International Cultural Exchange Committee

International Cultural Exchange Committee Geneva City Hall Tuesday October 14, 2014 Minutes 1. The meeting was called to order at 5:15 p.m. Members present: Cynthia Albright, David Bald, Pam Cabeen, Angela Pool. Members absent: Bobbi Alderfer, Lynn Landberg. SPAC liaison present: Bob Backus. Guest: Denise Snyder. 2. Approval of September minutes: we will approve these at the November meeting. 3. Treasurer’s report: Angela reported a total of approximately $2,000 total in our accounts. In advance of the Fall 2015 delegation visit from our friends in Croissy, we will need to have a fundraiser. 4. Video interview: playing now on Geneva TV and on YouTube, Cynthia our president’s interview, with City of Geneva Communications Officer Kevin Stahr asking the questions. Thanks to Cynthia for publicizing ICEC’s many accomplishments and current projects and to Kevin for providing her with that opportunity. 5. Website: ICEC is “next up” among the city’s subcommittees to have its own space on the city’s website. We will need to let Kevin Stahr know what we want our landing page to look like. In order for those online to easily locate the new page, we will want to keep our domain name, whose registration we have been keeping active through Matt Lay. Matt will help us transfer the registration out from under his aegis to a new Go Daddy account. Pam moved, Angela seconded that the above transfer be funded. It was noted that our annual cost for maintaining the domain name will be reduced. The motion passed. A big ‘thank you’ goes out to Matt Lay, for all he has done over the years to help us meet our I.T. challenges. 6. ECI/Middle School Exchanges – we will continue to support ICEC’s summer exchanges (French middle school and high school students staying in area homes, including Geneva’s). We explained to our new SPAC liaison, Bob Backus (welcome, Bob!) and to guest Denise Snyder why the summer exchanges are arranged through ECI (Interna- tional Cultural Exchanges; “E.C.I.” in French), a private company sanctioned by the Geneva School Board to work with Geneva High School and Geneva Middle School to Find Geneva host homes for the French students each summer. ICEC may under no circumstances, as City of Geneva entity, assume the liability of arranging or managing the exchanges, but we can and will continue to help promote them and to host a “Geneva Day” each summer for students coming from Croissy and/or staying with Geneva hosts. 7. New projects for 2015 – David has already had a fruitful meeting with Kim Gotches, the Director of Programs at Geneva Public Library, regarding possible joint ventures be- tween the Library and ICEC . Two programs we might partner on to meet ICEC’s mission of promoting cultural exchange within Geneva would be the adult book discussion and the “Passport” program for children. David and Cynthia will meet Kim late this in October or in early November to flesh out the details. LOGO: Kari Kraus has received three designs from students for the ICEC logo. More will be forthcoming from Al Oschner’s art classes at Geneva High School. Art exchanges between Geneva elementary school students and Croissy: Isabelle, with whom Kari worked in the past on the highly successful “Seine/Fox River” elementary school art exchange, is at a new school in France, but is interested in working with us again on new projects. Painting en plein air: the date for the Greater Geneva Art Guild’s en plein air event is still TBA, but we will be happy to help GGAG in any way we can. Visits by Genevans to Paris/Croissy – we hope to include links on the new website that would give directions, information, etc. to Genevans visiting Paris who would like to take a day trip to Croissy during their stay. We appreciate our Croissy friends’ amazing generosity in welcoming individuals and couples who come to Croissy to visit, but we don’t want to burden them with “unannounced” Geneva visitors. Of course, we love it when Genevans visit our “cultural partner,” but we don’t want to wear out our welcome or take advantage of our Croissy friends’ amazing generosity. Dates for 2015 Croissy delegation visit: the delegation will be invited for the fall, possibly during the week that overlaps Festival of the Vine, which is the weekend after Labor Day (September 11 through 13). Exchange of ‘day in the life’ articles between everyday Genevans and “counterparts” in Croissy: we will pursue this when we decide on the best place to publish these. 8. Swedish Cultural Partner – David reported that we are encouraging Steve Andersson to continue to cultivate his family contacts near Stockholm to the end of establishing a cultural liaison with a town/city that would be a good fit with Geneva. Steve is in the final weeks of campaigning for the State Legislature, so we will wait until after the November election to pursue further this important endeavor. 9. Next meeting: Wednesday November 12 at City Hall, 5:15. 10. The meeting was adjourned at 6:22 p.m. Respectfully submitted, David Bald 6. Exchange with Sweden - Lynn Landberg gave us many more details about, Varnamo, the “target” city in the Smaland region of Sweden. Although larger than Geneva, it is on a river, the Lagan, is a center for finely crafted furniture, and has many other attractive traits. We agreed that pursuing informal contact with Varnamo is the best thing to do for the moment. Something like a mayor to mayor contact can come later if things work out. Thanks, Lynn, for putting time and enthusiasm into this important effort. 7. ICEC Picnic – any event for this summer will be rolled into the student exchange event— see item #5. 8. Fall fundraiser - Sue K. suggested that it is not to early to start thinking about fund raising in the fall. Last year’s efforts were essential to the success of the Croissillons’ visit in September 2010 and to our current good footing financially. Nothing was decided, but we agreed to think about this in advance of our next meeting. 9. Next meeting: Tuesday, May 10, 2011. 10. Meeting adjourned at 6:35 p. m. Respectfully submitted, David Bald