President- Mark Fleischhauer
Vice President- Kelley Chapman
Recording Secretary- Brenda Bassett
Communication Secretary- Kristin Timpanaro
Treasurer- Michele Greig
Most Board members will stay in their positions for now and changes will be made as needed.
I am proud of where we are in the completion of this 7th cycle on our 30th Anniversary. My personal thanks go to all the board members who have taken a piece of the work to be done and worked together to make this Exchange succeed. I am most grateful to my Vice President, Barbara Wolcott who shared in all the work of the Exchange. I appreciate all of the parents’ support and the students who worked hard to make it a success. I am glad I got to know all of you.
As I look at where we are I see that the greater community has supported our efforts in helping our fundraising and in supporting our music. We hope that with each cycle our music will continue to improve as we keep raising the standard and expectations of our students. The reputation of the Exchange continues to grow and more people are aware of our history and what musical and cultural benefit we add to our area. By extending the welcome to families from both Dutchess and Ulster we enlarge the pool of talented students and supportive families. This helps with the music and with finding homes to host our guests. Our reputation also helped us receive financial support from several grant funders in our area that took a look at our history and valuable contribution to the youth of this area and decided to give us additional financial support.
As we transition to new leadership, I ask each of you to continue to support the Exchange in its fundraising for the next 3 non-travel years and to stay involved in supporting us when it comes time to invite and prepare new students to travel in 2012 and to host in 2013. Please encourage families with eligible children to become aware of the Exchange and to get involved now.
I wish Mark and the new officers all the best in leading the new (8th) cycle and I will continue to help.
We have identified specific skills we need your help with. We need a person with data management skills to help keep membership records and email communications. If you are able to help, please contact the new president, Mark Fleischhauer at 876-5311 or HYPERLINK "mailto:mfleischhauer@citlink.net" mfleischhauer@citlink.net.
Thank You All,
Bradley Clark
Hello everyone and welcome to the eighth cycle of the Rhinebeck-Rheinbach Exchange.
I am thrilled to have been elected to lead the exchange, and I am thankful to those who supported me in the election and those who urged me to consider running for President. Ours is truly a wonderful organization to be a part of.
I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to thank Brad Clark and Barbara Wolcott for leading us for the past five years. While leading the organization for just one cycle, they have both been a part of the organization for several cycles. The Exchange has certainly benefited from all of their hard work.
I would also like to thank Kelley Chapman for agreeing to run for Vice President. As many of you know, Kelley has been the Treasurer of the Exchange during the past cycle. Both of her sons have participated in the Exchange, and she has served as a chaperone in Germany. I will rely on her knowledge and experience as we move through the next cycle.
Welcome to our new Officers, Kristin Timpanaro and Michele Greig. Kelley and I look forward to working with them. We also look forward to having so many of our Board members stay involved with the Exchange for another cycle. We have all worked well together and I know we will continue to do so.
As Brad said in his remarks, we are in need of some new people who can help us continue our work. We are especially in need of someone who would like to get involved in managing the Hearts Across the Table Dinner. Barbara has agreed to help a new person get started. If you are able to help, please contact me (contact info above). We are also in need of people with technical expertise to keep our database up to date and to maintain our website.
I think I have had the chance to meet most of you at some point in the past few years. I have been a member of the Board of the Exchange since the beginning of the past cycle. My wife Mary and I got involved with the Exchange in 2003 when hosts were needed for visiting Germans. Following that exchange, we felt we should get involved in order to have the opportunity for our children, James and Sarah (now 12 and 10), to participate in a future exchange. When I offered to help out, Brad asked me if I would join the Board as Youth Committee Co-Chair, and I readily accepted.
I, as well as Kelley, grew up in Rhinebeck. Some of my High School friends went to Germany on the second exchange. I learned then what a wonderful opportunity it is for a young person to be able to participate in this program
I hope to be able to continue the tradition that has been built over the years. I think we continue to strive to improve our music. In addition, the cultural exchange, not only with our friends in Germany, but with people we meet from our American communities is extremely valuable and should continue.
I hope to schedule our first Board meeting of this cycle for this Sunday, November 2 at a place to be determined. More information will be announced as soon as it is available. If you are interested in helping out, please come to the meeting. I am looking forward to working with everyone in the future.
Mark Fleischhauer
