Annual
Business Meeting and Spring Fête
The
Annual Business Meeting will be held on Friday, April 15 at noon.
We
will elect new officers for the next year, acknowledge our teachers,
and
welcome new board members. The meeting will be followed by our Spring
Fête
at 1:00 pm in Fellowship Hall. Members are asked to bring a dish to
be
shared with the group. Hors d’oeuvres, snacks, nibbles, and desserts
are
appreciated. Food with an international flair is especially welcome. We
will
provide drinks, plates, napkins, utensils, and cups.
The
slate of nominated candidates are:
Ms
Martha
Hogerty
President
Ms Judy Pearlstein
1st Vice President
Ms Joan
Adam
2nd Vice President
Ms Gail
Clair
Secretary
Ms Alison
Duncan
Assistant Secretary
Ms Christie
Lohmeyer
Treasurer
Ms Sharon Barb-O'Connor
Assistant Treasurer
We
are planning for next year’s classes. Input from members is always
appreciated, so plan to join us, even if you haven’t been to class
recently.
Take
advantage of our annual book sale to sell some of your foreign language
books,
CDs, tapes, records, etc. to fellow members. It will be held during the
Spring
Fête. Bring items you no longer want or need, and there will be a
table set up
with instructions about how the sale works. Half of the price will
go to
the seller and half will go to La Causerie at this event.
Italian Program, Friday,
April 8
Rachel
DiCamillo, who has a Masters from an Italian university in Classical
Archeology
and Culture of the Ancient and Medieval World, will give a presentation
in
Italian and some English, using power point, on the evolution of the
iconography of the Egyptian Goddess Isis in Roman and Western culture.
We will
go to lunch at Bella Napoli after the program. Those wishing to go to
lunch
should email Marti Moore, martim@everestkc.net.
Kansas City FilmFest
Mark your calendars for
Kansas City FilmFest, April 6-10 at the AMC Mainstreet downtown at 14th
and Main street. This annual festival shows more than 100
films, including a number of films in our languages. You can
find the
schedule at www.kcfilmfest.org and in the March 30 issue
of Ink
Magazine. La Causerie is sponsoring a Spanish film being shown on
Thursday
night at 6:45 pm called “La mitad de Oscar” (or “Half of
Oscar”). La Causerie made a small contribution to support this film
and,
as a result, we were able to place an ad in the program, spreading the
word
about our classes. The Alliance Française sponsored “Hors la
loi”
(or “Outside the Law) being shown on Friday at 2:45 pm. Another notable
French
film is “Déchaînées” being shown Saturday from
10:30 am to noon
(sponsored by Andrés and the Consultate General of Switzerland
in Chicago). All
have English subtitles. The schedule includes films from 30 countries,
including many award winners that may never reach Kansas City theatres.
Keeping up during the
summer months
There
are only four more weeks of La Causerie classes for the 2010-2011
school year.
The last class will be on April 29, but you’ll want to maintain your
foreign language skills. Here are some ways that students have
continued to
study during the summer.
La Causerie students have
been known to organize a study group and contract with an instructor
who holds
sessions at various places around town (at a corner table at Aixois on
a
certain morning or in a library meeting room). Students equally share
the cost
of the instructor and negotiate the content with the teacher. Ask
around
to see if there is a group you can join or form one of your own.
Douglas Eikermann and
Patricia Siqueiros are each organizing Spanish classes for the summer.
Doug is
offering classes for two groups of six.
At 2:00 each Tuesday
afternoon
a Spanish conversation group meets at the West Wyandotte Branch of
the
Kansas City, Kansas Public Library at 1737 North 82nd Street, Kansas
City,
Kansas 66112. The group is led by Marina Vildoso, a reference librarian
at West
Branch and a native of Bolivia. There is no charge for the class and
all are
welcome to come and to visit in Spanish.
Check our website, lacauserie.org, for a list of tutors who
are
available for individual or small group instruction.
Most instructors
recommend reading foreign language newspapers, listening to foreign
language
radio and watching foreign language TV. If you don’t know how to access
these resources (many are available online), discuss it with your
instructors
now. Many French students, for example, subscribe to TV5 through their
cable
provider. TV5 also has rich, free resources on their website.
Concordia Language
Villages in Minnesota offers a large range of immersion experiences for
French
and Spanish (and other languages, but not Italian). Many of our members
have
attended their programs and recommend them highly. Check out: www.concordialanguagevillages.org/newsite/
If you have ideas to
share for French, Spanish, or Italian, please send them our way for the
May
issue.
Important
Dates:
April
8 Italian program, Rachel
DiCamillo
April 15
Spring fête and business
meeting
April 29
Last day of classes
Executive Board Members
2010-2011
Do
you have a question? The first contact in case of a question is our
trusty
Board Assistant Amanda Hassett at 913-538-6238. If she doesn’t have the
answer, she can direct you to the right person.
1st
Vice
President (Membership Chair) Inez
Pennington
2nd
Vice
President (Social
Chair)
Joan Adam
Secretary
Gail
Clair
Assistant
Secretary
(Newsletter)
Judy Pearlstein
Treasurer
Christie
Lohmeyer
Assistant
Treasurer
(Textbook Chair) Dalene Bradford
Board
Assistant
Amanda
Hassett