UNITED NATIONS ASSOCIATION of the United States of America Northern Colorado Chapter
NCUNA Newsletter Volume 2, #1. Jan. - Feb. 2006
UNITED NATIONS ANNUAL ESSAY CONTEST
Deadline for submission of entries for the National Essay Contest is January 6th. The topic this year is "How Should the US Approach the Issue of UN Reform?"
Since the contest is open to all 9th-l2th graders, our chapter has attempted to inform area social studies and language arts departments about this possibility. So far, we have two inquiries and a panel of three judges ready and waiting.
FEBRUARY UNA-USA MEETING
On February 11th, Dr. Robert Lawrence will lead a discussion of "Nuclear Arms and Militarization of Space" at the meeting of the Northern Colorado Chapter of the UNA-USA. Please join us at the Harmony Library in Fort Collins at 3:00pm.
Dr. Lawrence is a professor of political science at Colorado State University. He is retired from a joint appointment in the same discipline at the University of Colorado. Dr. Lawrence earned his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. He served in the US Air Force and did research on nuclear weapons at the Hudson Institute and the Stanford Research Institute. His books include: American Government Today; Arms Control: Practice and Promise; The Strategic Defense Initiative; and Nuclear Proliferation: Phase II.
NEW MEMBERS
Please welcome the following new members to our Northern Colorado UNA Chapter:
Jeff Borg, Chuck Cairns, and Gretchen Searles. Thus far, Gretchen is our only student member. Welcome to you all.
LOOKING FORWARD\'85\'85
The Board of Directors, both new and continuing members, will meet Saturday, January 14th, at 9:30 a.m. at the home of Sam and Sidna Rachid, 1002 Alexa Court, Fort Collins. Members will get acquainted, divide responsibilities, and begin planning. A salad luncheon is planned, provided by continuing directors in honor of the new ones.
January Program: No membership meeting is planned for January; take a break!
February Program: See above.
March: No formal program is scheduled. We will make ourselves available to participate in Lincoln Junior High's Adopt-A-Minefield fund drive. Details will be in March/April Newsletter.
Also in March, UNA members are invited to attend the League of Women Voters Great Decisions discussion on the topic of UN Reforms, Monday March 6th, 11:30 a.m. (you may bring a sack lunch) at Plymouth Congregational Church, 916 West Prospect, Fort Collins. Margaret Smith will be discussion leader.
LOOKING BACK
The November 12th program featured a half-hour film giving an overview of the Millennium Development Goals, followed by a lively and thoughtful discussion.
The UNA-USA Northern Colorado Chapter Annual Meeting on December 10th was attended by over 40 members and interested community members. Thanks to Grace Harris and Eleanor Dwight for a pleasant meeting space at First United Methodist Church and a delicious brunch.
Our 2006 Budget was adopted in the amount of $1734. $1000 of this is expected to come from contributions, either for specific projects or just in general. Please bear this in mind, especially when you renew your membership. We ended this year with a balance of $455.40, with some expenses still to be reimbursed. Thanks to Hugh Sanborn for his work as Treasurer and Finance Chair.Board members were elected as nominated to two-year terms. Thanks to all nominees, and to the Nominating Committee: Ruth Jakubauskas, Grace Harris, Hugh Sanborn, Eleanor Dwight, and Lisa Lundgren.
New Directors include: Chuck Cairns, Al Early, Jeanne Nash, Jane Wallower, Mary Jane Ward, and Mary Wolfe.
Directors re-elected to serve a second two-year term include: Don Heyse, Norm Illsley, Hugh Sanborn, Paul Smith, and Peter Weller.
Continuing Directors [in the second year of their terms] include: Maury Albertson, Valerie Baker-Easley, Eleanor Dwight, Sam Rachid, Sidna Rachid, Dick Rush, Margaret Smith and Ken Tharp.
Committee Chairs provided brief reports: Membership: Eleanor Dwight
Program: Ken Tharp
UN Day: Sidna Rachid
Youth and Education: Dick Rush
Advocacy: Margaret Smith (for Sam Rachid)
Program Presentation: The Rev. Jeff Borg of the Fort Collins Mennonite Fellowship presented an informative program on "Teaching about Human Rights and Genocide after Hotel Rwanda" using clips from the film. It was a relevant and informative topic for our observation of International Human Rights Day.
Thank You to Retiring Board Members
Charlie and Margie Notess: Charlie was board secretary, webmaster, and an "ideas man." Margie brought information from Front Range Forum and served as gracious hostess on occasion.
Jack and Marty Stringer: Jack provided "Three-minute Updates" on news of the U.N. at several meetings. Both were "ideas people." They donated the UN flag that we display at our meetings.
LOOKING AROUND
Soapbox Articles: Recent Coloradoan "Soapbox" articles by chapter members include Andy Mair (Dec. 9th, "Media, Citizens Should Support Military\rdblquote ) and Stan Kidder (Dec. 13th, Human Rights Basis For Sustainable Society.\rdblquote ) Members are encouraged to write letters-to-the-editor and/or opinion pieces supporting the work of the UN.
AAUW Program: United Nations Reform will be the topic of the American Association of University Women local meeting on January 7th. Margaret Smith will be the presenter.
The Coloradoan\rquote s 2006 Community Calendar now includes United Nations Day on October 24th, at our request.
The article \ldblquote A World Without the UN\rdblquote from the Nov/Dec issue of this newsletter was reprinted in the \ldblquote Unagram,\rdblquote the newsletter for Linn County (Iowa) UNA-USA Chapter. It\rquote s a chapter of about 200 members, which included Paul and Margaret Smith before their relocation to Colorado. The Linn County Chapter is quite active; we take their reprint of our article as a compliment.
High School Model UN\rquote S:
The 2006 Advocacy Agenda for UNA-USA has been announced. Priority issues for all chapters will include:
The Mountain-Pacific Region of UNA-USA is planning a conference in Salt Lake City for June 26-27th, 2006. Included in the agenda will be the role of chapters in advocacy. June 28th will feature an all-day workshop on Adopt-A-Minefield and the HERO campaign for African elementary education.
Some board members are already planning to attend. It's open to all members, but it appears you'd have to pay your own expenses. For additional information, e-mail Margaret Smith at MacSmith36@aol, or call her at 493-3857.
MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS
As the membership chairman of our chapter, I do not send out notices. If you use one of our membership forms and you are already a member, that will count as a renewal. The national organization tells me that I am supposed to call those who are delinquent. I dread doing this, so please save me the dreaded call and renew when you get a reminder. Also, on the form there is a space for a contribution to your local chapter. That contribution, plus $12.50 per family or $5.50 per limited income/introductory member, does come back to our chapter and we thank you!
IMPORTANT LINKS:
The Board will discuss setting up an independent chapter website. In the meantime, you can access information on our chapter at: http://www.essayz.com/unausa-noco
This is a subdivision of Paul Smith's website, http://www.essayz.com and it is still in progress, "work-areas" marked. The former website should still work but may not be updated. It is accessible at: http://www.greeleynet.com/~cnotess/ncuna2.shtml
Herein underlined text starting with http://www is a "CLICKABLE-LINK". Click on it with your mouse and you will be taken to the web-site corredponding to the link.
Another useful website is: http://www.unicefusa.org
UNA-USA COMMUNICATIONS
The "Membership E-NEWS" comes out weekly - usually on Friday - alternating between the NY edition from Riley McMahon, and Washington edition from Alan Averyt. It is sent to chapter leaders/chairs/ activists or by sign-up on the homepage at: http://www.unausa.org/site/apps/ka/ct/contactus.asp
The "E-NEWS Update" is sent out once a month (usually on the 5th of the month from Stephanie Rossi and goes to every member of UNA for whom UNA-USA has an email address. You can sign up for this one too on the homepage at:
http://www.unausa.org/site/apps/ka/ct/contactus.asp
We will soon send our chapter's email list to UNA-USA. If you prefer not to be included, please notify chapter secretary Paul Smith at psmith1coe@aol.com
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION: JOIN UNA-USA!
Please mail this form, along with your payment to:
UNA-NC Membership Director
There are two Model UN Programs taking place this spring in our area: Feb. 4th at Littleton High School, and March 11th, at Bishop Machebeuf High School. Both are in the Denver metro area. If you\rquote re interested in helping, please e-mail Suzanne Dickens at Fort Collins High School, sdickens@psdschools.org
You'll be hearing more about these topics in the UNA-USA magazine "The Interdependent" at local programs, and in e-mails from UNA-USA.
United Nations Reform
Millennium Development Goals
United Nations Funding
International Treaties
The Rule of Law
Since our organization is now a little over a year old, and many of you joined the UNA for the first time then, you will soon be receiving requests from the National UNA-USA Organization to renew your membership. Two months prior to the anniversary date of your membership, the national office sends a notice to the member requesting a renewal payment. If you do not respond to this first notice, a second and third notice is sent. You will be kept on an active status list for six months past the expiration of your membership.
- Eleanor Dwight, Membership Chair
A transition is being made with our website, partly due to the retirement of Charlie Notess from the Board. Thanks, Charlie, for all you've done to set up this website and maintain it!
You are encouraged to sign up for the following UNA-USA communications to members, if you aren't getting them:
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END.