Sehr geehrte Professoren und meine Mitoffizieren:

Here's a brief recap of today's meeting, along with the usual reminders, announcments, and so forth.

Kulturabend: It's definitely going to be Wednesday, November 15 from 7:00-8:30 pm (or later). We actually have the facility until ten. I dropped by today and got approval for us to be in as early as 5:30, so we can definitely do some cooking. This was a suggestion of Jane's. As we discussed what to do at Kulturabend, she volunteered to make some German food, and then thought we could make the recipes available and invite other people along to learn to cook whatever Jane has up her sleeve. So, I will announce that, along with the other Kulturabend information. Keep track of what you spend on the ingredients and so forth, Jane, and you can get reimbursed from the treasury. Moving on to the evening itself, Dr. Johnson has said we can expect a couple of reports on 19th century German novellen from his evening class, which he has kindly decided to bring along to Kulturabend. We also thought it might be nice to learn a German card game--Anette, can you perhaps teach one, or, if you are unable to be present, could you teach one to one of us other officers, so that this might be a possibility? Please let me know. Finally, we thought we'd leave part of the evening open for readings, recitations, and music. There is a piano--if someone can play any folk songs, we could get a sheet made with the lyrics and sing them together. Dr. Warner, I know you know a lot of folk songs. Can you play the piano, or do you know someone who can? Can any of you play the piano well enough to learn a few songs? It might help if we have this ready. Who knows what else people might bring or do. If you can play something else German on the piano, like some Beethoven or something, by all means, do that at Kulturabend as well. Dr. Johnson suggested that if we run out of things to do, we might do a poetry writing exercise. Dr. Johnson, maybe you can be ready to lead that? Please let me know.
Lastly, we will be judging our t-shirt contest by a popular vote at the Kulturabend meeting. Hopefully, we'll be able to hang them all up, so that people can view each and vote for their favorite. If not, we'll hold them up in turn.

T-Shirt Contest:
We're going to be putting out our own German Club t-shirts, probably by the end of November. I'll soon be announcing a design contest, which would involve coming up with a slogan and a logo. The winner will receive a free shirt. Paid members will be able to order shirts at discounted prices. Harvest Fest 2000 t-shirts are also available for order right now in NQ 138, the language department office. If you buy one of these and mention German Club, some of the proceeds will go to German Club, and some to Alpha Mu Gamma.

Dues:
In order to hopefully get more people to pay their dues, we've decided to set a day during which we'll be set up in NQ at a table. This will be Friday, Oct. 27 from 10-3 or so. Officers, please e-mail me with times you're willing to man this table(it can be but need not be staffed by more than one person at once), and, once I receive your times of availability, I'll e-mail you all with a schedule. I'll take 2-3. We will strongly suggest that dues be paid by this point in time, but will also accept them later, at events. Ideally, they should be collected by Ryan, but if he is unable to be present, others of us officers could collect them and turn them over to him to be deposited. We also need to keep track of the all paid members. If someone pays you their dues, turn the money over to Ryan, but get the name to Jane, who will be producing membership cards, and please get them to me as well, just so that I can keep a master list. I suppose we can send the cards by campus mail, if nothing else, or regular mail if we have to, for those who live off campus. By the way, Dr. Warner, thank you for volunteering to collect the dues. Dr. Johnson suggested today, however, that it would be best for the students to collect them, this being a student-run organization, and I can see his point. Is this idea and the above described system agreeable to you? Officers, I realize that we are members more or less by default, but if we are to lead by example and not consider ourselves to be above the rest of the club and deserving of special priveledges, we too ought to pay our dues. If you have the means, please do so.

Cabaret:
We'll be meeting at 6:30 at Woodworth to eat and converse in German before going to see the movie "Cabaret," which plays in Pruis on Sunday, October 29, at 7:30. I'll announce this soon to the whole list of e-mail addresses I have. Should I announce a specific location (which location?), or just let people find each other? If anyone has an idea, please let me know soon.

Trip to Indy:
Dr. Johnson brought up an art exhibition that's going to be at IUPUI in November. It will contain the anti-Nazi art of someone who, as I understand it, was sentenced to death during the time of the third Reich, but escaped the country. We could take a field trip to eat at the Rathskeller and view the exhibit. Dr. Johnson, this is a reminder to please send me the specifics so that we can plan this further.

Special thanks to Kinsey for his work on the web-site, which should be fully operational at some point next week. Thanks also for his work on the t-shirts.
I also want to thank all of you for your dedication and hard work--you show up to meetings, you volunteer to do things, and you're helping the German Club to run very smoothly. According to Kinsey, this is not the way things are with some of the other language clubs. Thanks also to you faculty sponsors for all your time, attention and help!

Final Reminders:
Ryan--please look into a new location for our play using our original projected dates (with the addition of a Thursday--Dawn suggested that a weeknight would be good.) Ask if Recital Hall in the fine arts building will be finished and available. If not, look into stuent center rooms, such as the forum room, and, as a last resort perhaps, the Ball room. We may end up having to look off campus for facilities--a local church may be a possibile solution.
Additionally, Ryan, please buy name tags for Kulturabend, and some German chocolates to give away to those who pay their dues on our "due day."

Jane--You're in charge of recipes and cooking for Kulturabend.

Dr. Warner--please let me know if you are available to meet on Monday at 2. Dr. Johnson, Anette and I have indicated that we are. I hope we will be able to select a play and discuss such issues as how to make it accessible to an audience which will contain those who speak little or no German, as well as those who speak more German.

That's all for now--I realize this one is even longer than usual, but what could I do? :) Keep up the good work everybody. If we continue working as we have already, we will have a very successful year of German Club in which we can certainly take satisfaction, and hopefully we will set precedents to be followed for years to come.

Bis bald!
Mit freundlichen Gruessen,
ich verbleibe Ihr Chris