After over 10 years of board service, Iris Aguilera stepped down as a board member, and her position was filled by Ulli Schlueter, who was votoed on the board in March. A big "Thank You" to Iris for her service, and a big "Welcome to the Board" to Ulli.

After many years of board service, Jutta wanted to take a break, and open the board up for new service members. At the annual meeting on 16 March 2019, Gisela Fowler graciously volunteered to step up to fill the vacant board position. Gisela is from the Nuernberg area of Germany and has joined the German Club in 2017. Welcome to the board of the German Club Olympia Gisela!

Although all the previous Board members were re-elected by the general membership, the internal Board positions have had a couple of changes this year.
Simone Martel has handed the role of club Secretary to Jutta Bean, and Heidrun Francis has handed the role of Vice President to Daniela Bremmer.
A big "Thank You" to Simone and Heidrun who have have splendidly served the Board in those positions since the inception of the German Club.

The directors of the German Club Olympia have decided that it would be beneficial for our club to join as a member organization of the German Heritage Society in Seattle, and we have been accepted as such at the German Heritage Society meeting of directors in January.
For the German Club board members this means sending representatives to attend the Seattle meetings every other month. We hope for a good partnership, for mutual support and sharing of events. 

Unfortunately we were not able to sign up enough passengers for the bus trip to the Vancouver, BC Christkindlmarket. We had 33 people on the list, but would have needed at least 45 to get close to filling the chartered bus. The Vancouver Sandman Hotel has lowered the group rate for the hotel rooms to $79.00 and I would encourage everyone who is interested in visiting the Vancouver Christmas Market to ca- pool or drive up on their own.
The hotel has at least 8 confirmed room bookings from the Germen Club Olympia alrady, so I know that many of you are going regardless.
I hope to see you all at the Christkindlmarket.

As last year, the German Club Olympia is participating in the annual Olympia Harbor Day festivities with a food concession. We will serve our popular Schnitzel Sandwiches, beverages and pastries.
This event is our big annual fundraiser that subsidizes many of our activities. This is where we are looking for a strong membership participation in the shape of volunteer hours. We need people who prepare and serve the food, help in setting up and taking down our booth, and are available for general help. Our previous volunteers will attest that it's always a lot of fun to work together and a rewarding experience to represent our organization in the local community.

The event is over Labor Day weekend (August 31 through September 2nd 2012) at Olympia's Percival Landing. We schedule our volunteers in 3 1/2 hour shifts. Please leave your name and contact info in the comment section of this post if you are willing to contribute.

As you can probably tell from the photos, our Maifest was a great success. Many hours of thoughtful planning have gone into making this celebration a fun event for young and old. I want to thank all out volunteers. Not just the ones who helped with the event, but also those, who have helped with fundraising events in the past, which made it possible to fund this Maifest. I also want to recognize and thank the Enzian Schuhplattler Group, who went above and beyond to keep us entertained and create a fun atmosphere, as well as Angelika from the German Corner Restaurant in Lacey, who cooked our delicious Schnitzel dinners. Already people are asking when we'll do this again, and I guess the answer depends on how many of our members will step up and join the Maifest Committee. It takes a lot of people to put on an event of this magnitude and I hope we will be able to have a Maifest again in 2011.

With the annual meeting and election behind us, we look forward to another busy year. The next few events to look forward to are Spring Arts Walk in Olympia and our Maifest at the Berghaus at Mount Hyak. We're always looking for volunteer who would like to help plan and execute events.