UNITED NATIONS ASSOCIATION of the United States of America Northern Colorado Chapter
NCUNA Newsletter Volume 2, #3. May-June, 2006
Dr. Hochstetler is a well-versed and engaging communicator. She recently attended preparatory meetings for the Conference on the Environment in Rio de Janeiro and will share her firsthand observations with us.
Matching Fund Challenge: The Northern Colorado Chapter Board has established a $500 Matching Fund Challenge to encourage contributions from Northern Colorado UNA members and friends. Each dollar contributed to support our local chapter will be matched up to a total of $500. Take advantage of this opportunity to double the impact of your money by contributing now! Contributions may be mailed to Chapter Treasurer, 6006 Southridge Greens Blvd, Fort Collins CO 80525. Make checks payable to Northern Colorado Chapter, UNA-USA.
UNA’s Dr. Maury Albertson Receives E-chievement Award: Dr. Maury Albertson, one of the founding members of our Northern Colorado UNA/USA chapter, recently received the E-Town “E-chievement” Award. E-Town is a long running National Public Radio Program that each week recognizes a hard-working individual making a difference in their community and beyond. Albertson, 85, received the award in recognition of his role as a founder of the Fort Collins-based global development organization, Village Earth.
Dr. Albertson is a civil engineer who has traveled the world performing research and consulting for nearly 60 years. He is a co-founder of the Peace Corps (1962) and has networked extensively with volunteers during his years of travel. Based on his experience and observation, he came to believe that poverty-stricken peoples of the world have the innate ability to bring themselves out of poverty. He launched the non-profit Village Earth in 1993 to help poor communities access financial and other resources to develop sustainable approaches to self-reliance. He calls this model “sustainable village based development.”
The Village Earth model is founded on the premise that lack of access to resources is the primary obstacle to building a better life, and that poverty is the symptom rather than the cause of the problem. To facilitate access to resources - including financial, social, energy, information, and hard and soft appropriate technologies - the model calls for villages to organize into resource-sharing clusters or Resource Access Units.
Six Village Earth projects are currently underway. There are two projects in India, one in Peru, one in Nigeria, one in Cambodia, and one in the U.S. at the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. You can read more about these remarkable projects at www.villageearth.org.
Congratulations Maury! (Note: Later, on May 12, CSU Awarded Dr. Maury Albertson an Honorary Degree as Doctor of Humane Letters)
LOOKING AHEAD
In May, we will not have a program. The Board will meet on May 13 at 9:30 a.m., at Plymouth Church, 916 W. Prospect, Ft. Collins.
June Program: See lead article. No Board meeting.
July and August: No programs. Enjoy the summer! Board or Executive Committee meetings may be scheduled later.
Mountain-Pacific Regional Conference of the UNA-USA will be in Salt Lake City June 26-28. The program and registration materials were e-mailed to members on April 18, and are on our chapter's website: www.essayz.com/unausa-noco If you didn't get it, or couldn't open the attachment, please call or e-mail Eleanor Dwight (970-377-0863 or eleanor@dwightcentral.com.) Also, please let Eleanor know if you'd like to go to the conference; she may be able to set up a carpool. The conference looks very interesting, and is reasonably priced for such an event. And you can tell your grandkids you stayed in the Olympic Village! We'd like to have a sizeable delegation from our chapter.
LOOKING BACK: On March 18 Dr. William Griswold spoke to the chapter on the Middle East and what role the UN might play there.
On April 11 a panel of Model UN delegates from Fort Collins High School discussed their interest, preparation, experience, suggestions, etc. in participating in Model UN. There was a good exchange of conversation between the students and the audience. Fort Collins H.S. plans to host a Model UN next year, and our chapter wants to help in whatever ways we can. On March 11 Eleanor Dwight and Margaret Smith were judges at a Model UN in Denver. Tamara Larson served as a Page there. We encourage others to do this; no experience is necessary and it's very enjoyable.
LOOKING AROUND:
Adopt-a-Minefield: Lincoln 9th-grade IB teacher Colleen Conrad reports that her students raised just over $8,000 this year for minefield clearance. They appreciated our support by attending or hosting dinners, donating to the fund, and that the chapter purchased AAM t-shirts for the group of 40.
Second Chance: If you missed a couple of our excellent speakers, or if you want to hear them again, here's your chance:
- Dr. Robert Lawrence will speak on the rights and functions of the Congress on May 11 at 7:00 p.m. at Congregation Har Shalom, 725 W. Drake Rd., Fort Collins. This is part of a session on TAKING BACK THE CONGRESS: LEGISLATING IN A CHANGING WORLD. Herb Rubenstein, Democratic candidate for Congress, 7th District, will also speak. For information, call Hazel Krantz at 482-1811.
- Dr. William Griswold will lead a three or four week discussion of THE ASSASSIN'S GATE: AMERICA IN IRAQ by George Packer. These will be at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings at Plymouth Congregational Church, 916 W. Prospect Rd., Fort Collins, beginning on May 7.
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Personalize International Relations! Want to meet international students at CSU? Join the Fort Collins International Center and receive their monthly bulletin of events. Membership is only $8.
The mission of this organization is to enhance international understanding, cultural exchange and friendship. The group hosts the weekly Friday Afternoon Club at the International House and a monthly potluck dinner. They are looking for new volunteers to help with recruiting, orienting and matching community members and student friends.
They also host a variety of outings, including presentations at the libraries, which are usually a talk by a student or professor from another country. All of these activities are a chance to interact with students from other countries. Norm and I go to the events and sometimes sponsor a student. It has been interesting and fun. Call me to sign up or go online at www.fortcollinsinternationalcenter.org
Helpful email contacts are: Beverley Weber, web2002@netzero.net and Nancy Sturtevant, nancy.sturtevant@accenture.com -Eleanor Dwight
UNA of Northern Colorado Favorably Received Maury Albertson, Margaret Smith and Eleanor Dwight of our chapter recently met with Dr. James Cooney, the new Associate Provost for International Programs at CSU. The meeting introduced Dr. Cooney to our Northern Colorado UNA chapter and explored ways we can work with CSU. Dr. Cooney is highly positive about the UNA, in part because he has friends in the UNA-USA at the national level, and is familiar with the organization’s work.
One possibility for working together is having University students work with the high school Model UN when it is presented in Fort Collins next year. If any of our newsletter readers have suggestions about additional ways we can cooperate with CSU International Programs, please contact a UNA board member with your thoughts. Eleanor Dwight
Civil Liberties and the War on Terror: American Civil Liberties Union-Colorado's Executive Director Cathryn Hazouri will speak on this and related topics on June 15 at 7:00 p.m. at Plymouth Congregational Church, 916 W. Prospect, Fort Collins. The League of Women Voters of Larimer County is co-sponsoring this event. UNA members are especially invited.
Conference on Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity: Challenges and the Need for Action May 8, 2006, 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. at Adam’s Mark Hotel, 1550 Court Place, Denver, CO 80202.
You are invited by the Denver chapter to attend. The conference will feature notable local, national, and international speakers in a plenary session and panel discussions.
Conference fee ($50, $20 for students) includes continental breakfast, lunch, and conference materials. Associated events include a museum exhibit premier and a post-conference rally on the Capitol steps. Please contact Roz Duman at (303) 320-6565 or rozduman@comcast.net for further information.
UNA-USA'S Annual Meeting and Conference for the Council of Chapters and Divisions is June 7-11 in Washington, DC. Our chapter could have one or two representatives. However, they would have to pay their own way. Registration is $200 if paid before May 5, $250 after. Hotel rooms are about$200 per night. The conference includes a Day on Capitol Hill, Issues Sessions, and Skills Sessions. It's an important opportunity for UN activists to come together for intensive education and sharing of best practices. Last year Ken Tharp represented us when the meeting was in New York City. If you're interested in going, please call Eleanor Dwight at 377-0863.
IMPORTANT LINKS Our chapter's website is now temporarily housed at: www.essayz.com/unausa-noco.htm
This is associated with the chapter secretary's website. We are exploring affiliation with the Colorado Division's website soon, or alternatively establishing a chapter site that is independent of an individual. Colorado Division's new website is under construction. If you want to see how it's progressing, go to: http://www.una-colorado.org.
Another useful website is: www.unicefusa.org
UNA-USA COMMUNICATIONS Colorado Division: Newsletter is sent by US mail to all members for whom the Division has a mailing address. The next issue should be mailed soon. If you don't get it, please let Paul Smith (493-3857) or Eleanor Dwight (377-0863) know.
National: You are encouraged to sign up for the following two UNA-USA communications to members, if you aren’t getting them:
The Membership E-NEWS comes out weekly, and the E-NEWS Update is published once a month. Both publications are available by signing up on the UNA-USA homepage at: http://www.unausa.org/site/apps/ka/ct/contactus.asp
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