Highlights of the 2009-2010 Year
Presentation of Carla Rayman, President
at 2010 Annual Meeting, Sarasota Sister Cities Association

Good afternoon and welcome to our Annual General Meeting. Every year we give an update on our association and elect our new board of directors for the upcoming year. This year, we chose to add a theme, though, in honor of a wonderful woman named Bertha Palmer. Since Bertha’s birthday is this week, we are honored to dedicate this day to her. After lunch, Hans Johnsson, coordinator of Sarasota’s 2010 Bertha Palmer celebrations will be introducing a short video presentation on her impact on Sarasota.

I’d like to introduce some special people who are with us today. From City Hall, Commissioner Richard Clapp; and all the way from our Sister City Vladimir, teacher Yulia Skvortsova and winning young playwright Sofia Savvateeva. We are so pleased you are both with us today!

Also with us today are Linda Braddock, guest of City Director Gloria Grenier and
Bonnie Greensall, guest of Dr. Mary Elmendorff; Jan Linehan, guest of Vincent and Jessica Ventimiglia. Welcome.

Let’s begin by sharing some of the highlights of our year.

Fall/Winter 2009
Perpignan visit fundraiser raised $7,500 with a raffle for two weeks at a home in Hastings, England. The home was offered by Sister Cities member, Denise Barth.

24 students from Perpignan visited, and photo contest at Ringling College — a big thank-you to Kim Sheintal, who is here today, for coordinating this.

Vice Mayor at the time, Kelly Kirschner, VP of Arts and Culture Dr. Jane Rose, interim City Directors Javier Curiel and Eleanor Williams, and Vicki Vega (VP of Business Development and Innovation for the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce) who is here with us today; accompanied me and other business leaders to Merida, Mexico, on a trip to explore Merida becoming our eighth Sister City.

Winter 2010
Tel Mond luncheon at the Bird Key Yacht club featuring two speakers who had just visited Tel Mond: Reverend Clayton Thomas and local filmmaker Jenna Norwood.

VP of Education Ray Young, working closely with our student representative Max Martinez, helped establish a new Sister Cities International Club at the Sarasota Military Academy and laid the groundwork for a club at Pineview. The first club formed was at Riverview High School, where 60 students are enrolled. One of the recent activities of this group included raising funds for Haiti. With the help of Max, photos from our recent photo contest were also displayed at both Pineview HS and the Sarasota Military Academy.

We officially launched our social media campaign and now have a Fan page on Facebook thanks to VP of Public Relations, Jan Thomas.

Xiamen luncheon at the Art Center and an art exhibit at Ringling College.

Spring 2010
April — Embracing Our Differences.

Treviso luncheon at Mattison’s 41 honoring Richard Storm, who is here with us today

We enjoyed a visit from the Tel Mond singers.

City Director Harry Dunn and his wife left for a two-month visit to develop education, cultural and business exchanges.

In the past week, we had four young playwrights and their chaperones come for the Florida Studio Theatre Young Playwrights awards. We had one winner from Tel Mond, two from Dunfermline, and Sofia who is fortunately still with us today.

And, as of today, we celebrate the launch of our new newsletter. Be sure to pick up your copy on the front table; electronic versions will be online in the near future.

= = = = =

At this time, I’d like to call up some of our City Directors to give you a brief update on the progress they have made with their cities: Bill Wallace, Gloria Grenier, Alexandra DeStefanis, Gundula Coleman, Irene Leung.

And Bill Mallett for a brief membership update.

Now for the theme of today’s luncheon. Hans, would you please step forward to share with us the video and details of Bertha Palmer’s celebration?

Please join me in singing “Happy Birthday” to this amazing woman who had such an impact on our community.

While dessert is being served, we asked some of our Sister Cities to share with us what it was like in the early 1910s. Treviso sent us some photos and we’d like to share this brief presentation with you. Hamilton had a woman in the forefront during this era.

Now that we’ve had some fun, we need to get down to voting. Lora Bedford, may I ask you to please read the motion for the amendment of the bylaws?

Do I have a second to this motion? All in favor say aye. Motion carried.

Will the board of directors who are to be nominated for 2010-2011, please come forward. Tom Halbert, will you please do the honors of asking the membership to approve our new board?

Thank you all for serving and giving of your time — particularly Dr. Jane Rose for stepping up to the plate organizing this year’s Florida Studio Theater event. You are all greatly appreciated by the membership for your dedication. I also need to thank the following people:
Mirco Chiodi who served as our VP of Cities and City Director for Treviso.
Sharon Chiodi who served as our events chair this past year.
Bill Mallett who served as our membership chair for the past two years. Thank you, thank you!

Our events chair and membership chair positions are both open and we are looking to fill these spots. Members are encouraged to get involved with our board of directors or serve on committees. We value your membership and hope you will become more involved.

Thank you so much for joining us today!