City of Lawrence

Lawrence Sister Cities Advisory Board

September 17, 2013 minutes

MEMBERS PRESENT:                     Jon Josserand, Ken Albrecht, Michael Kennedy, Ione Unruh, Kathleen Hodge, Kelly Herndon, Billy Williams, Jon Niccum

MEMBERS ABSENT:                       Curtis Barnhill, Stacey VanHouten, Dennis Christilles

STAFF LIAISON PRESENT:                       

PUBLIC PRESENT:                           Graham Kreicker, Tom Lipp, Patrick Musick, Jascha Blunck, Moritz Meinemat 

Chair Josserand opened the regular monthly meeting at the Max Kade Center annex at 5:35 on September 17, 2013.

Josserand

· Met with Herndon to review the account balances

· Josserand was contacted by the Friends of Iniades about the possibility of accepting someone from Iniades to come to Lawrence to do an internship at the Lawrence Journal World, or at some newspaper publication in the area.

· Spoke with Chris Armstrong, owner of Travel Leaders, regarding trip insurance (both individual and group) prices, pros/cons of such insurance.  The prices ranged from $65 per person for a group policy, to $90 for an individual policy purchased independently.  A formal proposal was deferred to the next advisory board meeting.

FOE (Friends of Eutin) – Albrecht

Arne Schulz, teacher of history and English at the Voss School of Eutin, reported on the exchange and introduced the students who are presently in Lawrence.

Frank Baron reported on the internship programs of the past summer (Drew Crist, Joshua Shope, Ryan Sowers, and Kylie Trunnell, who had positions this past summer in Eutin and those who were interns from Eutin in spring and summer: Torben Mothes, Astrid Lutz, Tim Hohn, Tobias Schwarz, and Yannik Jürgens.

Robert Walzel, dean of the KU School of music, reported on the success of the Eutin summer opera festival in which KU musicians participated. He also gave a preview of the exciting plans for next summer, at which time our musicians will present a special Gershwin concert.

The 17 minute-video about the history of the Eutin exchanges, which intern Astrid Lutz created with Kevin Dobson for Channel 6 could be shown only in part, because of technical difficulties. The video can be accessed by way of Cable television at channel #1, then by clicking on Free on Demand, finally moving the cursor down to Sister City.

Dennis Brown, representing the Lawrence Preservation Alliance, reported about the exciting Turnhalle project.

Ken Albrecht directed a discussion of the plans for next year’s 25-year anniversary of the Lawrence-Eutin relationship. Art & design student contributions of the past two summers are expected to be part of the exhibits during the visit of the Eutin delegation (Allyson Freund, Casey Dye, Kylie Trunnell, and Ryan Sowers). In addition, artist Stephen Johnson (see stephentjohnson.com) indicated willingness to help with the designs of posters and banners. A committee is being established to make preparations and to consider different proposals, including one to put up banners on Lawrence streets.

The meeting adjourned at 6:00 so that the board could attend the Friends of Eutin meeting at 6:00 PM at the Max Kade Center.