Hallo meine Mitoffizieren, sehr geehrte Professoren, und Anette!

Hier ist eine E-mail ueber die Plaene, die wir besprochen haben, und ein Paar Sachen, was einige von Uns bald tun sollen.

We're hoping to have a picnic on Thursday, October 5th, in that picnic area behind Christy Woods. Jane, I went ahead and called Charley Scofield (ext. 1850, student center), to reserve it. He said he'll get back to me to tell me whether or not we can have it. Dr. Warner, he said he'd check and see if firewood is available, but he didn't know anything about that. Maybe someone else does that?

At today's officers' meeting, we decided to charge dues of $5 per year for full membership. Members would receive reduced rates or free admission to anything we have to charge money for. We also agreed that every now and then the German Club officers could perhaps send them some little perks through campus mail, like a German chocolate or something... we'd best not mention that part, and then it will be a surprise. What does everyone think about offering members who aren't in the play we want to do one free ticket to the play? We also talked about the possibility of recognition or (Professors?) extra credit for people who attend some exorbitant number of events.

Dr. Warner and I agreed, talking this afternoon, that our first big event, the picnic, should be free--it'll be good for PR. He's willing to donate some things, as some others probably are as well, and the club has the funds to pick up the tab for the rest. Drs. Johnson and Warner, if we get the date approved for the picnic shelter (I'll hopefully know tomorrow), please tell the other professors and see if they're willing to bring anything. Closer to the time, we'll probably want to get someone to go to the Cafe Heidelberg in Indy for some real German bread, if that's possible. Once we settle our plans for the picnic, we'll want to get a sign up sheet put up in NQ, and ask people to sign up by October 1, so we know how much food to buy. In addition to the sign up sheet, we can put mine or one of our phone numbers on the posters advertising the event, so that people could let us know they're coming that way.

Ryan, any news on the Oktoberfest celebration in Indy on Friday, October 6th? What time would we want to leave? Professors, will we need to get a Ball State van for that if we do it?

Officers, Dr. Warner is getting me a copy of our constitution, so that we'll know how we're officially supposed to run things. He's also going to order Advent calendars for fundraising purposes.

Here are some ideas for other events we want to pursue:

--Some kind of German heritage related event in Indy combined with a meal at Der Rathskeller.

--Deutscher Kulterabend: we originally discussed this as a poetry reading; Dr. Warner thought that perhaps we could include the possibility of singing German songs, etc... We may want to line up some programming and leave the rest open. We need to talk about where and how we want to do this, and project a date, so that we can plan. We were generally thinking November would be a good month for this one.

--Going as a group to see "Cabaret" at Pruis on Sunday, October 29, at 7:30. All we need to do to plan this is to advertise--perhaps we could have dinner before at Greek's Pizzeria or something.

--Weihnachtsparty: Maybe we can get the Center for International Programs again this year. This should hopefully be a merry evening of traditional German Christmas food, song, and maybe another little skit like last year. We need to set a date and get things reserved. E-mail me with your suggestions, so that we can discuss them at the next meeting.

--Some kind of get together for a cultural exchange with all other Ball State language clubs. Dawn is our contact for this, and we'll eventually need to talk to other club leaders to see when and what they'd like to do.

--Don't forget that we, under the jurisdiction of Alpha Mu Gamma, will be involved in the Harvest Fest, which will take place in late October.

--Finally, the capstone event that we're hoping to pull off this year is either a two act full play, or two one act plays. We're thinking that the middle of the spring semester would be a good time of year to do this. That gives us a lot of time to plan. Let's all think about plays we like that wouldn't be too difficult. Anette, du kannst vielleicht etwas fuer ein Schauspiel empfehlen? Du willst auch mitspielen, nicht? Das waere schoen! Anyway, we need to set a date right away, especially if we want to get something like Pruis--we also need to decide how many performances we want to do. Then, we have to figure out auditions, rehearsals, and so forth. The sooner we can get scripts, also, the better. I think if we get the scripts during the fall semester, we could do a few read through rehearsals, and maybe some fuller rehearsals, and require that lines be learned by the end of the semester break. That would give us good time to really prepare, if we do the show in the middle of the spring semester. As soon as all the plans are settled, of course, we'll want to invite German teachers and classes from Indiana high schools, and do some general advertising on campus and around elsewhere. If we successfully revive this tradition, as I believe we can, I think it may become our German Club's crowning achievement, and most looked forward to event of the year. It will probably also be our biggest fundraiser. Please e-mail me with your ideas about the play. This will probably be the main topic at our next officers' meeting.

Other News: Kinsey is looking into the legal issues involved with the film series we want to have--he mentioned that laws may have changed. Hopefully, it's still okay to show films for educational purposes. If not, if we're willing to put in the effort, we can jump through the hoop of getting permission. I can't imagine that anyone would charge us. Think of German movies that might be good.
 

Finally, Kinsey is interested in doing a lot of work and maintenance on our web page, if Dr. Warner wouldn't mind him jumping on board. Here's the url for the site.

http://www.bsu.edu/csh/languages/program/gerclub.htm

Officers, please prepare brief biographies to go on the website.

I believe that's all. Forgive me for this dreafully long e-mail. It will take a lot of work, but I think we're going to have a fantastic year!
Mit freundlichen Gruessen,
ich verbleibe Ihr Chris