SAMPLES OF CHAPTER NEWS IN NEW FORMAT

EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS CHAPTER

• Corinne Etienne is the chapter's new secretary [corinne.etienne@umb.edu].

• Grand Concours Administrator, Janet Wohlers, broke all records with over 6000 participants. There were a number of first place honors at the national level.

• Janel Lafond-Paquin's session on Le Petit Prince was recognized by the Northeast Conference as the Best Presentation; she will be honored at the 2005 ACTFL meeting in Baltimore.

• Eastern and Western Massachsetts Chapters joined forces with the AATG at the MaFLA 2004 conference to sponsor a musical presentation by Strasbourg performers Jean-Marie Hummel and Liselotte Hamm.  Hummel and Hamm will present a workshop on the music and poetry of St-Germain-des-Près during the 2005 MaFLA conference as well as perform.
  Amale Bourhim of ETRA V, Paris will animate a French Immersion Day on le Maghreb as well as present a three-hour workshop on "Decoding the DaVinci Code."

• At the MaFLA Summer Institute, directed by Joyce Beckwith, Brian Thompson animated an evening of French Karaoke sponsored by this chapter.

• In cooperation with the French Library and Cultural Center/Alliance française, the chapter sponsored a full-day "Atelier pédagogique sur la musique" with guest lecturer Frédéric Bresson from the Alliance française in Paris. Other presenters were Emmanuelle Berbonne, Boston College, and Brian Thompson, UMASS-Boston.

METROPOLITAN NEW YORK CHAPTER

• The chapter co-sponsored the Jules Verne Contest, organized by Fabrice Jaumont of the French Embassy. Chapter President Françoise Santalis spoke at the awards ceremony on Jules Verne as a precursor of many modern inventions.

• The annual Gala included a lecture by Jeanine Plottel, retired from Hunter College/CUNY Graduate Center, on Jean-Paul Sartre. Keynote speaker, Serge Bellanger, President of the Franco-American Chamber of Commerce in the U.S., spoke on "Economie, culture, et communication dans le contexte transatlantique d'aujourd'hui." In addition, there was a musical program by Belgian singer Eddy Barsky using the songs of Jacques Brel.

• Ambassador Ridha Bouabid, permanent representative of the Organisation international de la Francophonie to the UN, Alessandra Benedicty, Atachée aux affaires éducatives à la Délégation du Québec, and Bertrand Murget of the French Cultural Service, attended the annual Distribution des Prix.

• Whitney Buckholz received a scholarship to study for one month in Morocco at the awards ceremony, thanks to Ambassador Bouabid.

• Diane Paravazian and Evelyn David are the chapter Advocacy representatives.

• Anita Cipriani and Françoise Santalis are the Mentoring representatives. They will also work on recruiting new members.

Created: August 18, 2007
Last update: October 10, 2007