ALUMNI LINK

A PUBLICATION OF THE YFU-USA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

In early May 2006, the National Alumni Council (NAC) gathered in Denver, Colorado for the first face-to-face NAC meeting in several months. We welcomed returning members: Kristjan Stone (chair-elect), Erik Lingren (via telephone), Ryan Savage (secretary-elect) and Carol Zuvers. New members were graciously welcomed as well: Kati-Salla Laine, Carolyn Love (Southern Tier District Director) and Elizabeth (Liz) Zirk (Temporary Western District Office Coordinator). There were also two special guests present at t he May meeting, David Barber and Lisa Chinnery, both YFU staff and former NAC members. If you would like more background information on any of the NAC members, please visit the YFU-USA Alumni Association website.

During our weekend meeting, we had the pleasure of participating in a local alumni event. It was a tremendously successful gathering with record attendance of newly found alumni through a recently updated Colorado alumni address list. Longtime-ago-returned and newly-returned alumni were reacquainted with YFU. Many were interested in getting involved with the Rocky Mountain Alumni and possibly volunteering in the future.

In June, we received notification from Kati, Erik and Ryan that life was taking them each in a new and exciting direction. Kati needed to attend to some personal matters; Erik needed to focus on his career; and Ryan was accepted to graduate school in Finland. Their resignations were accepted with gratitude for their commitment to the NAC during each of their terms. We wish them each the best of luck!

As a result of the membership changes, some projects were reassigned so NAC members could focus on the core projects listed below:

• Alumni Coordinators – managed by Liz Zirk
• Alumni Referral – coordinated by Jeanne Pierce (former NAC member)
• Alumni Contact Network – managed by Kristjan Stone
• Alumni Link – managed by Kristjan Stone and Julia Martin (former NAC member)
• Conference Call PDOs (nationwide) – managed by Carolyn Love
• Fundraising (potentially) – YFU cookbook of recipes from around the globe; created by Carol Zuvers
• YFU-USA Alumni Association Web Site - Heather Curtis as Webmaster (former NAC member)

If you would like more background information on each of the NAC members, please visit the YFU-USA Alumni Association Web site at www.yfu-usa.org/alumni/about/members.html.

We warmly welcome communication from you at alumni@yfu.org. Please do not be shy and let us know if you have any suggestions, comments or alumni stories to tell. We consider these past couple of months to have been very successful and look forward to even greater accomplishments in the future.

We are currently seeking recipes from around the globe for Carol's developing cookbook. If you would like to contribute, please send your ideas to alumni@yfu.org.

The YFU-USA Alumni Association website is in the process of being updated with new information. We thank Heather Curtis, Webmaster for the YFU-USA Alumni Association and former NAC member, for all her time and effort in helping us.

We end this brief NAC update with a beautiful message recently received from an alumnus and former NAC member. This is why we do what we do by fulfilling YFU-USA Alumni Association's mission... striving to provide alumni with the benefits and opportunities of lifelong learning in the YFU community and furthering the mission of YFU...preparing young people for their responsibilities and opportunities in a changing, interdependent world.

“I just wanted to pass on some comments of appreciation. I am traveling today and am sitting in O’Hare airport. I walked by a gate set for Hong Kong. To my surprise, I was inundated with a sea of YFU shirts worn by a group of students obviously returning home. You could see from their "acculturization" attire, baseball hats, flip-flops and McDonald’s Happy Meals, that once again WE have achieved our goal. I saw faces of kids, attitudes of brilliant adults, and a continued optimism for our future that sometimes is overlooked. The entire event made me stop in my rush to catch a plane and swell with pride as a fellow YFUer. Thanks!”

David Jones
Argentina 1987
Former NAC Member

Thanks to you, David, and the greater YFU world! We consider these past couple of months to have been very successful and look forward to even greater accomplishments in the future.

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