April partner organization events

Each month we let you know about events being planned by our partner organizations that we are aware of. Here’s what’s happening in April.

Forum der Kulturen
Click here for a monthly events calendar

The Children’s English Library
13th April – Ferien Workshop “Flags of the World” (ages 7-10)
20th April – Earth Day workshop
Full schedule

Cafe Merlin
Full schedule

St. Catherine’s English Church
Easter Celebrations in English
Full schedule

Daimler Choir – Mass for Peace Concert
In aid of Omaruru Children’s Haven, Namibia
Saturday, 28th April, 19:30, St Georg Church, Stuttgart, Heilbronnerstrasse 135
(Member Debbie Strauss is a member of the choir)

Partner organizations are other area groups that also serve the international community in Stuttgart and who have agreed to promote IWCS events to their membership. This listing is for information purposes only and opinions expressed at partner organization events do not necessarily reflect those of the IWCS Steering Committee.

If you are a local group serving the international community who would like to work together with us on cross-promotion, please contact us using the form below.

[contact-form subject=”Interested in working with IWCS as partner organization” to=”zdenka@iwcstuttgart.org”] [contact-field label=”Name” type=”name” required=”true” /] [contact-field label=”Email” type=”email” required=”true” /] [contact-field label=”Website” type=”url” required=”true” /] [contact-field label=”Comment” type=”textarea” required=”true” /] [/contact-form]

Charity Team kick-off on 18 April 2012

I would like to invite all IWC Stuttgart members to get involved in our charitable endeavors this year. I am hoping that you will find – like me – that regardless of how we spend our days, in jobs, in our homes or elsewhere, coming together and working on a common goal is hugely fulfilling. Having worked on our charitable activities in one role or another for the past few years, I can tell you that I learned many new skills and I had a great time doing it.

As you may already know, Frauen helfen Frauen, our designated charity, are losing their premises at the end of June this year. While they have already secured interim accommodation, you can imagine which kind of impact – financially and emotionally – this upheaval will have on the families as well as the FHF team.

There are several areas where we can become active

  • Financially: by hosting our next charity event and engaging in fund-raising
  • “Regularly”: by understanding what FHF need currently and how we can become engaged with them in a more regular and hands-on way.

I feel that the best way to begin is to hold a kick-off meeting amongst members first and then break into groups. Once we have decided on which actions to take, it will probably be beneficial to meet up with our new focal points at FHF, Ms Limitone and Ms Bosch. Some of you will already have met them at last year’s charity event. This meeting will probably take place during the day.

If you can attend the big kick-off on April 18th at 19:00 (or even if you just have more questions), please contact me using the form below. The location is still to be confirmed.

Once we have kicked off, we will have a central online tool allowing us to collaborate so that even if you missed a meeting, you can remain up to date.

I am very excited about this new year of charitable activities and am looking forward to accomplishing great things with you all!

Yours,

Dorothee Klein
Vice President  – Charitable Relations

[contact-form subject=”Charity Kick-off Meeting” to=”charity@iwcstuttgart.org”] [contact-field label=”Name” type=”name” required=”true” /] [contact-field label=”Email” type=”email” required=”true” /] [contact-field label=”Comment” type=”textarea” /] [/contact-form]

Introducing our newest monthly Focus Group – the IWCS Scrapbooking Crop

[slideshow]

Earlier this month the IWCS Scrapbooking group met for their first “crop” which is scrapbooking-speak for scrapbooking and socializing.  It was a small, fun group and we’d like to continue and are looking for more members to join us!

Here’s how you can take part:

1.  Register for the next meeting, which will be on Saturday the 16th of June (details and RSVP form below).

2. If you are on Facebook, you can join our Facebook group to stay in touch and receive updates.

At our meetings, members should bring along a project in progress to work on. Digital scrapbookers are also welcome to bring their computers and join us.

Are you new to scrapbooking? The store where we meet has tools for our use so beginners looking for guidance should bring 10-15 pictures, buy paper and tape either in advance or at the store during the meeting and then use the store supplied tools. Julie will have information on hand and can demonstrate several page layouts to get you started with basic techniques.

If you would like to purchase paper and tape before the meeting, you can visit Scrapbooking Stuttgart’s online shop at  www.scrappyhappy.de. From the home page, click on “Zu den Scrapbooking Artikeln”.

If you want more advice about supplies and/ or easy projects to start with (such as the sample pictured above), please contact Julie directly and she’ll be glad to help.

NEXT MEETING
Saturday, June 16th from 11:00 – 14:00
Location: Scrapbooking Stuttgart, Schwieberdinger Str. 58, 70435 Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen
The meeting fee of 5€ can be paid at the crop.
RSVP required to Julie Heasley using the form below

Parking is available at the store.

For train, take S4, S5, S6 to Zuffenhausen and follow the signs to Schwieberdinger Str., turn right onto Schweiberdinger Str. and the store is on the right hand side under 10 minute walk.

[contact-form subject=”RSVP for Scrapbooking Crop” to=”QUEENOFFALL@YAHOO.COM”] [contact-field label=”Name” type=”name” required=”true” /] [contact-field label=”Email” type=”email” required=”true” /] [contact-field label=”Comment” type=”textarea” /] [/contact-form]

March Club Meeting in Review

On March 7th, members and guests were treated to a fantastic presentation by Jamie Müller on the subject of intercultural marriage. In the discussion at the end it quickly became apparent that all kinds of marriages qualify as intercultural and face similar challenges.

For those of you who missed her talk or wanted some notes, Jamie has given us this link which includes scans of her flip charts. She suggested Expat Bookshop as a great place to get books on the subject and had the following book recommendations:

Intercultural marriage:
Intercultural Marriage: Promises and Pitfalls by Dugan Romano
A Moveable Marriage: Relocate Your Relationship without Breaking It by Robin Pascoe
The Globalisation of Love – A Book about Multicultural Romance and Marriage by Wendy Williams

Career Guidance:
Laptop Entrepreneur: How to Make a Living Anywhere in the World by Nick Snelling
Turning Points: 25 Inspiring Stories from Women Entrepreneurs by Kate Cobb

Children of intercultural marriages:
Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds by David C. Pollock
Raising Global Nomads: Parenting Abroad in an On-Demand World by Robin Pascoe

Jamie is the owner and founder of Caterpillar Spirit, a Stuttgart-based intercultural coaching and training company, and has been a member of the IWC Stuttgart since 2006.

Upcoming event: Guided tour of Monet-Turner-Twombly exhibit at Staatsgalerie

Join host Dorothee Klein at the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart on Thursday, May 24th to experience the outstanding late works of the three greatest painters of the last two centuries.

This exhibition unites the works by William Turner, Claude Monet and the late Cy Twombly, and it offers visitors new perspectives on the art of each, in and of itself. Approximately seventy late works – some quite large in scale – by these three painters will be exhibited, and will serve to illuminate similarities and interrelationships between the works and exemplify their common characteristics. This will also be one of the last chances to visit this exhibition as it will only run until May 28th!

A total of 25 participants is possible for this event, which will be done as a guided tour in English. Our tour will start at 17:30 prompt, thus it is important that all participants arrive on time at the meeting point at 17:15.

Following the tour, which is expected to last 1 hour, we plan on going to a nearby restaurant for dinner.

This event is for members only and is being sponsored by the IWC. We will be covering the cost of the tour guide and part of your ticket price. You pay only €10 for the entire experience!

To RSVP for this event, please fill out the form below.

[contact-form subject=”RSVP for Staatsgalerie tour” to=”charity@iwcstuttgart.org”] [contact-field label=”Name” type=”name” required=”true” /] [contact-field label=”Email” type=”email” required=”true” /] [contact-field label=”Comment” type=”textarea” /] [/contact-form]

Get Involved!

Here on the Steering Committee, we each have our set duties. But we can’t manage them without input from the general membership and now is the time to speak up while we are planning for the year.

What do we need from you?

  • Suggestions for speaker topics at the club meeting – what would you like to hear about that would be of interest to the majority of the members?
  • Recommendations for speakers themselves – do you know someone personally who might make a great speaker (and could do so in English)?
  • Ideas for events and activities

In addition to ideas, we need people power!! We have two areas in particular that have coordinators but need sub-committees to actually make things happen: activities planning and charity. Both committees require people who are doers and planners and you don’t necessarily need to have a great command of German to help. You also don’t need a whole lot of time – even short-term help is welcomed.

If you feel out of place during your time in Stuttgart, volunteering can help you find your footing and feel good about belonging. It also looks great on a resume or CV if you are not working now but will be returning to the job market soon.

Please use the form below to start a conversation with us about ideas you have or time you’d like to volunteer (or grab one of the Steering Committee members at any event).

Hope to hear from you soon!

[contact-form to=’intlwomensclubstuttgart@gmail.com’ subject=’I%26#039;d like to help!’][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’/][/contact-form]

2012 Annual General Meeting Review

At the beginning of February, we came together as a group to enjoy great food and company, all while taking care of our annual club business. Thank you to all of you who came out on that freezing, snowy night to help us meet our quorum! (And thank you to those who wanted to come from far away but just couldn’t make it out of your driveways!)

We held our yearly elections and the Steering Committee members for 2012 are:
President – Emily Born
Vice President/Charitable Relations – Dorothee Klein
Treasurer – Tonya Busch
Secretary – Christy Miller
Activities Coordinator – Laura Lenz
Mother’s Corner Coordinator – Sandra Bartsch
Communications Chair – Lisa Cvejn
Public Relations Chair – Renea Miller
Membership – Billie Schoeler
These are the people you want to turn to if you have a question, idea or problem. Over the next few months, we’ll learn more about the newest members of the Steering Committee in detail.

Our treasurer, Tonya Busch, presented the the money side of things, including the final 2011 donation amount to Frauen helfen Frauen of €3.431,27. She again reported on our renewed non-profit tax status; this means we won’t be up for review again for 3 more years.

After presentation of the Board Report for 2011, we discussed what was in store for the club in 2012.

In the category “More of the Same” we talked about continuing to work hard on the four pillars of our Mission Statement:

  • Friendship (events and meet-ups)
  • Community (Facebook groups)
  • Charity  (ACE)
  • Intergration (Speakers and activities)

Some of the new developments promised this year included having more evening meetings, a revised website, joining the Forum der Kulturen Sommerfest instead of the usual American Days bake sale, review and simplification of our by laws, and outreach to more corporate expat departments.

The evening ended with a plea for member involvement and some yummy desserts. We are looking forward to another successful and fun-filled year together and are glad to have everyone along for the ride!

2012 Board Report to Members

The International Women’s Club of Stuttgart had a wonderful and successful 2011. We worked hard towards our goals and continued to define who we are as a group and how we do things.

Our membership goals were to keep overall membership growth steady while increasing member participation. Overall membership numbers stayed steady throughout the year despite all the coming and going that is an normal part of an international club such as ours. This was possible thanks to member help in recruiting friends, our new Facebook fan page, and continued work with partner organizations such as Bosch and Forum der Kulturen to get the word out about IWCS membership. The gorgeous new club logo designed by Tonya Busch also didn’t hurt. As for increasing member participation, we created an active Facebook community of members always ready to help each other out with questions about living in Stuttgart.

Membership goals met.

Our charity goals were to raise and donate between €3,000 – 4,000 for Frauen helfen Frauen. We accomplished this thanks to a successful bake sale and revamped Annual Charity Event.

Charity goals met.

We continued to work towards our community and integration goals with another year of fantastic club meetings, dinners and activities.

At our club meetings, we had some great speakers who helped us learn more about ourselves and the community around us, such as the Stuttgart policeman and Jamie Mueller with her culture shock talk.  For the first time in the history of the club, we also held evening meetings so we would be more accessible for those members who work during the day.

With the help of our many active members, our activities coordinators Pavla Hora and Irena Wilke planned and executed many successful social and cultural events for the club. We tasted wine, practiced our language skills, and enjoyed art and music together.

Mother’s Corner continued to reach out to area mums and bring their members closer together by introducing their new Facebook group as well as a monthly crafting session at the Eltern-Kind-Zentrum in Stuttgart.

2011 also saw the introduction of a couple new monthly focus groups such as the new monthly walking group and Mahjongg group.

In summary, members networked with one another and made new friends at our events, shared recommendations in our Facebook forum, and learned new skills and information at our club meetings.

Community and integration goals met.

And administratively our Steering Committee had set itself the goals to streamline club procedures and improve how we communicate with members.  With the addition of our new accounting and membership software and some new newsletter and blogging tools we exceeded our expectations.

Administrative goals met.

None of these achievements would have been possible without all members of the 2011 Steering Committee working very hard at the jobs you elected them to do, not to mention the incredible help we received from the members who stepped in as we lost several of our committee members during the course of the year. It also wouldn’t have been possible without input and effort from the general membership, so please accept our thanks for your assistance and enthusiasm.

The IWC has been part of the Stuttgart international community for only six short years, but we’ve definitely made an impact on people. I’m very proud to be part of this group of such amazing and interesting women and your steering committee is looking forward to the honor of serving you for another year.

Your 2011 Chairperson,
Emily Born

A note from the new Activities Coordinator, Laura Lenz

As the new Activities Coordinator, I hope to help organize each month varied, fun and interesting activities for us. However we are a large and varied group of individuals, and what may appeal to one may not to the next person. Thus, I need your help and input.

What kind of activities would you like to see? Would you also be interested in hosting one or more activities? Please use the form below (or catch me in person at an event) to send me your ideas, and whether or not you would like to take an active role in organizing and/or hosting that event.

I look forward to hearing from you!
Yours, Laura Lenz

p.s. Please do not limit yourself to activity ideas solely for members as oftentimes it is nice when we can include our partners / husbands and children.

[contact-form subject=”IWCS Event Ideas” to=”activities@iwcstuttgart.org”] [contact-field label=”Name” type=”name” required=”true” /] [contact-field label=”Email” type=”email” required=”true” /] [contact-field label=”Comment” type=”textarea” required=”true” /] [/contact-form]

Frauenhaus News – FHF Women’s Shelter to Lose Its Shelter!

Late last year, the building housing the Frauen helfen Frauen’s women’s shelter changed ownership and the new owner decided to terminate the lease the city holds for FHF. This means that on 30 June 2012, FHF with all their women and children must vacate their house.

Both the city council and FHF are currently searching for a new location, but it’s a difficult endeavour. Low budget living accommodation is already scarce in Stuttgart and the new house must tick quite a few boxes: 1500 – 1800 m², proximity to primary schools, transport links as well as an enclosed outside space for the children to play safely (post updated to include this link with detailed information about what they are searching for).

Of course, this move also puts their organization under tremendous financial strain. This is where we can lend our support! FHF has dedicated two team members to their relationship with us and we are looking forward to intensifying our relationship with them. If you would like to help, please get in touch with the Charity team using the form below.

If you want to find out more about Frauen helfen Frauen and their housing situation, please click here for more information.

written by Dorothee Klein

[contact-form subject=”Yes! I want to help the Charity Committee” to=”charity@iwcstuttgart.org”] [contact-field label=”Name” type=”name” required=”true” /] [contact-field label=”Email” type=”email” required=”true” /] [contact-field label=”Comment” type=”textarea” required=”true” /] [/contact-form]