NEWS!
Our
Newsletter is Available Online!
All
WIC Members can now download our Past and Current Newsletters. Please
contact Maria Freitas to set up an account.
Circle
News
ANNUAL
SUBSCRIPTIONS
All members, except Ambassadors and Wives of Ambassadors accredited
to Greece are required to pay Annual Membership fees.
These should be paid during the first 3 months of the year, according
to Greek law. The Annual Subscription for 2009 is
50€.
DIRECTORY
Those of you who have not collected your new 2008 Directory, it
will be available when you pay your 2008 Annual Dues. Please remember
to destroy your old copy. As you know, this Directory is for the
sole use of members and never to be used for commercial mailing
purposes.
OTHER
ACTIVITIES
Check inside for details
CIRCLE
NEWS
REGULAR CIRCLES Please remember that Circles are
for MEMBERS only. Special Wednesdays and other Activities are open
to guests when space allows.
CIRCLE
NEWS As an active member you are required to attend at
least one but no more than three Regular Circles. You all need to
check the New Year Sign Up Sheets to ensure that your names are
included in your regular Circles.
NEW
CIRCLE Tallye Maroulis, Despina Tranos and Denise
Anastassiou are starting a new circle for embroidery and needlepoint.
Please see the sign up sheet at the March General Meeting or call
them direct for information.
MAP
INFORMATION You will find after the addresses of our Activities,
a map page and quadrangle information for the direction as per the
red Map Book Stelios Kapranidis, Athens – Piraeus – Suburbs, Hartis
– Odigos, Hartographics publication. For all Circle information,
or if you would like to join a Circle, please contact the Circle
leader directly.
OPEN
DOOR
Members
leaving Greece who may wish to join a club similar to WIC in the
country of their destination should contact Maria Freitas, our International
Coordinator. She holds details of Open Door to which our club is
affiliated and which lists other International Women's Organisations
throughout the world.
More
info inside
SUGGESTION
BOX
We are delighted to have received ideas via the Suggestion Box,
but wish to remind everyone that your suggestions must have your
name written clearly and signed. Thank you.
DIRECTORY
Changes of address, phone number, email etc. throughout the year
should be reported to the Membership and Publications officers so
that the rest of the Members may be informed.
PHOTOGRAPHS
If you take any photos of Circle or General Meetings please give
a copy (or by email) to Bridget.
2008
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Most
people are not interested in statistics so I’ll be brief:
Membership
now stands at 152 permanent/temporary/Life Members and ladies on
Leave of Absence and 24 Ambassadors/Ambassadors’ Wives. Total
therefore 176.
We
have had 9 General Meetings and attendance throughout the year is
as follows:
7
Ladies have attended only 1 meeting
12 have attended 2 meetings
11 have attended 3 meetings
25 have attended 4 meetings
16 have attended 5 meetings
19 have attended 7 meetings
18 have attended 8 meetings
10 have attended all 9 meetings, mainly Board members, although
GOLD STARS go to Erika Akrivou, Muriel Georgopoulos
(at 89!!!), Heide Papasotiriou, Katerina Togia and Rania Kouloukakos.
If you haven’t been active this year, especially if you haven’t
attended the AGM and EGM that are required attendance even for Life
Members, please try to be more involved next year as the Board goes
to an enormous amount of work to offer as wide a variety of different
events as possible in an effort to meet as wide an audience as possible.
If there’s nothing that appeals, then please feel free to
organize something yourself!
The General Meetings were as follows: (if you are still reading!!!)
As
you may know, I reintroduced the Regular Circle Attendance Charts
that were filled in by the Circle Leaders for the first six months
of the year and now again at the end of the year. These are very
helpful in (a) seeing that the Circles, the life blood of the Club,
are healthy and popular (which they are! and we have several new
Circles too!) and (b) ensuring that members who are not seen very
often are possibly seen to be active in their chosen circles.
In
addition to the hugely successful visit to Kastoria with 44 participants
in the autumn thanks to Tassoula and Kirillos Papakirillou, Special
Wednesdays continue to be very popular, as follows
Financially, we will be presenting a detailed Balance Sheet at the
AGM but briefly and approximately, as the books have not been closed
yet:
Euros Euros
Opening Balance Jan.08 3,000
2008 Annual Fees rcvd 7,400
Income from Gen.Meetings 34,000 44,400
Gen.Meetings
expenses (34,000)
Newsletter expenses (2,700)
Directory & Gen.Admin. Exps (3,700)
Miscellaneous exps (800) (41,200)
Estimated
amount to be carried forward to 2009 € 3,200
We
could not have managed to offer the standard of events and venues
throughout the year without the increased Annual Fees (voted in
at the EGM November 2007) and the €35 charge per person (€40
for guests) at General Meetings (except for the November 2008 EGM
when we were able, just, to reduce the cost to €25 and €30,
or the increase to €10 for Special Wednesdays.
Most
people seem to like the new format of the monthly Newsletter, with
lots of photos and chit chat and the different
colour of the cover each month so that it is easily recognizable
and, as mentioned at the December Christmas meeting, the 2009 diary
is blue because (a) it’s the Club’s colour and (b) it
won’t get lost at the bottom of your handbag!
In
September we celebrated the 30 Years of WIC Executive Boards, appropriately
at our original home, the residence of the South African Ambassador
and honoured not just the Charter Signatories, Charter Members and
all 30 Past Presidents but ALL the ladies who have worked so hard
over the years to keep WIC afloat and thriving. Quite an achievement
and one that looks set to continue as long as we have ladies who
are prepared to give their time and energy working on the board
and the various committees.
The
first thing I did on taking over the reins was to change all the
Past Presidents’ nametags to include the notation of when
they were President (e.g.: Eileen Melissaropoulos, 1979 President)
– as some of these ladies are also Circle Leaders, or on the
board, all their accomplishments are included! I felt it was important
that their contributions should not be forgotten on a day to day
basis and that they should be instantly recognizable, especially
by newer members.
I
am quite sure that you are not still with me, and I can’t
really blame you – just think if I had chosen to put all this
in my Report at the AGM!
We
had 2 Blood Donor Drives during 2008 that were not as well supported
as I would have hoped. Claudia initiated the WIC Blood Bank in 2007
and you will only know how valuable it is when you need blood immediately
and none of your friends can or will help you! I hope that Claudia
will continue this effort next year – she has my full support
for as long as I can donate blood which is only for another year
‘til I reach 65 but I should be able to manage 3 times in
2009! If you can’t give yourself, please find someone who
can!
As
you will have noticed, I have made it a Policy to include the Minutes
of the EGM and AGM with the Newsletter so that everyone has an opportunity
to read them and can comment at the following business meeting if
they want to. Also I would encourage ladies to bring the Agenda
printed in the Newsletter to the business meeting to save the necessity
of printing more copies for the tables.
With
the computer skills of our International Coordinator, Maria Freitas
(and her incredible patience), I produced a Christmas e-card with
lots of photos showing Greece at her best, the antiquities, the
sea, the flowers and natural beauty as I felt that we need to show
the world that Greece is not just what is in the media, especially
recently with the rioting. This is sent out to all members of Open
Door and many contacts worldwide and I have had some very nice responses
– tourism should be up next year!
Outreach
has been very important with the 2008 Board and we have tried to
keep in touch with members who have not been active for various
reasons. As you know, we start each General Meeting with prayers
for our dear Catherine Cafopoulos and Helen Margaronis, both of
whom we hope will be back amongst us very soon. As I have said,
so many times, WIC will see us through thick and sometimes very
thin and my special wish for 2009 is that we are all together, happy,
healthy, enjoying everything that WIC and life in general have to
offer, especially friendship, compassion and mutual understanding.
Thank
you all for giving me this special year.
Fondly, as always,
Bridget
Click
here to download our WIC of Athens 2008 Card
|
Your
support is a critical factor not only to our success but to the life and
energy of the club - so we are counting on you!
