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Exchanges |
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Inbound exchanges consist of a visiting club coming to you; members of your club will host the visitors for one week. Both clubs will participate in some events; at other times, the individual host family and/or day host will spend time with their guests, showing them the culture and lifestyle of their country. |
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Outbound Exchanges |
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Outbound exchanges usually consist of one club visiting another club for one to three weeks of homestay (one week with each club) in another country, living with people in the host club. The homestays may be followed by an optional tour. Groups are from 10-40 people, with 20 being an average.
See the article in AARP Magazine: Real Deal
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Our outbound exchange for 2013 will be a two week exchange to Gelsenkirchen and Jena, Germany with two optional tours. Zia Shamsy is the Exchange Director for this exchange. Since there are two host clubs we will spend one week with each club. This is a return exchange since those two clubs were here in Dallas for a week in September of 2011 and many of us now have friends there. After much work Zia has come up with a schedule that suits all three clubs.
These are both small clubs with limited hosting. See the Germany Flyer with details about the exchange and contact Zia with any questions at zia_shamsy@yahoo.com. Deadline for submitting an application and deposit is November 30, 2012.
Click here for a flyer on the German exchange. Click here for a detailed itinerary for the option trip to Bavaria and Austria. Click here for a flyer on the Berlin extension Click here for an Application form.
UPDATE! The Jena club will now be able to host a full 20 ambassadors, so both clubs will be full at 20 participants. This exchange is full; if you are interested, contact Zia now to be put on a waiting list.
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New!
Discover Panama
And most importantly: Meet and party with two or more groups of Panamanians who are interested in learning more about Friendship Force and possibly forming their own clubs.
See the Panama flyer and detailed Itinerary/information sheet. Download Application.
Price - not including international airfare - $1,595.00
UPDATE: Michael presented an interesting program about Panama at the January 13th meeting. He announced that the exchange of 25 is full, with great interest from members of other clubs. He is negotiating with contacts in Panama to possibly take more people. Please contact him ASAP if you are interested in this trip.
Inbound Morganton, NC October 14-21, 2013 Henny Houston and Ernie Eberle have been named Exchange Directors.
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Exchanges 2014-2015
Inbound Morganton, NC - Oct 15-21, 2013 - Henny Houston and Ernie Eberle have been named Exchange Directors. A planning meeting will be held in late May or early June. Volunteer to help with this exchange.
Outbound Nelson and Taupo, NZ - March 3-17, 2014 - Paula Rose, Exchange Director. Itinerary and costs coming soon!
Inbound Tuxla-Gutierrez, Mexico - last week in May, 2014
Outbound Columbia Cascade, OR - TBA 2014
Inbound Columbia Cascade, OR - TBA fall 2015
Exchange Directors are needed for Mexico and Oregon exchanges. If you are interested, contact Paula Rose - Paularose2000@hotmail.com or Dale Klosterman - daleklosterman@sbcglobal.net.
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Completed Exchanges in 2013
Inbound Tamworth, Australia / Cincinnati OH
They were joined by a return visit of 8 members of the Cincinnati club, whom we visited last fall.
Exchange Director was Patty Niemeyer at peanutpatti1@verizon.net. Home host coordinator was Betty Mayeur, Day Host coordinator was Patti Pierce, and Dinner host coordinator was Henny Houston.
Completed Exchanges in 2012
Inbound Exchange from Northern Colorado and Central Montana clubs
Cathy
Ignatin was the Dallas Exchange Director - cignatin@hotmail. Fair
Park - Cathy Ignatin
Bogotá, Colombia - May 12 - 19, 2012
The exchange included a Welcome Party in Fort Worth with music performance by an eight-member Dixie Swing Band; a trip to the Dallas Arboretum, a tour to a horse ranch, a tour of the Texas Instruments Digital Light Processor plant, a trip to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame; a tour of downtown Dallas and the Sixth Floor (Kennedy) Museum; a tour of the Bureau of Engraving in Fort Worth; a tour of the Stockyards a walking tour of Fair Park; a tour the Japanese Garden and Friendship Force FW Circle; and a Farewell Party with Colombian dancers and their own professional singer, Eduardo Carrera.
Haliburton Highlands, Ontario, Canada
Outbound Exchange to Cincinnati, OH by Mary Williams, ED
Cincinnati is known for being a primary crossing point for the Underground Railroad / Freedom Trail prior to the Civil War, where slaves were spirited across the Ohio River on their way to Canada and freedom. We visited the downtown Freedom Center for a guided tour and I spent my own free day following up on locations mentioned at our visit there and found it quite interesting. (This part of our exchange may be the focus of a global exchange in the future.)
Ambassadors visited the world famous Biltmore Estate in Asheville which is the largest privately owned home in the US. It was built by the Vanderbilt family. Some time was spent in the Blue Ridge Mountains, with a visit to Boone, N.C. ED was Sandy Kaiser - coachs@abilene.com
Click here to see where else we have been in past years. See Newsletter for Sacramento Exchange, completed in April, 2012. See Bogota exchange events above. A report from Ray Enstam is in the July newsletter and photos have been posted for all these exchanges - access them from the Home page.
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Additional Opportunities
Friendship Force International
Conference is in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA November 22-25, 2013. The official host club will be the Friendship Force of Baton Rouge.
Registrations are flooding in for the 2013 World Conference in New Orleans, November 23-25. FFI is pleased to announce that they have expanded the capacity of the 2013 World Conference in New Orleans, though some optional events and homestays are already sold out.
PLEASE NOTE: Your hotel room is NOT included in the conference registration. Reserve your room directly with the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel New Orleans – 739 Canal St at Bourbon. Book online or call: 1 877 270 1393. Friendship Force discounted rate (Code =
FFI). $148 per night. Conference hotel rooms are also selling fast, so please contact the hotel to book your room soon. If the hotel is full, there are many other hotels in the area.
Post-conference home stays
will take place over the American Thanksgiving holiday, giving participants the opportunity to experience the traditions of this beloved holiday with their hosts.
Dallas has volunteered to host a few visitors and we still need a few home hosts for
5 days after
the International Conference to introduce visitors to our
Thanksgiving traditions ( Nov 26-30). A get-together dinner
for those being hosted will probably be planned; otherwise, they are
your guests.
FFI is pleased to announce that the 2014 World Conference will be held in Auckland New Zealand and will be jointly hosted by the 23 Friendship Force clubs of New Zealand. Clubs are encouraged to consider requesting an exchange to New Zealand for October 2014, to coincide with the World Conference being held that month.
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Domestic Exchanges for 2013
Cincinnati inbound - April 4-12, 2013 (see Tamworth/Cincinnati - completed)
Morganton inbound - October 15-21, 2013 Exchange Directors are Henny Houston (hennyjack@att.net) and Ernie Eberle (ebebTexas@gmail.net). Contact one of them to volunteer to home host, day host, host a small group dinner or plan a day's activities. A general planning meeting will be held late May or early June.
UPDATE - Tentative Schedule:
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Outbound
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Join the first-ever Friendship Force Discovery Trip to Panama. You can be part of this new adventure opening up the frontiers of Friendship Force in this fabulous country! 
Friendship Force of Dallas
hosted an International inbound exchange from Tamworth, Australia
for April 4-12, 2013. Eight members visited us. After their visit in Dallas they traveled to
Xalapa, Mexico and then to West Alejuela, Costa Rica. This was our one international inbound exchange for 2013. 
We
hosted an incoming exchange from the Central Montana club (Great Falls/Helena)
and the Northern Colorado club (Fort Collins, Greeley, Loveland and
Windsor) November 7-14, 2012. The Montana ED, Pam Haugen, whom we met in Great
Falls, was not able to make the trip at the last minute. Alice Gibson heading up the Northern Colorado
club became the interim ED. 
In May we jointly hosted an inbound from Bogotá, Colombia with the Fort Worth club. The home hosts
were assigned for the 25 ambassadors. This was our club’s only international hosting exchange for this year. Because it
was a joint hosting exchange, the welcome party
was in Fort Worth and the farewell party was in Dallas and we had some events in which both clubs participate. Raymond
Enstam was the Exchange Director.
From
September 27 to October 2, 20 ambassadors from Friendship Force of Dallas and 1 person each from the Portland and Minnesota clubs spent a fine week with the friendly folks of FF Haliburton Highlands Canada. We were SO lucky as the leaves were reaching the peak of their autumn colors as we arrived! Highlights of the exchange included a guided walk through a sculpture forest, a mini cruise on a 1890's steamship, and a fall arts and music festival. Most of us lived with our hosts in scenic wonder overlooking the many lakes in the region. Our hosts showed us the excellent cultural and social life of
Haliburton. 
We were treated to displays of the
craftwork of Haliburton members as well as that of the local community. We also learned about the history and geology of the area. Our Haliburton hosts were very welcoming. Every participant reported a fine fun laid back exchange with plenty of free time. When can we go again?? Well, Haliburton is hosting a winter festival in Feb 2013. Look it up on the
Twelve Dallas members drove to Cincinnati for a domestic outbound
September 19-24 before proceeding to our international exchange in
Haliburton, Ontario. Both exchanges were smashing hits! We were very impressed with the Cincinnati variety of activities, excellent guides, good meals, dinners and parties. Many thanks to Judy
Hornsby, the Cincinnati ED who pulled a great program together.
Hosts and club members made us feel welcome; we were not rushed and had a free day where we spurted off in all directions to pursue our interests, including a horse farm, a car factory, quilt shops, antique shops, the zoo, and homes used by activists in the Underground Railroad. The welcome party was held the evening of our arrival after our long drive that day. We sampled “Skyline Chili” – a Cincinnati institution and had several dinners at members’ homes. We concluded our stay with a farewell dinner recalling our good week there and an invitation to the Cincinnati club to visit Dallas next year.
Outbound exchange to
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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.
Stan and Taylor Parker, Jim and LaNell Naughton, Ed and Dora Stahl, Mary Williams, Carolyn Williams and Jim Bourn. |
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.
| Revised Exchange Policies
- 2011
FFI's Exchange Director Manual states "Participating in an exchange entails a major commitment of time and money on the part of both ambassadors and hosts." Its policies state that a) ambassadors and hosts are carefully selected to ensure compatibility with the program and b) that clubs should avoid a “sign up” process that suggests to applicants that acceptance on exchanges is automatic.
In other words, if an exchange is oversubscribed, if you have never been on an exchange, you will be given more consideration in being selected for an ambassadorship. And if you have been active in and contributed in the current and previous year to our club [this is where the "hint hint" from before comes in], you will also be given more consideration.
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At the June,
2010 meeting the Board of Friendship Force of Dallas adopted a new policy regarding expenses of outbound international exchanges. The club will now add an additional $50 on the exchange fee (now set by Friendship Force International at $265.00). The proceeds of this fee will be used to pay the air travel expenses of the exchange director. No club assets will be used to pay this expense. The amount paid will not exceed the amount collected from this fee and will be the lesser of $1,000 or the price of the airfare. In the past when Friendship Force International made the travel arrangements for the exchanges using group rates the airlines would give free airfare to the director if there were 20 travelers, and a prorated amount for fewer travelers. Since Friendship Force International stopped arranging air transportation the directors have lost this benefit and the Board thought that this was discouraging many persons from applying for the job. A survey of other Friendship Force clubs revealed that most have adopted a similar policy.
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2012 International Conference Hiroshima, Japan Oct 30 - Nov 2, 2012
The Friendship Force International 35th World
Conference has just concluded in Hiroshima.
The city of Hiroshima at night
Inspiration for a strong future:
See FFI for additional information on speakers and extensions. Felicity Sentance, VP, will give a presentation on the conference at our March meeting.
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Hiroshima Peace Memorial
Hiroshima Castle
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Other Club Exchanges and Festivals
You many join an outbound exchange from any other club from your country. Also listed are missions, festivals, and other hosting opportunities. Go to the Other Clubs page to see where you can go!
See the
featured exchanges from FFI in the online World
of Friends Catalog, which lists dozens of upcoming cultural exchange opportunities on
six continents. Check out what exchanges are open on:
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Recruiting for Exchanges From Lauren Tepley, Communications Coordinator, Friendship Force International
There are two questions club leaders always
seem to ask:
How? World Exchange Recruiters will:
FF World Exchange Recruiter
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Please continue to use Travel Guard Travel Insurance as your preferred travel insurance provider if you are traveling on a USA outbound exchange. The policy is available online at www.travelguard.com. Click on the agent link box in the top right hand corner and enter the number 122525. Click on the products tab at the top of the page and select your state of residence. Or call 1-800-826-7489 giving them the same number to identify yourself as a Friendship Force member. You can use this insurance for all Friendship Force travel or your own personal travel too. Be sure to get insurance that pays for your return to the U.S. in case you need to come home.
As of Jan
2011 Travel Guard
has a new address. Please send all Travel Guard mail to: |