December 2015 Bulletin

University Women’s Club of Buenos Aires
December 2015
Bulletin
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.uwcba.com.ar Facebook: UWC BA
Design: Patricia Caviezel
Issue 171
OFFICERS
Page 2
University Women’s Club of Buenos Aires
President: Kathryn Power,
Vice–President: Monica
Plou
A NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Secretary: Melissa Downey
Treasuer: Phyllis Barrantes
Assistant: Gwyneth Ketterer
Advisor: Isabel de la Torre
COMMITTEES
Archives: Patricia Caviezel
Continuing Education:
Christine Clark
Hospitality: Alison Equivel
Membership:
Mariel Birnbaumer
Program: Masako
Kano ,Isabel de la Torre
Communications:
Dear Members of the
UWC,
Our theme for the year 2015
was “Celebrating Milestones
- Our 80th Anniversary”. My
aim for UWC during this year
was to celebrate the origins,
accomplishments and future
of the University Women´s
Club. Our Anniversary Party
in May, so very well organized by Isabel de la Torre,
Monica Plou, Phyllis Barrantes, Joanna Richardson
and Elgen Van den Elsakker
was a true celebration.
Thank you to those who donated door-prizes for the
raffle, to Charly our AV specialist for the lighting, sound
and organizing the historical
video shown at the party
and to Maria Rosa Braile for
our Membership Directory
and the addition of more on
-line access to Club activities and data storage, I believe we are truly ready to
take on the next 80 years.
her lovely toast to the members of UWC. We had a very
active year with many and
varied activities and are in
the process of adding three
new study groups for next
year; “Current Affairs around
the World” chaired by Phyllis
Barrantes, “Literary Masters
Book Club” chaired by Vivien
Lane and “UWC meets Teatro
Colón” chaired by Elena Levin. The UWC also became an
affiliate of the ABCC during
the year, Joanna Richardson
representing us. 2015 has
also been very important for
UWC in preparing us for the
future. With the final approval of the changes and modernization of our Constitution
and By-Laws, the revision of
Thank you to the entire
membership of UWC for the
opportunity you´ve given
me in such a special year;
I´ve learned so much about
the history of the Club and
met and gotten to know so
many more of its members. I hope you´ve all enjoyed this year as much as I
have. Wishing you a very
Happy Holiday Season and
all the best for 2016. My
sincere thanks to you all.
Kathy
Claudia Bergquist
Patricia Caviezel
Monica Plou
Joanna Richardson
Welcome New
PRESIDENT
Phyllis Barrantes
Board Officers
Special Activities:
Elena Catena
Art Show: Maria Rosa
Braile
Study Groups: Kathy Hall
Book club: Marta Donadeo
Bridge: to be announced
Cine and Theater: Pamela Corbett
French: Kathy Hall
Vice-President Monica
Acting secretaries:
Plou
Treasurer Gwyneth
Ketterer
Advisor Kathryn
Ann Glotzbach and Vivian Lane
Italian through Opera:
Frida Chepelinsky
Spanish through Experience: Shake
Balian/Frida Chepelinsky
Writer’s Workshop: Shake Balian
Table of Contents
Officers 2
Note from President 2
New Officers 2
Study Groups 3
Book Club 3
Writer’s Workshop 3
Scribblers 3
Membership 4
Art Show 5
Note from Phyllis 6
Biography Shake 7
AGM minutes 8—11
Community input 1 2
Calendar 13
Power
University Women’s Club of Buenos Aires
Page 3
STUDY GROUPS Chairperson Kathy Hall
New contact information:
[email protected],
WRITER’S WORKSHOP
password: studynlearn
We met at Shake’s and discussed everything you can imagine except politics. For
the October meeting we tried to write a
short article with every word beginning
with the same letter. (See Scribblers below)
BOOK CLUB
It is always a joy to attend this activity, wisely organized and coordinated by Marta Donadeu. The
Book Club meetings are not only illuminating, for
we always learn new things, but also, interesting
and entertaining.
On November 10, we attended the last session of
the year and met at Marta's cozy apartment where
we discussed Mary Higgins Clark´s “All Around the
Town”, a well-researched, suspense, best seller, on the multiple personality disorder of one of
the main characters, who had been kidnapped and
raped at the age of four until she was six, something which for me, as a psychologist, captured my
interest from the beginning.
As in the previous group, when Sue Littleton`s
“The Last Stone” had been discussed, I presented
the members with my report on it for the Herald.
Because of the Corn Woman`s (Sue’s) generosity,
every member of the group was given a copy of
several of her bilingual books. This was very much
appreciated. Welcome to our group, Sue.
Luckily, in March, we will return to a classic. This
time, the book chosen is “Travels with My Aunt” by
Graham Green.
As is her custom, we will gather again, on the second Tuesday in March 2016, for the first meeting
of the new year. Thank you, Marta, for taking so
much of your time in the purchase of books, your
well written reports, the delicious cakes and sandwiches served and last, but not least, your warm
welcome. God bless you a thousand times!
Maria Canepa
In November we met at Adrianna’s and
again we discussed ad infinitum what we
had seen on television or on the street,
one of our members is an artist so the
conversation is usually at a high level.
We hope to meet again in April to share a
story that ends in a quotation.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
SCRIBBLERS
All amenities and alliances' are abolished.
All are aware: alarms announce an
approaching attack.
An Almighty army advance across
acres and ages, above all accused
and abhorred, alien and aboriginal
alike .
Charmian
University Women’s Club of Buenos Aires
ITALIAN THROUGH OPERA
We close our 11th year with great pleasure and
we look forward to next year with energy and
already a complete group.
Thank you very much to such an energetic and
enthusiast group.
MERRY XMAS and A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Frida Chepelinsky
MEMBERSHIP
Chairperson Mariel Birnbaumer
Membership presents Luisa C. Stigol an Argentinean physician who immigrated many years
ago to the Unites States. She is a long term resident of Boston, Massachusetts where she specialized in pediatrics. Since the 1990s Luisa has
been involved in task forces and medical practice groups that work for the eradication of domestic violence and study its impact on children.
She has been involved in prevention efforts.
She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and of several other medical Associations. Luisa resides in Buenos Aires from November through April, changing cold New England weather for unpredictable summers below
the Equator. Welcome Luisa!
[email protected]
New member Jill CollinsFarmer introduced last
month
Page 4
80th ANNIVERSARY YEAR 2015
Page 5
Maria Rosa Braile
University Women’s Club of Buenos Aires
Hello everybody.
world today. I believe it is extremely important that we
begin to think more across borders, that we don’t
look out at the world from our tiny individual space
within it, that we try and remember we are just a
small part of a whole. For all of us, the local, whether
it be temporary or permanent, is a comfortable space
to be but the world today requires us to be more humanely connective, to engage communally across
borders. So let the theme for this year be “Across
Borders”.
If you’re listening to this, it means I must have been
voted in as President for 2016. I’d like to thank you
all for placing your trust in me; I will do my best to live
up to expectations and look forward to working together again with the Board and committees. I would
also like to express my sincere thanks to the outgoing
President, Kathryn Power, for the wonderful job she
did in this very special year, our 80th anniversary year,
making it memorable all the way through. It’s good to
know she’ll be there as advisor, keeping me on the Phyllis Barrantes
ball.
I apologize for my absence; when planning my trip
months ago of course I had no idea my presence
would be called for here. I’m particularly sorry that I’ll
be missing what promises to be a beautiful musical
recital after the meeting.
It’s customary for the President to suggest a theme to
run through the coming year’s talks and discussions
and in thinking of this I turned to the motto of the University Women’s Club containing the phrase
“Universal Mind”. In this connection I cannot but help
commenting on the disruption, displacement and rejection that is taking place in so many parts of the
Continuing Education
Page 6
Chairperson Christine Clark
THANK YOU!
Our thanks go to Cristina Rapela for the repeated loan
of her proyector, and to Joanna Richardson for offering
her home as the venue for the activities of Continuing
Education during this year.
Page 7
Shaké Balian Biography
Shaké Balian was born in Bucharest, Romania and it is of her life there that her earliest memories
date. Her parents had already fled from Armenia and in the early 1950s, when Shake was a very young child, they
had to flee again, this time from the communist regime, leaving behind all their family. They reached Argentina and
soon settled in Buenos Aires, bringing the rest of the family over a year later .
Shaké was educated at Belgrano Girls’ School, which no longer exists. A good student, she went on to study the
piano at Studio Scaramuzza. The school connection was what brought her to the UWC. Long after she graduated,
a former headmistress, Miss Anne Smith – a UWC member - was celebrating her 80th birthday and mentioned that
a young bright woman like Shaké might enjoy being a part of the University Women’s Club. Shaké at the time was
married with two young children and also taught piano and gave English classes. Under Anne Smith’s encouragement Shaké joined the UWC when Shirley Tanco was President in
1987 and since then she has been an important part of the Club.
Shaké has been on almost every single Committee and served
every position in the UWC apart from Vice-President. At the very
first meeting she attended Shaké was given a folder and asked to
do Publicity. As she had no idea what that consisted of, she declined and signed up instead for Study Groups – where incidentally she still is today!
In 1992 Study Groups had a big year with an important project on
AIDS, bringing an educational video from the US to show to
schools, embassies and other organizations. Shake set up a talk
with a doctor specializing in AIDS and worked on bringing the video to the wider community outside the UWC, where necessary answering questions on the topic herself.
Shaké also served in Hospitality, Program and of course as President in 1993. Shaké and her dear departed friend
Selma Agopovitch set up the Writers’ Workshop in 1993, which is still going strong 22 years later.
Shaké has always participated actively in the Club. As well as the AIDS outreach program some other highlights for
her were a visit to the Irrurtia museum in 2003 which she organized and a wine-tasting evening at the American
Club in the mid-90s where Elena Catena kindly donated the wine.
The other activity that Shaké initiated in the UWC is Spanish through Experience, mainly because in the ‘90s there
were so many expats who did not speak Spanish fluently. Shaké would organize trips to places such as the Museo
de Arte Decorativo and provide the expats with handouts containing exercises to practice their Spanish. Shake
and Frida continue to organize Spanish through Experience, even though these days most UWC members do
speak Spanish. It is the one activity in the UWC that is in Spanish.
For Shaké the UWC has meant many things. Both learning and friendship as the Club’s motto says. Shake has
learnt from the many interesting speakers as well as from having to talk in public when she was president; she
also gained the ability to make people feel at ease, even when they are VIPs. The Club has always provided intellectual stimulation for Shaké and she recalls speakers such as Dr. Klaus Gallo who came to talk about Argentine
history when she was president, and Francis Mallman’s father, a physicist.
Joanna Richardson
University Women´s Club of Buenos Aires
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
11:00am, “Pur Sang”, Quintana 191, CABA
November 17th, 2015
UWC Board 2015
Kathryn Power – President
Monica Plou – Vice President
Melissa Downey – Secretary
Phyllis Barrantes – Treasurer
Isabel de la Torre – Advisor
President Kathryn Power called the meeting to order at 11:10am in the presence of the following members:
Shake Balain
Kathleen Hall
Mariel Birnbaumer
Wendy Huebner
Maria Rosa Braile
Gwyneth Ketterer
Elena Catena
Myrta Lange
Patricia Caviezel
Christine Moore
Frida Chepelinsky
Monica Plou
Christine Clarke
Norma Ryback
Isabel de la Torre
Edda Schmitt
Melissa Downey
Amalia Willumsen
Alison Esquivel
Barbara Wollak
Approval of Minutes: Kathleen Hall made a motion to approve the minutes of the November 18, 2014 Annual General Meeting, Elena Catena seconded it. The motion was approved.
President´s Report
Advisor: Kathryn gave her sincere thanks to Isabel de la Torre for all of her help and support. When there was a doubt on
general procedure or questions related to the running of the club, her experience as a two year president was always there to
help her.
Vice President: Monica Plou, as well as maintaining the monthly calendar of events for the Club, heading the VP table for
guests, auditing the Treasurer´s books and presiding at the August luncheon meeting and board meeting due to the President’s absence, also organized the annual “Past Presidents and New Members Morning Tea”. She thanked Monica.
Secretary: Melissa Downey, as well as taking the minutes of the AGM, luncheon meetings and board meetings also researched and implemented a new system for sharing and saving official Club documents by setting up a g-mail account and
googledocs for the UWC Board. She thanked Melissa for helping us to modernize our communications and storage of historical materials.
Archives: Under the excellent direction of Patricia Caviezel, the documents of the Club going back as far as the 1970s have
been prepared and contact has been made with the Universidad Católica Argentina for their storage. A contract has been
drawn up and will need the approval of the board before the permanent transfer is made of the documents. She thanked
Patricia as well as Phyllis Barrantes, Barbara Wollak, Carin Gil, Masako Kano, Christine Moore and Mariel Birnbaumer for their
work and time spent on the preparation of the documents.
Continuing Education: Christine Clarke once again organized 4 workshops during the year. “Stressed and Loving it” by Valerie
Hindle, “The Key´s under your Skin” by Mariel Birnbaumer, “Changing Codes and Values, Where am I?” by Carol Diamonstein
and a look at “Habitat for Humanity” by Connie Ledesma. She thanked Christine for a very interesting year and gave a special
thank you to Patricia Caviezel for her contact with “Habitat”. She also thanked Cristina Rapela for loaning her projector and
Joanna Richardson for graciously allowing us to use her home for so many meetings.
Hospitality: Alison Esquivel did a wonderful job coordinating everything that is involved in organizing our monthly luncheon
meetings; invitations, reservations and reminders to members and guests, name tags and table menus, communicating with
Pur Sang and their staff about the menu and individual needs and working with the treasurer before and after the luncheons.
She also thanked Danielle Gold, Betty Whiteman, Phyllis Barrantes and Joanna Richardson.
Membership: At the beginning of the year Mariel Birnbaumer stepped in to help Amalia Willumson and Myrta Lange who for
personal reasons could not continue as chairs of membership. Mariel has done a fantastic job receiving and processing new
member applications but also, with the help of Phyllis Barrantes reorganized and edited the 2015 Directory and set up an
email account dedicated to prospective members [email protected] . We have had 10 new members during
this year and sadly lost our members Peggy Azamor, Maria Klein and Carin Gil. This leaves the total membership at
121. Maria Ines Alvarez also was awarded “Life Member” status for her 30 years as a member of UWC.
Program: We´ve had a varied and dynamic list of speakers this year, hearing about our Argentine Pope Francisco, Neuroscience, Art History, Economics, Business and Social Inclusion as well as contact with the English speaking community with the
visits of the Chairman of the ABCC and the Ambassador of the United States. She thanked both Masako Kano and Isabel de
la Torre for their great ideas and hard work coordinating the presentations.
Communications: The Bulletin was edited monthly alternating between Joanna Richardson and Patricia Caviezel until September when Patricia took it on single handedly. Claudia Berquist has taken pictures for the bulletin, archives and manages
our Facebook page. Monica Plou has gotten the announcements of monthly luncheons and the pictures of the head table to
the “Day by Day” column of the Buenos Aires Herald as well as being in charge of sending notices of upcoming events to the
membership. And we are now in the process of renovating our website to make it more easily updated, mobile responsive
and have Google analytics. Kathryn gave a hearty thank you to the communications team for such a great job keeping us informed and connected.
Special Activities: Due to the fact that Valerie Hindle left Argentina, Elena Catena assumed the chair of special Activities and
organized two very well attended activities in the second half of the year; a Wine Education event with Sommelier Silvana
Baro Catena at Elena´s home and a visit to the new City Government building in Parque Patricios with a guided tour by the
Architect Juan Frigerio. She thanked Elena.
Art Show: Maria Rosa Braile, with the help of Alicia Magide and Patricia Caviezel and the other 5 artists from the Club have
met monthly to organize the Annual Art Show at “El Ateneo”. The exhibition, scheduled to open on December 9th at 7:00 pm
will be curated by Maria Rosa Braile and presented by Taty Rybak. She thanked all our artists; this is a wonderful way to end
the UWC year and Kathryn hopes to see you all there.
Social Responsibility: She highlighted the fact that the Club voted to include a social responsibility clause in our by-laws this
year. A forum has been created for members to share their interests through the newsletter, email, the membership directory,
and through personal interaction. In each bulletin we will highlight nonprofits and include the member associated with them.
Melissa Downey and Gwyneth Ketterer can be contacted to request that a specific organization be highlighted in future Bulletins.
University Women’s Club of Buenos Aires
page
Study Groups: Carin Gil was chair of Study groups until September. Kathleen Hall graciously took over in October. This year
we incorporated a new email for signing up for activities as well as receiving information about the various subcommittees. [email protected]
Book Club chaired by Marta Donadeu met 6 times during the year, discussing 8 books. Marta and Pamela Ferguson also
continued with the sale of books to the membership at the monthly meetings raising $1,045 which was added to the Carin
Gil Memorial Fund destined for El Pingo.
Bridge, another initiative of Carin Gil, met only a few times during the year due to Carin´s illness and passing. The group
hopes to continue next year with a more permanent venue and additional members.
Spanish through Experience, organized by Shaké Balian included 3 activities. Creative Reading, led by Maria Antonia Gandolfo, analyzed and discussed works by Hebe Uhart and Silvina Ocampo. They plan to continue next year analyzing the female characters of works by Borges. A Visit to the Sivori Museum and the exhibition of the “Grupo de Paris” was seen under
the guidance of Maria Elena Babino and a visit to the Brazilian Embassy to see an exhibition of contemporary art “Travesías,
Africa- Brasil –Argentina”, under the guidance of the curator Diana Murad. She gave a special thank you to Taty Rybak for her
help with both of these visits.
Italian through the Opera met 8 times during the year under the guidance of Frida Chepelinsky, bettering their spoken Italian
by discussion on classical music.
Writers Workshop: Chaired by Shaké Balian, the group continued to meet monthly to read, discuss and write, later choosing a
work to be included in the “Scribblers” column of the monthly Bulletin.
Cine and Theatre: Pamela Ferguson continued to inform us of what was running in BA in regards to Cinema and Theatre during the year as well as organizing an outing to see “Pessoa y sus Amigos” at a downtown theater.
Treasurer´s Report: Phyllis Barrantes: President Kathryn Power read the Treasurer’s report. The highlights included the report
that up to the month of October, the Club subsidized the luncheons to the amount of $9,150 during 2015. The accounting for
the 80th Anniversary Celebration Dinner on May 7th this year was kept entirely separate from the regular club accounts.
Approval of Treasurer’s Report: Patricia Caviezel made a motion to approve the Treasurer’s Report, Christine Moore seconded it. The motion was approved.
Board Recommendations: Dues and Inscription fee for 2016
The Board suggests that the dues for 2016 be as follows:
·
Inscription Fee: $500
·
Membership dues if paid by December 31, 2015: $450
·
Membership dues if paid by February 28, 2016 : $475
·
Membership dues paid after March 1, 2016 : $500
Approval dues and inscription fee for 2016: Frida Chepelinsky made a motion to approve the dues and inscription fees for
2016, Isabel de la Torre seconded it. The motion was approved.
President: Kathryn Power: The theme for the year 2015 was “Celebrating Milestones - Our 80th Anniversary”. Her aim for
UWC during this year was to celebrate the origins, accomplishments and future of the University Women´s Club. Our Anniversary Party in May, so very well organized by Isabel de la Torre, Monica Plou, Phyllis Barrantes, Joanna Richardson and Elgen
Van den Elsakker was a true celebration. She thanked those who donated door-prizes for the raffle, Charly our AV specialist
for the lighting, sound and organizing the historical video shown at the party and Maria Rosa Braile for her lovely toast to the
members of UWC.
We had a very active year with many and varied activities and are in the process of adding three new study groups for next
year; “Current Affairs around the World” chaired by Phyllis Barrantes, “Literary Masters Book Club” chaired by Vivien Lane and
“UWC meets Teatro Colón” chaired by Elena Levin. The UWC also became an affiliate of the ABCC during the year, Joanna
Richardson representing us. 2015 has also been very important for UWC in preparing us for the future. With the final approval of the changes and modernization of our Constitution and By-Laws, the revision of our Membership Directory and the addition of more on-line access to Club activities and data storage, she believes we are truly ready to take on the next 80 years.
Kathryn then thanked the entire membership of UWC for the opportunity given to her in such a special year; She’s learned so
much about the history of the Club and met and gotten to know so many more of its members. She hopes you´ve all enjoyed
this year as much as she has. She gave her sincere thanks to everyone.
Nominating Committee: The Nominating committee formed by Isabel de la Torre, Zelfa Silva, Patricia Caviezel, Hanneke
Vaanhold and Alicia Weingarten proposes the following slate of officers for 2016:
President: Phyllis Barrantes
Vice President: Monica Plou
Secretary: Ann Glotzbach
Asst. Secretary: Vivien Lane
Treasurer: Gwyneth Ketterer
Asst. Treasurer: Alison Esquivel
Advisor: Kathryn Power
Sub- Advisor: Isabel de la Torre
Approval of Slate of Officers for 2016: Mariel Birnbaumer made a motion to approve the slate of officers for 2016, Maria Rosa Braile seconded it. The motion was approved.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:45am.
Page 12
University Women’s Club of Buenos Aires
END OF THE YEAR MUSICAL PROGRAM
Left: Ana
Sampedro and
Gabriel Vacas.
Right: Ana, Pablo
Manzanelli, Gabriel
JANUARY FEBUARY POOL PARTY AND POT LUCK LUNCH
Third Tuesday JANRUARY at Phyllis Barrantes’ home in Pilar
Third Tuesday FEBRUARY at Mary Djivelekian’s house in San Isidro
CANCELED IN CASE OF RAIN
Stay connected for details
We are looking for a person who can design a new website for us.
If you know any graphic designers or web developers
please ask them if they could redo the UWC website: http://www.uwcba.com.ar/
on WordPress and it must be mobile responsive.
Please put them in touch with me.
Many thanks!
Joanna
The UWC board has suggested the amount
of $500 for the 2016 dues. As usual there
will be discounts for early payment. The
cost will be :
$450 from the Annual General Meeting
(AGM) until December 31st 2015
$475 until the March luncheon
Correction: [email protected] is
the correct e-mail for monthly reservations.
The e-mail address appeared incorrectly in
the last announcement in the Herald newspaper.
and $500 after the March luncheon. The
approved dues can be paid at the November luncheon after the AGM. If you put your
dues in an Envelope with your name on it,
that would help a lot.
Page 13
University Women’s Club of Buenos Aires
Meeting
times
December 2015
ITALIAN THROUGH
OPERA
FIRST MONDAY
10:30
S
WRITER’S WORKSHOP:
M
FIRST TUESDAY
3:00
1 JOINT
SECOND TUESDAY
2:00
6
7
8
T
F
S
2
3
4
5
9
10
11
12
Art Show
7:00 PM
LUNCHEON:
THIRD TUESDAY
11:45-2:30
W
BOARD & POT
LUCK
BOOK CLUB:
FRENCH
CONVERSATION
T
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
BOARD
MEETING:
FOURTH TUESDAY
10:00-12:00
THEATER:
MOVABLE DATES
CHRISTMAS
BRIDGE
THIRD FRIDAY
2:30 PM
27
28
29
30
31
SPANISH THROUGH
EXPERIENCE:
New Year’s
SECOND WEDNESDAY
2:30
Eve
SPECIAL ACTIVITY
Joint Board Meeting and Pot Luck
December 1, 2015
CONTINUING ED
HAVE A GREAT
HOLIDAY
1
2