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| Lima/Tarapoto Exchange
 We are looking forward to 11 ambassadors - 7
from Lima and 4 from Tarapoto - who are arriving on September
15th.
Come and join in the fun at the welcome and
farewell parties and the various events. Anyone is welcome to come on
any of the sight-seeing tours or to come to a small group dinner or
evening out. See the complete schedule on the Lima
exchange page and join in as you can.
If you want to attend events, please register.
If you do not have a form, you can get one from Dale
Klosterman; please request one and return it with your check by September
10th. This is our last exchange for 2007.
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| Next Meetings
September
What:
Farewell Dinner for Peruvian Visitors: Western barbecue dinner
Where:
Home of Ray & Elizabeth Enstam
Date
& Time: Friday,
September 21, 6:30 PM
Cost:
$15
Reserve:
Send to Theresa Wilkin
by September 10th
October
Date
& Time: Sunday,
October 14, 5 PM
Where:
9090 Skillman @ Audelia 214-349-3815
Program:
Annual business meeting and election of officers
- and a musical program by Lorenzo Gonzalez: Lively International Harp Music
(Lorenzo plays songs such as Sakura, Hava Nagila, Maleguena, O Sole Mio, Dark Eyes and lots of the lively Veracruz and Paraguayan music you can clap along
with)
Food: Choice of :
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Tampico - 1 sour cream chicken
enchilada, 1 cheese enchilada, beans
and rice |
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Miguelito - 1 cheese
enchilada, 1 meat taco, fried beans, Spanish
rice |
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Cheese enchiladas - (2)
covered with cheese or with chili con carne, beans and rice |
Cost and reservation: $10 includes food and tip. ALL drinks are extra: tea/coffee $1.89, beer /wine $4-5,
Margarita $5.99. Send your choice of meal and a check made to Friendship Force of Dallas to
Paula Rose by October
7.
UPDATE: November and December
meeting plans on Events page.
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|
 perez's postcards:
Many, many, many moons ago, people looked up to
the sky and named Sirius - the brightest star in Canis Major (the
"Big Dog"). When
they discovered that, year after year, Sirius lined up w/ the sun during
August, they thought it added its heat to that of the sun. Thus, we now
have "the dog days of summer."
Maybe that's what sent the recent rains packing to other parts of
the world.
Anyhow, I'm just glad that the heat didn't drive too many of us to
cooler climes and away from the August meeting at Casa Vieja. Ray
Enstam, Mary Williams, and John Whaley [with Ken Walker providing
computer assistance] gave the attending members and guests a great view
and recollection of Bogota,
Colombia
and its Friendship Force members. Their stories of the host families,
the places they visited, the countryside, and the history of Colombia
gave us insight into that part of the world so we don't just think of it
as some country over there with all those problems. Thanks to  Ray for
being the exchange director and to all the ambassadors for stepping up
and helping realize Friendship Force's mission - promoting world peace
and understanding by establishing individual friendships across the
barriers that separate people.
In mid-September, we have another opportunity to
do that again. Eleven ambassadors (hopefully more) from recently founded
Peruvian FF clubs - Lima
and Tarapoto ("Ciudad de las Palmeras" - City of the Palms) due
to its climate near the Amazon jungle) - will arrive here for a great
week.  Pam
Varney-Terrell and her committee have developed a great program
to welcome the ambassadors [in their 50's, 60's and 70's], home and day
host them, provide them a view of
Dallas
and Fort Worth (including a visit to a horse farm), and send them on to Houston
with new friendships and memories. Read over the schedule,
check the events you will attend; then send your reservation form and your fees to
Teresa Wilkin. If
you want to help out with any of the events (parties, day hosting, small
group dinners, etc.), contact Pam and you'll be part of her committee.
There are other ways you can involve yourself to
promote world peace and friendships - participate in Dallas, regional, US and international activities. See the various articles in
this newsletter for more details.
One way to participate is to be a board officer or committee chair. Dora
Stahl, Wendy Whaley, and I are seeking members to be next year's board
officers. If you want to help out or know someone who wants to help,
contact any of us. We'll have a slate by the end of September for this
year's election and annual business meeting in October.
In friendship,
edward perez
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| Club News
Ways and Means
The FFD Shuttle is alive and working! Henny
Houston
recently left for a two week trip to
Amsterdam
and other parts of
Europe. She had a ride to DFW but didn’t have one for when she returned with
her grandson in early July. So, she contacted edward perez and, armed
with the list of FFD shuttle drivers, scheduled a return ride from DFW.
It's easy, it's fun, and you can learn from and share with other FFD
members. Contact edward perez
to get the list and schedule your ride [$30 each way, $40 each way from
Plano
and points north].
Gifts
Looking for a Special Gift? Pam
Varney Terrell is taking orders for the .925 Sterling Silver “Kennedy Half
Dollar Coin Pendants” (includes the 24” SS Chain) at a cost of
$35.00 each. These are the same pendants that were presented to each of the recent Canadian and
Romanian Ambassadors and were very well received! They make excellent gifts for family and friends and are a real
bargain at this price. We plan to continue giving these as our ‘club
gift’ to all inbound ambassadors, so to avoid duplication we do
request they not be used as inbound/outbound host gifts. To place your order; contact Pam. The sale
of the pendants is a fundraising effort to offset the costs of
Ambassador gift/tote bags and will be an ongoing project.
Ray Enstam
has pens and pen sets that are available for $3.00 and $10.00.
They will be available at the next meeting or by request.
We will give them to hosts on our outbounds and to speakers at
our meetings.
Yearbook
Mary Williams has completed an
update insert for the yearbooks with new members and
corrections. If you did not receive one with your last newsletter,
contact her to get one by e-mail.
Board News
Your board continues to meet to monitor club
activities and finances, plan for upcoming exchanges, and review new
business. If you would like to attend a board meeting, they’re held
every 2nd Monday of the month at the home of edward perez.
2008 FFD Board Officer Nominations
If you are interested in being a board officer
for 2008 or if you can help the nominating committee, contact edward
perez, Dora Stahl, or Wendy Whaley. We can discuss the duties of each
officer position and the time commitments needed.
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| Member News
Ed Edgren reports that Marge has had her second knee replacement! We
hope for a quick recovery.
Please welcome new members:
Richard and Diane Bean from
Dallas;
Linda J.Cline from Edgewood, TX;
Ralph and Marylou Dority from Carrollton; and
Sandra Kirk from
Frisco.
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Exchange Director
Training and Help
Ed
Edgren has created an information packet which includes everything
an ED needs to know to have a successful exchange (13 pages). He created
the packet for his own use as Romania ED and will make this packet
available to future EDs.
Exchange Director Training
For all of you who have secretly wanted to be an exchange director, or
even thought about it, here is a chance to see what is involved.
The Fort Worth Friendship Force Club is offering an
Exchange Director Training Session on Saturday September 22 for members
of the
Fort Worth
and Dallas
clubs. This will include both
inbound and outbound exchanges. The
program starts at 10 AM to allow Dallas
participants time to get there and ends at 3 PM.
Each attendee will be given a packet of materials. A donation of $5 to $10 is asked to cover the cost of lunch,
refreshments, room rental and printed materials.
Members of Friendship Force Dallas are urged to attend.
The club needs more qualified EDs! To sign up or for more
information contact Ray Enstam
or Jerry Tuttle of Fort
Worth
.
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Inter-Club
Events
Open Doors
The "Open Doors Southwest" weekends
are underway. Each club in the Friendship Force Southwest Conference has
agreed to home host members of other SW Conference clubs for a 3 or
4-day
weekend. The weekend may be chosen to coincide with a special event in
the host club's city.
FF Fort Worth will host an "Open Doors" from September 6-9,
2007. There is no initial club limit to this invitation, so if any
club wants to bring a group of 4-6 people they will be welcome, until
there is a maximum of about 18-20 people. To register, please contact Dolores
Geisel.
FF Oklahoma will host an "Open Doors"
from November 15-18, 2007 in conjunction with the Celebration of
the Oklahoma State Centennial (the weekend that includes the day of
statehood). In celebration, there will be many special events in
Oklahoma City
and nearby cities including a concert at the OKC
Ford
Center
featuring "Big Name" Oklahomans on Nov 17. Guthrie will have
reenactments related to statehood. Many events are yet to be announced,
and some events may require pre-registration. We hope to have regional
club members join us for this fun weekend by arriving Thursday November
15, having great activities and friendship building November 16-17 and
departures on Sunday, November 18. To
register, send your name and contact info to Beth
Allen-Eden - President FFO.
Festival
FF New Mexico will host a festival from Oct.
10 – Oct. 14 (arrive Wednesday and depart Sunday). The festival
coincides with the 2007 Albuquerque International Balloon Festival.
There will be welcoming, Margarita, and farewell parties; Balloon
Festival events; and trips to
Santa Fe, Acoma Pueblo, and Albuquerque
museums. Estimated Cost:
$625 [includes hotel lodging and most events]. Contact NOW - Gail
Beck to see if they still have room [they did at the end of July].
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| Exchanges for 2008
The next inbound exchange is scheduled from Bundaberg,
Australia, May 2008. Gary Paramore
has agreed to be inbound ED for Australia.
UPDATE 8/22: This exchange has not has much
interest in Australia, and unless participants are found from other
cities, this exchange might not happen. If this exchange is canceled, we
may schedule more US inter-club visits. In fact, Ed Edgren is exploring
possible visits with other clubs.
The next outbound exchange is to Turialba,
Costa Rica, in
November 2008. Ray
Enstram is the ED and has already received e-mails expressing interest
in the Costa Rica
exchange. There is a very
high interest in this because it is a joint exchange with
Austin.
Watch for more news!
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| FFI
Website Change
Due to a loss of the domain name friendshipforce.org, Friendship Force International has changed its website
name (hopefully temporarily) to www.thefriendshipforce.org.
This affects all links that you see on this website. Recent pages have
been changed, but if you want to use other links that have the old
address, you will be taken elsewhere. Use this new one until further
notice.
FFI Survey
Friendship Force is embarking on a strategic
planning and long-range goal setting process over the next 6 months and
WE NEED YOUR HELP! We are conducting a number of surveys to help us with
the process. Please take a minute to complete the survey and provide
your input to the planning process. Please copy/enter the following web
site address into your web browser. http://emory.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_bfwBn4bfPs740ug&SVID=Prod
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