August/September 2007 Newsletter


Welcome to the 2007-2008 school year of the Faculty and Friends Club of FSU. I am looking forward to seeing and visiting with you at our various interesting and fun programs throughout the year. We continue to have our interest groups, which are a good way to meet new people and renew old friendships. Please look at the schedule of programs and mark your calendars. There will be more information given closer to the events.

Friday, September 7, we hold our Annual Joint Welcoming Reception and Newcomers Party. It will again be at the FSU Alumni Center, next to the FSU President’s new House on Tennessee Street. It’s a great way to start your fall.

While being your Vice President in charge of programs last year, I got a chance to meet many of you, and hope to meet many more of you this year. We have a wonderful club, and all the people that I have had the opportunity to work with have been so helpful and cooperative. Thanks to Beth Charness for doing such a great job as president last year.

Besides having fun and learning some new things, one of our main goals is to raise money for The University Club Scholarship Fund. Please see the paragraph below. We are very proud of this. Alice Nichols has been in charge for years and does a fabulous job.

One of my goals this year is to make more people aware of our club and to increase our membership. Please invite new faculty, members that don’t come and new friends of FSU. Our dues are inexpensive but are far reaching. Please fill out the membership form and send it to Calvin Zongker or bring it to the reception. See you there.

Joannie Poulson

The University Club Scholarship Fund was established in 1986 (the name of the fund remains unchanged). Since 1994, the Club has been awarding one or more $500 scholarships per semester to needy, returning, full-time, undergraduate students who maintain a GPA of at least 3.2. Thanks to your generous donations and our successful, annual Billy Bowlegs 5k Run and 1 mile Walk, the Club has been able to award seventy-six scholarships during the past twelve years. We are planning to award seven, eight or even nine, some of them partial scholarships, during the next academic year. Donations of any amount will be gratefully accepted and acknowledged. Please mail your donation together with your dues, with the check made out to the Faculty & Friends Club of FSU, to the treasurer Calvin Zongker, 601 Live Oak Plantation Road, Tallahassee, FL 32312.

Annual Joint Fall Welcoming Reception

& Newcomers Party

Friday, September 75:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Alumni Center Ballroom

1030 West Tennessee Street

We are starting our year with the annual Reception, which is a wonderful opportunity to visit with old and new friends. You can join or renew your membership, dues are $20 per household ($15 for retirees), and come sign up for the interest groups. The interest groups are a great way to get to know each other. We will be giving out two full and three partial scholarships at the reception, and Anne Rowe, the Dean of The Faculties, will welcome us. Wine together with delicious hors d’oeuvres and desserts, prepared by some of our members, will be served.

Joannie Poulson and Carol Weissert are chairing this event. Please call Carol at 297-0111 with any questions and/or offers of food.

Board of The Faculty & Friends Club of FSU 2007-2008

President Joannie Poulson 385-8028 Vice President Carol Weissert 297-0111 2nd VP (Membership) Fred Leysieffer 893-1272

Past President Beth Charness 385-0500

Recording Secretary Jim Cowart 893-2966

Corresponding Secretary Denise Ellingson 907-9992

Treasurer Calvin Zongker 385-4848

Nominating Committee Patsy Rapp (chair) 385-5627

Beth Charness

Barbara Elam

Joannie Poulson

Dot Skofronick

Carol Weissert

Shirley Zahn

Newcomers’ Liaison Bettina Tesón 385-2092

Newsletter Editor Annelise Leysieffer 893-1272

Interest Groups Co-Chairs Barbara Elam 385-9856

Diane Olsen 386-5797

Friendship* Mildred Trezza 878-5551

Historian Neil Charness 385-0500

Scholarship Alice Nichols 385-9218

Website Corinne & Peter Jörgensen 574-0776

ARF Representative Al Trezza 878-5551

Ex-Officio Virginia Wetherall

*Please notify Mildred Trezza about members who should be sent cards due to illness, birth of a child, congratulations, or sympathy.

Faculty & Friends Club Interest Group Chairs 2007-2008

Book Discussion Group Bonnie Armstrong 893-6141

Diane Olsen 386-5797

Couples Bridge Bill Weissert 297-0111

Globetrotters TBA

Gourmet Sampler Marie Cowart 893-2966

Investment Club Gail Watson 422-2318

Lecture Series – PUC Bob Spivey 894-5242

Lunch Bunch Denise Ellingson 907-9992

Outdoors Explorers Dot & Jim Skofronick 222-8544

Restaurant Roulette Al Trezza 878-5551

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Christine Scheu 222-3449

Stitch and Chat Cherie Fenstermaker 386-1000

Table Française Annelise Leysieffer 893-1272

Jo Stepp-Greany 383-3970

Joint Table Française & Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

Friday, August 31 – 7:30 p.m. Hosts: Fred &Annelise Leysieffer

Lunch BunchTuesday, September 11 – 11:45 a.m.

Rubie Skye – 2915-301 Kerry Forest Parkway

The Lunch Bunch Group has changed its meeting day from the 3rd Tuesday of the month to the 2nd Tuesday. Please contact Denise Ellingson at 907-9992 by Sunday, September 9th if you plan to attend. Reservations must be made in order to accommodate this large a group. Thank you.

Restaurant Roulette Thursday, September 20 – 6:30 p.m.
Nino’s – 6497 Apalachee Parkway – Al Trezza   878-5551

Book Discussion GroupMonday, September 17 – 7:30 p.m.

Runaway by Alice Munro discussed by Bonnie Armstrong

Host: Cecilia Keller, 9705 Waters Meet Drive. Please call for directions, and to let her know you are coming: 906-9986.

Runaway is a collection of extraordinary stories about love and its infinite betrayals and surprises, each story deals with women undergoing changes in their lives, changes that have the possibility of growth, but also of pain and loss. “No one working today can write more convincingly about the progress of love than A. Munro. . . Her keen psychological insight, and her instinctive feel for the emotional arithmetic of domestic life have indelibly stamped contemporary writing.” (NY Times Book Review).

The Book Discussion Group generally meets the third Monday evening of each month. Out of consideration for our members, please arrive on time (at least by 8). We have refreshments from 7:30 to 8:00, with the discussion starting at 8:00. In addition, please do not bring animals to our meetings. Even when well-behaved, they seem to cause unnecessary distraction.

Announcing: two new interest groups

Two new interest groups have been suggested. If you are interested, please call either Diane Olsen (386-5797) or Barbara Elam (385-9856). There will also be sign-up sheets at the September reception.

1. El club español — Una oportunidad de practicar esta lengua muy popular e importante en la Florida. Modeled on the French and German language interest groups, we will meet once a month, possibly with “mini lessons,” plus some topic of discussion, such as a Spanish-language movie, novel, poetry, slides, contemporary issues, etc. We will try to use Spanish as much as possible, but beginners are welcome.

2. Moms and Tots — A revival of an older interest group, where friendships are formed across the university faculty, united by interest in “our” young children. Monthly gatherings may include visits to local parks, toddler hang-outs, the library, etc. Guest speakers could occasionally be invited, depending on the interest of the group.

Request to all interest group chairpersons!

Please announce to your interest groups that the membership dues are due at this time. The interest groups are the backbone of our organization, and we need all their memberships to enable the Club to function properly!

MEMBERSHIP DUES $20/$15 per household

Membership is open to faculty, administrative and professional staff, retirees, visitors, former members of this Club and similar clubs at other universities, religious directors, members of the University’s Board of Trustees, spouses of all of the above, and friends who support the aims and activities of the Faculty & Friends Club of FSU.

All interest groups are part of the Faculty & Friends Club. Membership dues are due now for the 2007-2008 school year from ALL attendees except from the occasional visitor. Please fill out the form provided here and bring it together with your check made out to the Faculty & Friends Club of FSU to the Annual Joint Welcoming & Newcomers Reception on September 7 or mail to the treasurer, Calvin Zongker, 601 Live Oak Plantation Road, Tallahassee FL 32312.