Looking Forward to a Terrific New Year 2010 with the American Club!

THE NEW MARBELLA CHAPTER BOARD FOR 2010

President         Ann McGeehan
Vice President    Laura Stanbridge
Treasurer     Peter Whiting
Secretary       Leslie Webber

American Rep to Central Board      Carin deRonde
Associate Rep to Central Board   Laurie Taylor
Alternate Rep to Central Board       Angret Moeller

Dear American Club Members and Friends:
 

As we approach the holiday season and move towards the New Year together, this is a very exciting time for the American Club.  The positive spirit and encouragement that has been received from everyone this past year has been amazing.  Your Board has worked extremely hard this past year to deliver wonderful events for us all, and we are fortunate to have such energy and enthusiastic leaders amongst our Club membership.  Your support in electing me as your next President for 2010 of the American Club of the Costa del Sol, Marbella Chapter, is not a responsibility I take lightly. 

The existing Board's tenure continues until the end of December.   Beginning the first of January, the new Board will carry this torch, and we will work very hard to host many wonderful events in keeping with our Mission of benefiting our members, and assisting local charities.  Having listened to many of your comments and suggestions this past year, your new Board will make it a priority that we host the same excellent lunches on a fixed monthly schedule so that you can plan in advance to attend these events.  We will additionally introduce some very exciting low-cost and no-cost complimentary optional social activities.  To honor our commitment to you, we also hope to create voluntary ride-share and companionship programs to assist those members who would benefit from such aid. In keeping with our desire to include all of your ideas and encourage your helpful suggestions in coordinating events, before every Board meeting next year, we will schedule an introductory “open” half hour to invite any member a platform to express his or her interests and communicate directly with the Board.

Your new Board will schedule its introductory meeting the first week of January and promptly set a calendar of fixed monthly social activities you can count on.  By scheduling established dates for these new events (ex. book club on first Wednesdays, cooking/gardening/painting second Wednesdays, bowling/petang (boules), cards, tennis and lunch on third Wednesdays, and dancing/wine & tapas on fourth Wednesdays), we are hoping you can plan an active social calendar to share with fellow members and also attract friends who might be interested in joining our Club.  I would really love to see many of our members volunteer to lead each of these new activities.  If any of the proposed events or assistance programs (ride share, companionship) are tasks you might like to volunteer for, please do not be shy.  Any recommendations to make these events something special for our Club, and any volunteers to Chair a specific event, are most welcome.  We strive to enliven our group, grow our membership, inspire our creativity, assist our local charities – and all the while have a great time making memories together.

We would additionally be interested to learn of the other clubs you attend and any fixed dates you already have on your social agendas to ensure that your American Club events compliment your existing social calendar and do not compete on the same date as other gatherings you already hold dear.   Arts and Culture Marbella (ACM), British Club, Dorothy's International Friends, Dutch Club, University of the Third Age (U3A) are some of the Clubs that we would like to know the calendar of events and important dates for 2010 to educate our own American Club.  Our goal is to ensure that we provide you with non-competing dates to maximize attendance at all of our American Club gatherings, and allow you to invite friends from your other Clubs to attend as well. 

Although my Presidency does not begin until January 2010, I would love to hear from anyone about ideas or inspirations you would like to see incorporated into our next season’s social calendar.  My telephone number is 675094494 and my email address is This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Please do not hesitate to contact me at any time for any reason.  Open communications is the cornerstone of a good Club.  For this reason, your new Board will create a 2010 members-only American Club directory specially designed to foster information sharing amongst members.  Inclusion in this directory is optional.

My apologies that I cannot attend our annual Thanksgiving dinner, as my new baby daughter is too little to leave the house yet.  But rest assured you will be seeing a whole lot of me -- and little Crystal -- next year!
 
Happy holidays to all, and best wishes until 2010.
 
Affectionately,

Ann McGeehan