September 12, 2009 Quarterly Meeting Minutes

Kansas Paraguay Partners
September 12, 2009

The meeting was called to order by John Poertner, president, at 10:00.  It was held at Johnson County Community College in the Carlsen Center.  He introduced special guests: Major Brent Salmans, Aubry Crawford, and Celina Trishell.

 Major Sallmans presented a brief program about the Kansas National Guard partnership with Armenia.  They are part of the national program that matches National Guards with other countries.  He is in the International Affairs Office. And is the director of the Kansas program.  Their program focuses mostly on informational programs with organizations within Armenia.  Special interests include disaster responses, emergency preparedness and policing.  He stressed the importance of personal relationships and connections.  He was very interested in our approach thru individuals and long established relationships.  Paraguays’ national guard state is Massachuesetts.  John will try to talk to their director about possibilities for working together.

Minutes of the last meeting were presented by Nan Porter and approved. (Carlson/Klemm).

The treasurers report was presented by Dave Schafer and approved. (Cartlson/Klemm).

John gave the presidents report.  He felt the Chicago regional meeting was very good and found it very informative and useful.  He attended along with the Newtons and the Richards.   He was impressed with the new POA director, Steve Vetter. 

The POA national meeting will be NOV. 12-13^th and Alice Sagehorn will be presenting.  Anyone interested in attending should find details on our website.  

John read a note from Ambassador Spaulding expressing his thanks and appreciation for our support.  He is no longer ambassador and doesn’t know what his future plans are now. 

John met with Governor Parkinson in a session brokered by Christine Downey.  The Governor agreed to be an honorary member of KPP. 

Jay Newton and Steve Richards reported on the Chicago regional meeting which they also attended.  Jay was especially interested in the fundraising efforts which included selling t-shirts, developing a regional cookbook, having a gourmet dinner and starting an alumni group in the partner country.

Donna Schenck-Hamlin introduced Celina and discussed the Civil Society and Human Rights report.  It was decided that the work with the Archives of Terror would be the focus for the annual meeting to be held in Manhattan.  Donna mentioned the possibility of obtaining a grant to help with the Archives project. It was moved to approve a motion having John send a communication to CPK President Erwin Bogado endorsing a 1 year funding grant (NED) application.  (Schlesener/Sagehorn).

Travelers on POA grants.  CPK has forwarded a request for pianist Bianca Gatti to travel to Kansas.  This has been forwarded to Cultural Arts Chair Lynn Wilson.

John Poertner appointed the Nominating Committee: Donna Schenck-Hamlin, Russ Smith and Nan Wilson agreed to serve on the nominating committee.

It was decided that this year’s fundraising appeal will focus on Emergency Preparedness.

Education Committee   Edith Black presented a flyer on scholarship applications.  The full amount of $1,200 is available for this year’s scholarship.  She discussed the difficulties of students studying in Paraguay without a formal program and students need to get academic credit for the course they pursue in Paraguay.

Zoo project:  Bob Klemm reported on his summer trip to Paraguay and  parks.  He is pleased and excited with the progress with the zoo.  It was decided that Bob should give a zoo report at the annual meeting.  He will be entertaining the director this fall in Manhattan. 

Membership:  Bob Klemm handed out new membership directories.  The latest figures are 106 members.

Old Business

John presented a draft by-law revision to establish a partner city program.  It follows the partner city committee structure that Wisconsin uses. 

John presented an example historical timeline used by the Iowa partnership.  Charles Stansifer and Merrill will work on this.

New Business

Sports Committee – Girls Edge was discussed.  It is a soccer program for girls that has been very successful.

Steve Richards presented a short sample of how to market and sell interest in Partners.  He suggested that everyone have a brief description in mind of why they joined and why they feel it is important.

 Respectfully submitted

Nan Porter, secretary

PARAGUAY-KANSAS FAMILY MEDICINE

In 2002, the Partners of the Americas presented its “Award for

Excellence” to the Kansas-Paraguay Partnership (KPP) and the Comité

Paraguay/Kansas for their work on the development and implementation of the

Family Medicine Faculty Exchange program. The award was received at the

Annual Partners of the Americas International Convention in Quito, Ecuador,

Nov. 22, 2002. The “Award for Excellence” recognized the KPP and the

Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) at KUSM-Wichita.

The Family Medicine Faculty Exchange

program is designed to:

1. Develop international faculty relationships and strengthen

academic credibility for family medicine at the KU School of

Medicine-Wichita and at Paraguayan medical schools.

2. Share clinical methods for working among diverse populations.

3. Develop opportunities to restructure health care using a

family medicine-based model.

4. Obtain consultation regarding family medicine training at the

predoctoral, residency, and continuing medical education

levels.

5. Establish opportunities for Kansas medical students to study

in Paraguay.

The interchange between Kansas and Paraguayan family

physician educators began in 1986 with a chance meeting

between Ed Donatelle, MD, and Wes Schmidt, MD, at a

national Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM)

meeting. Dr. Donatelle was the DFCM department chair at

KUSM-Wichita. Dr. Schmidt, a practicing physician in Paraguay

with family roots in Kansas, was the chair of the Health

Committee of the Comité Paraguay/Kansas. As a result of their

meeting, Dr. Donatelle consulted with Paraguayan medical

schools in 1987 and arranged for Dr. Schmidt to do a fellowship

in family medicine at KUSM-Wichita. Subsequently, Dr.

Schmidt developed the first family medicine residency program

in Paraguay.

To view the complete history of this program:
KPP Health Committee History

 

Gabriel Duarte performs in Lawrence

Thanks go out to Stuart Strecker, who met Gabriel when he was traveling with the Summer 2009 Lawrence-Itapúa High School Exchange group, and invited him to perform in Lawrence. Gabriel gave number of concerts in the New York area, and then he came to Kansas to visit a Paraguayan friend in the Kansas City area.

Gabriel is a very accomplished classical and folkloric guitarist and guitar teacher from Encarnación.  While visiting Lawrence, Gabriel performed in the Lawrence Free State High School Library for several hundred students on Friday, August 15th.  His program was a sampling of classical guitar pieces as well as a “world tour” of folkloric music from around the world.

The following night, Gabriel performed to a full house at the Lawrence Unitarian Fellowship in a program co-sponsored by KPP and the Lawrence-Itapúa High School Exchange program.   During the  intermission, concert goers were treated to cookies and authentically tasty cocido  prepared by Ange and Karen Acosta (JCCC and KU students from Paraguay).

Below is a clip of Gabriel’s encore at the Saturday evening concert, with translation by Lawrence Free State High School Spanish and German teacher: