Report of the President
This has been a busy year for the Sarasota-Manatee Chapter. The new officers and Board members came into office on January 1, a timing which I have personally found quite awkward, as it is in the midst of our program year. Hark work by the Board however has enabled the Chapter to have a successful year.
In the spring the Chapter undertook two unusual activities. A concert by the Firenze Trio on March 30 again provided (as it did last year) a first rate musical experience for the community and enabled us to raise further funds for our educational activities. We owe major thanks to Water and Doris Low as chief sponsors and organizers, and to their son Roger who convinced several of his colleagues in the Florence Symphony to cross the Atlantic to perform. The concert was so enthusiastically received that we have been urged to make this an annual event. The performers particularly deserve our appreciation for donating their time and services for UNA.
Our second major effort in the spring was hosting the annual meeting of the UNA Florida Division, held April 30-May 1 at the Holiday Inn Riverfront in Bradenton. We had a substantial attendance from the Sarasota-Manatee Chapter and from around the State to hear major speakers such as Amb. Shen Guofang, Chinese representative to the UN Security Council. We were particularly happy to welcome the new UNA president, Amb. William Luers, and Jim Olson of the UNA staff. Two workshops dealt with the International Year of Older Persons and ways in which it might be celebrated in local communities, and with the current activities of the Florida High School Model United Nations, which has worked with the Florida Division for many years. Jo Williams and Wade Matthews handled local arrangements and Margie Tinsley was in charge of the onerous registration procedure.
At these meetings and at other programs throughout the year we have tried to involve local groups whose national organizations are members of the UNA Council of Organizations; this has sometimes been an uphill task. Two luncheon meetings were jointly sponsored with the Sarasota League of Women Voters, and our activities often involve members of UNIFEM. Representatives from several ethnic organizations attended several sessions and we hope to expand cooperation with them.
We had a very successful meeting for United Nations Day, with Amb. Betty King, US Representative to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), as our principal speaker. She gave an excellent presentation on ECOSOC's wide ranging activities, and we were pleased to see in action a presidential appointee who is not a professional diplomat but who is doing an able job.
On United Nations Day the Sarasota Herald-Tribune published an op-ed piece on US relations with the United Nations, focusing particularly on payment of delinquent US financial payments. Indeed throughout the fall our members wrote lots of letters and made many phone calls on this issue; we hope we changed a few minds!
A community group to discuss international worker rights was organized by Wade Mathews, a session especially pertinent given the recent meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle. We hope to hear the conclusions and recommendations of the group early in the New Year. We also plan to work on a project on clearing land mines, and to inform ourselves much better on international economic issues. At our annual meeting on December 10, International Human Rights Day, Amb. Jamsheed Marker will be speaking on events in East Timor.
Special thanks to Scott Behoteguy, our program chair, Daniel Luu, vice-president and webmaster, Ed Shapiro, editor of the UNA Reporter, membership chair Janine Willem and treasurer Margie Tinsley, as well as all members of our Board.
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