DAL – Discovery trips
Moderator: Ray Enstam 

1:30 PM Room 3, Club Administration      The Rocky Factor: Building Strong Clubs
Jim Young-FW and Brud Kisner-DAL –  Recruiting, care and keeping of new members; Recruiting and training new officers; edward perez-DAL – Database management 
Moderator: Wendy Whaley 

* We had two keynote speakers - Donald Winspear from the new Dallas Performing Arts Center and Michael Colatrella from the SMU Dispute Resolution program, plus Debbie Powell from FFI and Jim Young, our Southwest Regional Rep.

Discover China Luncheon

 Chinese New Year Brunch Banquet

The Olympic Games of 2008 gave us a ringside seat on 21st century China. Now, six months
later, join us for another great opportunity to learn about Chinese culture. We ushered in the Year of the Ox, a year traditionally devoted to the hard work aimed at consolidating the glitzy progress of the outgoing Year of the Rat. There was a presentation on China and the growth in that country, a preview of sights on the upcoming trip, and the Chinese zodiac and what it can tell us about the year ahead as China builds on its new image as an Olympic host.

Conference Handouts

PDF, Word, and PowerPoint files of the workshop handouts that are available are listed here. Feel free to use them, but please credit the folks who created them.

Presentations on PowerPoint are labeled Presentation. You need PowerPoint or PowerPoint Viewer installed on your computer to access them. 

If you don't have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, you can get it as a free download from http://get.adobe.com/reader.

Conflict, Communication and Culture - Michael Colatrella

Discover Exchanges - Peggy Benton
Domestic Exchanges - Ed Edgren
Easy Websites - Mary Williams
Exchange Policies 2009 - FFI
FAQs Dallas - Brud Kisner
Far Away Places - Peggy Benton

FFI Eco-Exchanges - Dave Kalan

Inbound Exchange Committees Presentation (PP) - Randy Thomson

IRS Requirements for Non Profit Agencies - Mary Suther and Ray Enstam

Managing Finances - edward perez

Managing Membership - edward perez

Membership Ideas - Brud Kisner
Membership Success - from Lincoln Neb club
More Newsletter Tips - Ken Walker

Newsletter Tips - Ken Walker

Newsletters - Mary Williams (not available at the conference)
Planning a Special Exchange - Ed Edgren

Outbound Exchange Success - Jerry Tuttle

Outbound ED Leadership Presentation (Word) - Jerry Tuttle
Recruiting and Selecting Ambassadors - Joyce Rulon

Recruiting and Training Members and Officers - Jim Young

Resources Photo Sharing - Mary Williams

Slideshow Presentations - Ken Walker

Southwest Conference Presentation (PP) - Jim Young

Summary Exchange Workshop - Jim Bourn, moderator
Working With Photos - Ken Walker

Click to see the video on the new Dallas Performing Arts Center as shown by Donald Winspear 

(You will leave this site by clicking on this link.)

For presentation (PowerPoint and Word) on Easy Websites, contact Mary Williams - txtravel@flash.net.