The Friendship Force of Lake Hartwell

SEPTEMBER 2008 www.ffloh.com

NEXT MEETING ~~~~~ OCTOBER 6^th. ~~~~~~~ 7 PM

BOARD MEETING 6 PM

      This newsletter has 7 pages. Be sure to read them all!

Bill Buziak has had a heart attack and is in a hospital in Dublin, Ireland.  Skip got the news via Gretchen Fuller who had made their travel arrangements for the trip to Ireland prior to the Cornwall exchange.  Lilia had called her to let her know about the situation.  Skip had no other details but will forward anything that he finds out.  Please keep both Bill and Lilia in your prayers.  

EXCHANGE CALENDAR
2009

MARCH___, 2009 TO Curitiba and Belo Horizonte, Brazil….Pete & Paula Chambers

                        MAY____, 2009 HERE Sydney, Australia….Wally & Barb Zust EDs Bob & Carol Beasley asst. EDs

JULY____, 2009 HERE Auckland, New Zealand ....Skip Walter ED

       NOTES FROM EXCHANGE DIRECTORS

UK 
The Walters, Watsons, Reynolds, Sparlings, Zusts, Zygmonts, Chambers, Pursells and Buziaks are having a wonderful time in England.
We have met lots of new people, made great friends and seen new sights and places. 
We will have a report at the next meeting! 
Barbara Walter, ED

BRAZIL EXCHANGE

Pete and Paula Chambers 

AUSTRALIA

Sydney Exchange is in May of '09

1. Board approved the exchange and I e-mailed the ED on 9/2.

2. Hopefully I will have the exact dates of the exchange by the Oct. meeting.

Wally Zust

NEW ZEALAND       - Skip Walter ED

  FOOD HOSTING

If you cannot do your food hosting it is up to you to find a substitute. The substitute’s name will not be printed in the newsletter. **If you inform the newsletter who your sub is the subs name can be entered beside yours. It is up to you to check and make sure the substitute will be there for you. If there are extreme problems contact Judy Sanfilippo 706 376-7788

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
September 2008 
I’d like to thank all the members who attended the September meeting. I know the Labor Day weekend is a busy time for travel and entertaining visitors! We did have a quorum so we were able to elect officers for the next year. Joining Bobbie Jones, Marti Reckdenwald, and me are Jerry Weber as Treasurer and Ron Sparling as secretary. Welcome to you all and thanks for offering your time and efforts to make our club work! Thanks also to Brenda Dixon, Paula Chambers and Richard Brister for their efforts as the nominating committee, never an easy task but well done! Thank you! 
With elections out of the way we need to focus on other important business for the club. As has been announced , the November meeting will be an information session for people interested in learning more about Friendship Force. The Bristers are creating an agenda that will allow guests to understand the mission of the club, learn about the exchanges we have participated in recently through photos and talking to the individual Exchange Directors, view our Albums to see all the activities we are involved in, and generally chat with members of the club. At this time there is no general meeting taking place, but it is very important that all members participate in several ways. 
First, as Merilee has said, please identify someone you work/play/or socialize with that has an interest on an organization such as ours. Please invite them to attend the meeting on Monday, November 3rd with you. Or have them contact Merilee for more information prior to the meeting. It is in our own best interest to maintain a membership that allows us to participate to the fullest in exchanges that are assigned to the club and to spread the effort of hosting clubs across the entire membership.  
Second, be sure to attend! The people of our club are the best asset we have for attracting new members! Come and speak with the guests. Help them understand what Friendship Force is all about. Describe our function, missions and how we operate. Let’s all help Merilee make this drive a great success. 
At the September meeting I announced that at next months meeting we will jointly decide what we would like to request for our 2010 outbound international exchanges. It is necessary to have requests submitted to Atlanta by November of this year for them to begin the matching process! So, please, be thinking about which direction or directions we should request. Last year we were very fortunate to receive our first request. Hopefully we will be as fortunate for the 2010 matches. 
It was explained at the meeting that there is good probability that FFI will offer a Festival in Bali, Indonesia in the later part of 2010. This is in the planning stages with no guarantee it will get scheduled. If it does it will include the opportunity for home hosting by one of the Indonesian clubs, either just before or just after the festival. It has been hinted that those clubs requesting and receiving an Indonesian exchange will have their exchange scheduled to coincide with the festival! Bali is one of the premier vacation spots in the world! With our hosting the ladies from Jakarta this spring we stand a reasonable chance of being accepted if we choose to apply. Nothing is guaranteed, obviously! But think about the Indonesian request as one of our submissions. This is your opportunity to help define our locations for 2010! Be sure to attend and voice your opinion.  
One last item! Have you all visited our new web site? (www.ffolh.com) Chuck Thorne has done an exceptional job of recreating our site! It contains all sorts of information both about our club and the

international organization. And , very importantly, we have all been asked to request access to the "member’s only" section. You will see the steps to do so on the site. Once we have gained access to the section we all need to fill out the personal profile section about ourselves! This will be valuable information in the future and hopefully eliminate some of the paperwork required each time we participate in an outbound exchange as well as provide info about us to be send to incoming ambassadors who we will home host. NONE of this information will be accessible outside of our membership! That’s why Chuck requires that we each request access so he can assign the required security allowing only us the access. So! If you haven’t done so yet, please sign on to the site and complete the access procedure and then fill in your profile. And Chuck! Thanks for all your efforts to set this up and maintain it for the club. 
Good to be home! See everyone at the October meeting. 

Skip Walter e_walter@hotmail.com 864.225.0666

VP NOTES

As our UK Exchange departs this month, we are already thinking about where our Club wants to go in 2010!  FFI has asked us to submit our request by November so please be thinking about your
preferences. We will be discussing and deciding on our request at the October meeting.
Another big THANK YOU goes out to those who served on our Nominating Committee: Richard Brister, Paula Chambers and Brenda Dixon.  The slate was presented at our general meeting and
accepted.  Thank you for your support and we look forward to serving the club next year!
I will be leaving for the Friendship Force International Conference (October 2-5) in Brisbane, Australia, later this month.  I have had contact (thanks, Wally!) with the Exchange Director of our incoming
2009 Sydney exchange and we plan to meet during the Conference.  Also attending will be members of the Howick, New Zealand, group and they will be visiting us next year after the Sydney group.
See you in November,

Bobbie Jones

MEMBERSHIP

Welcome to our newest members - Karen and Tom Komatz ! They live in Hartwell on Mt. Olivet road with three horses, two dogs & 1 cat. Their home state is Minnesota,   They have many interests including supporting the animal shelter and golfing. They have their badges so please introduce yourself at the next meeting if you haven't already.

We would like to remind the membership that the November meeting will be our outreach for prospective new members. Please look around during your regular activities to invite some friends to attend the November Meeting.  The format will be a little different.  Instead of a potluck meal, we are asking the members to bring finger foods. We are asking the E.D.'s of past exchanges, especially International to set up a table with photos, exchange books or anything relating to the activities of the exchange.

We were with Sandy and Mack Martin last evening.  Sandy's Cancer diagnosis was as dire as it gets in January.  Well, in the past three weeks our prayers have been answered and her ca. markers are about as low as they get!  People, this

is a MIRACLE!  As a group, we have many CANCER VICTORS and everyday someone receives a devastating diagnosis but together our prayers will make a difference.

We will be participating in the ANGEL program again this year. This is a community service project with the local nursing homes. We provide gifts to resident without family.  We get a list of residents with sizes and a few choices then play Santa to these folks. At the November meeting we will have a table set up for you to choose your residents and deliver the gifts to the December Christmas Party.

Please visit our wonderful club website with links to F.F.I. We are fortunate to have Tom Christman and Chuck Thorne in our organization.  Give them your feedback.  Become a member subscriber so we can use this info for a member database and an up to date directory.  We all have talents and gifts to share - please say yes when asked to participate.  The involvement you have in F.F.O.L.H. will reward you ten fold.

In Friendship,

Merilee & Richard Brister

706-376-7618 ml7777@yahoo.com or merilee@ffolh

WAYS AND MEANS

The 50/50 winner of $47 at the September meeting was Jeanne Andrews.   Thank you to all who contributed to the drawing.   

There are 17 hats with the FFOLH logo still available.  The cost is $10 and the profit from the sale goes to Ways & Means.   

The shirts still available are listed below.  We will have them at the October meeting for sale.

1 Black medium ladies - 'breathable' fabric of 73% cotton / 27% polyester - $21

1 Dark Royal Blue large ladies - 100% cotton - $16

1 White large mens -  'breathable' fabric of 73% cotton / 27% polyester - $21

Thanks again for your support!!!

Susan Schafer

HISTORIAN 

Marti Reckdenwald

SUNSHINE

Please contact me with information for any SUNSHINE need. I can’t respond if I don’t know the need. Phone: 706 376-4631 email: jkcleveland@hartcom.net

Snail mail: 1243 Cleveland Mill Road Hartwell, GA 30643

Kay Cleveland

SPECIAL PROJECTS

Bill Schafer

WEB SITE

Check it out!!!!! www.ffolh.com Look it over. Fill in name and email and hit subscribe to register so you can get into member information (it doesn’t cost anything to subscribe).

Tom Christman

Chuck Thorne

GOLF
September - Tom and Pat Christman
October - Dennis and Jeanne Andrews
November - Ken and Gretchen Fuller

2009 Golf Hosting Schedule
February - Beazleys
March - Boylan
April - Bristers
May - Chambers
June - Christmans
September - Zust Open
October - Fords
November – Howe

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

IT IS TIME TO GET STARTED ~~~ PLEASE VOLUNTEER NOW

THE CHRISTMAS ANGEL PROJECT – call Sandy Martin

Sandy is feeling well enough to do this. How about stepping up to help her!!!!

CHRISTMAS PARTY –call Skip Walter or Susan Schafer

NOTE FROM SANDY MARTIN

1.   In the last month I have felt a lot, lot better and regained a lot of my strength- furthermore, the Dr. gave me a very good report last Wednesday, stating that my cancer "markers" were down to two which is excellent, and that I am progressing so well they may be able to stop chemo treatments after one or two more.   This is great news as I was scheduled to have chemo through November!

2.   I ran into Merilee Brister and she asked if I could do the Nursing Home Angel ministry this year since I've had experience having done it several times before.   I told her I would be glad to. I will need volunteers to help me.

MINUTES FROM FFOLH September 1, 2008

President, Skip Walter called the meeting to order at 7 PM and thanked food hosts Bill & Cindy Jones, Dave & Candy Purcell, & Judy & Phil (also guest) Sanfilippo. Guests were introduced including the Zygmonts daughter, Linda Hausen and new members Tom & Karen Komatz (7343 Mt Olivet Rd., Hartwell, kkomatz @gmail.com)

Jerry Cleveland gave the blessing.

September Birthdays & Anniversaries were celebrated with song.

Treasurers Report – Bob Reynolds gave his report and the financial projection for the remainder of 2008. Bob also reminded us that dues are due in November - $45/couple & $28/single. It was also mentioned that the board voted to reimburse Bobbie Jones for the registration fee for the FFI conference in Australia at the end of September. Bobbie will be going and representing FFOLH

Membership – Merilee Brister – A reminder that the November meeting will be a membership drive. Recent past ED’s will have pictures and information about the exchanges at various table. Potential rembers can stroll at their leisure and see what our exchanges are like and talk to member who went on the exchange. Instead of our usual potluck, we will be doing appetizers and finger foods.

Kay Cleveland will be the greeter for our membership meeting while Merilee is in the executive board meeting.

Skip thanked Tom Christman for his contribution to our original web site. He urged members to visit our new web site and sign up for member information.

Exchanges:

UK – Barb Walter – Trip is set to go on the 12^th. Dave Purcell shared the New Castle agenda sent to him by his hosts.

Brazil - March 2009 - $440/person or $880/couple is due tonight. Pete will work on getting information about the needed visa and immunization.

Sidney Australia – Spring 2009 – Kay Graves is the Sidney club’s new ED. She has ten people from South Sidney and about 3 people from Perth (on the West Coast of Australia) already committed to the exchange.

New Zealand – late June 2009 (we hope to have them in town for the pre-fourth activities in Hartwell).

Skip will be the ED (approved by the board).

Domestic exchanges for 2009 – Skip & Bobbie have received little input from the club. Bobbie will investigate possible exchanges with Napa Valley being at the top of the list.

It is time to start thinking about 2010 international exchange(s). Our requests are due to FFI by November 1^st. It was mentioned that the 2010 international conference is going to be in Bali. There are 4-5 FF clubs in Indonesia that we could possibly visit in conjunction with the conference. The Jakarta group (teachers) is interested in having us visit them.

Sunshine – Kay Cleveland – Kay sent a card to Kathy Thomas of FFI and also a sympathy card to the Great Falls Club. Several people inquired about Sandy Martin and it was learned that she is continuing on her chemo journey and as her immune system is not up to snuff, is mainly staying at home. She loves to hear from us by phone or e-mail.

Baseball – Bill Schafer reports that we had a great time at the ball game the other night. Rain threatened; but they got in the entire game without a drop falling. Next season we will try and get in 3-4 games. It was suggested that we might want to take either our New Zealand or Australian ambassadors to a game. Bill still has several hats available at $10 and a few assorted shirts.

Golf – Tom & Pat Christman will be hosting golf on the 18^th at Chickasaw Point GC. Shotgun start at 11:00 AM at a cost of $20/person. Early dinner will be at their grill.

Old Business:

Election of officers

Election committee members Richard Brister, Paula Chambers and Brenda Dixon presented the following slate of officers:

President – Skip Walter

Vice President – Bobbie Jones

Treasurer – Jerry Weber

Secretary – Ron Sparling

Historian – Marti Reckdenwald

Tom Christman made a motion to accept the slate as presented. This was seconded by Susan Schafer. The membership unanimously approved.

Ways & Means – the 50/50 raffle was won by Jeanne Andrews (yeah!)

. The motion was passed

The meeting was adjourned at 8:27 PM

Respectively submitted,

Jeanne Andrews, Secretary

 Exchange Directors

Brazil

Outgoing…Pete & Paula Chambers

Sydney Australia

Incoming…Wally & Barb Zust

Bob and Carol Beazley

New Zealand 

Incoming... Skip Walter

2008 Board of Directors

President..................Skip Walter                  Vice President...........Bobbie Jones

Secretary..................Jeanne Andrews           Treasure...................Bob Reynolds

Historian...................Marti Reckenwald        Parliamentarian..........Dave Pursell

Hospitality.................Judy Sanfilippo            Membership...............Merilee & Richard Brister

Newsletter..................Mary Lou Leverette    Publicity.....................Jean Howe

Sunshine....................Kay Cleveland            Ways & Means..........Susan Schafer

                  Web Coordinators......Chuck Thorne/Tom Christman

To find the FFOLH 2008 / 2009 new brochure go to

www.ffolh.com

look under resources

then under general

you will see the 2008 2009 brochure listed

RECEIVED FROM LILIA BUZIAK

ct: Bill is recuperating from a heart attack in Dublin
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:12:36 +0000
My husband Bill has asked me to let you know that he had a heart attack Thursday night and is at the Mater Misericordae University Hospital in Dublin, Sacred Heart Ward and in
case you need it the ward phone number is 353 01 8034767.