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September Message from Tom

  Greetings,
 
In August, we just finished giving the San José Costa Rica club a nice exchange in return for the wonderful stay we had with them in 2015. In thanks, they gave our club a beautiful painting of a typical Tico house, painted by one of their Ambassadors, Cecilia Fernandez. A good 40 of our 80 members pitched in! So, thank you very much to all who helped, especially first-time ED, Bob Traber, (who implemented some great new ideas), for planning a remarkable Exchange. If you’re one of the other 40 who don’t see your name in that list, I strongly urge you to call Andy Alongi immediately to sign-up to help us on our next Inbound Exchange, from Northern Colorado on October 12 – 18. To paraphrase the old saying, “it takes a village…”, and we still need help in a few crucial areas, especially home-stays, to give some welcome relief to those that selflessly volunteer time and time again.
 
Also, our Officer Nominating Committee still needs next year’s President (or Co-Presidents?). Please call Mike Boyko to volunteer, or call me to discuss options.
 
Speaking of Exchanges, I’m happy to report, (thanks to our Exchange Coordinator, Roger Walsh), we have Planned Future Exchange agreements in place for the next 3 years! Your first opportunity to sign-up for our exciting March 16-29, 2017 “Partner” Exchange to Vietnam will be during our September meeting. We will need firm commitments and money by December, so this may be your only chance before we have to open it up to all of FFI, (we already have several from other clubs who are interested!). This is a new type of exchange opportunity for our club that contains some tour components, some home-stays and an overnight on a cruise boat in a beautiful and new country for us. Depending on interest, we may also offer an optional extension tour to the World Heritage Site Angor Wat Temple in Cambodia, and/or Hong Kong or Singapore..
 
Also at our regular 3rd Saturday General Meeting at 1:30 on September 17th, don’t miss our program on the hottest travel destination from the USA – CUBA, (currently, mostly only our people-to-people style cultural exchanges are allowed). Please also continue to bring your excellent appetizer offerings. See you there!