Our preparations for the start of a Christmas market in Olympia are in full force. A big "Dankeschoen" goes out to Sabine Anderson and her team of Evergreen University students, who have prepared a detailed, professional business plan for the Christkindlmarkt venture. The next big step will be to build our first market booth, which will happen during the summer. We invite anyone who is interested to participate to join us.

"Thanks" also to Heidrun Francis, who organized the May Day hike, which had a big turn-out.

Our club website is gaining in popularity as seen on this recent visitor map:

The German Club Olympia completed its first official fundraiser. We operated a food stand at Olympia's annual Arts Walk festival, where we sold sausages, Curry Wurst, Sauerkraut and baked goods. We received support from the MIX 96 radio station, Mathias from Einmaleins, Hess German Bakery, and Tumwater Party Rentals. "Thank You" to all the dedicated volunteers who planned this event, helped set up and operate the booth and the many members who have donated baked goods. Our fundraiser netted $650, which will go toward our planned Christkindlmarket project. This fundraiser was good test-run for the Chrsitmas market, where we plan to operate a food booth and market stand. The big goal is to establish a European Christmas market in Olympia that will draw crowds and offer a cultural venue for the city.  The biggest aim is to raise enough money to eventually have our own property for a "Vereinsheim" where we can meet and have celebrations (anybody know a generous donor?).

Board of Officers 2009

At the March German Club Get-Together we held the annual membership meeting that established the board officers for the year 2009. I want to express my gratitude to all the members who so graciously agreed to continue to serve on the board. Thank you for your volunteer spirit, the time you serve planning and executing, and your dedication to the German Club Olympia.

The current board consists of:

Officers:

Sandy Nelson - President

Heidrun Francis - Vice President

Angelika Hagen-Breaux - Treasurer

Simone Martel - Secretary

Members:

Daniela Bremmer-Washington - Public Affairs Coordinator

Iris Aguilera - Member at large

Sabine Anderson - Member at Large

 

Our Association Bylaws accommodate for up to 8 board members. If anyone is interested to fill the vacant spot, please don't be bashful. We welcome any club member who would like to participate and help shape our fairly new organization. No special talents are required, just the intent to participate in meetings and events.





 

 
Achtung:   Krisenvorsorgeliste

Alle Deutschen, die - auch nur vorübergehend - im Amtsbezirk des Generalkonsulats San Francisco leben, können in eine Krisenvorsorgeliste gemäß § 6 Abs. 3 des deutschen Konsulargesetzes aufgenommen werden.

Es handelt sich hierbei um eine freiwillige Maßnahme. Das Generalkonsulat rät, von dieser Möglichkeit Gebrauch zu machen, damit es - falls erforderlich - in Krisen- und sonstigen Ausnahmesituationen mit Deutschen schnell Verbindung aufnehmen kann.  Die Aufnahme in die Krisenvorsorgeliste erfolgt ab sofort passwortgeschützt im online-Verfahren.

Wir bitten Sie, Ihre Daten möglichst bald über das Internet einzugeben. Sie werden künftig automatisch in regelmäßigen Abständen aufgefordert werden, Ihre Angaben zu bestätigen bzw. zu aktualisieren. Damit sollen Vollständigkeit und Aktualität der Registrierungen im Sinne einer wirksamen Krisenvorsorge und --bewältigung sichergestellt werden. Bitte beantworten Sie die Ihnen automatisch zugehenden Aufforderungen deshalb im eigenen Interesse.

Registrierung: http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/de/__PR/R__Wash/2008/11/26__Elefand__PR,archiveCtx=2022460.html

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Generalkonsulat San Francisco

Here are some events in our area that will help get you into the Advent spirit:

Adventsgottesdienst

am 07. Dezember um 11.00 Uhr

Wir laden Sie hiermit recht herzlich zu unserem Adventsgottesdienst ein! Wir werden uns über den Ursprung und die Bedeutung des Adventskranzes unterhalten und Kinder aus der Gemeinde werden ein kleines Bühnenstück aufführen. Zur Einstimmung auf die Weihnachtszeit werden wir Advents- und Weihnachtslieder singen und danach wird es ein Kaffeestündchen mit Adventsgebäck geben. Im Anschluss sind die Kinder recht herzlich dazu eingeladen mit uns Adventskränze zu basteln.

Wir freuen uns auf Ihr Kommen!
Um Rückantwort wird gebeten, damit wir uns angemessen für den Gottesdienst und die Adventskränze vorbereiten können. Vielen Dank.
                       
Adresse der Kirche: 1107A E Howell, Seattle, WA 98122

Kontakt: Jason oder Kerstin Gackle, 206-325-7664,    gacklejr@hotmail.com or gacklekh@hotmail.com




ADVENT CONCERT

Gesangverein Arion
German Singing Society since 1910

Under the direction of Florence Mesler

Saturday, December 6, 2008
German House
613 - 9th Ave, Seattle 

Doors open at 6 pm - Concert starts at 7 pm

After the concert dance to the music of
The Happy Hans Band

Admission $20.00
Dinner is included



 

Deutscher Weihnachtsgottesdienst

am 23.12.08 um 19 Uhr

in der St. Benedict Episcopal Church

Bowker St. Lacey

 

 

 

 

The business cards for our board members are finally completed and have been distributed. I lost the original jpeg file and had to re-draw the logo from scratch, but everybody seemed pleased with the way the cards turned out.

The board decided to offer the German Movie Night event only quarterly.

The next film night will be on 1 November 2008.

The next committee meeting for the planning of a Christkindlmart has been set to 12 November 2008.

The ballots for a new club logo have produced a winner:

In democratic fashion, the majority of our members present at the last meeting, have selected the colorful bridge motif from among six logo choices.

I think this logo makes apparent part of the mission of our association:

To foster a cultural exchange between two countries. 

A bridge is a powerful symbol that connects and transcends and patches where there is a gap. I hope that our bridge is on a strong footing and proves to be a dependable and lasting pathway of friendship, engagement and support for our members and the community in which we live.

 

Christkindlmarkt Project

The next meeting to work on the Christkindlmarkt Project will be on the 27th of March 2008 at 7:00 PM. The meeting will take place at 1917 Franklin St. Olympia, WA 98501.

Anyone interested in supporting this project and volunteering is invited to attend. Please call or email to let us know you're coming: (360)789-7505            sandy.nelson@comcast.net

Susanna Haynie has offered her talents in the public relations sector and is looking for members' personal impressions, recountings and memories of what a Chrsitkindlmarkt means to them. If you have memories to share, please send Susanna an email: susanna.haynie@gmail.com

If you have any pictures or photos of a Christkindlmarkt, please attach those as well.

 

Advertising

Advertising links on our web site's "Resources" page will now be available for sponsors for a fee of $50.00 per year. If you offer services, or know someone who offers services that are of particular interest or value to the members of our association, such as German products, restaurants, or German-speaking service providers, please contact us. The fee is a minimal amount to pay to show affiliation and support for our organization and to gain exposure to our site's visitors. Even though this website is still a web infant, it has grown in popularity. Here are some visual statistics of our site visits from the past 7 days:

Please help make our site even more popular by sending the link www.germanclubolympia.com to anyone you think might find value in our site and by posting it on any blogs or forums you participate in.

I just bought our very own domain name of www.germanclubolympia.com. I tried to see if I could find our little web site by googling "german club olympia", but our site didn't pop up. I figured that Google didn't place value on our content since it was in German, so I re-wrote all the text in English and then re-submitted the site to Google. Now we'll just have to wait and see if that will make a difference. The more visitors our site gets, the better we'll be noticed by the search engines, so please come to the site often and share our site address with other Germans you meet.

I've also added an easy portal to the bottom of the main page for members to join our yahoo group. The name of the group is.....

You guessed it: germanclubolympia

By joining the group, you can receive and send messages and announcements to all members at one, or to individual members. The group is private and moderated, so no unwelcome spammers can get in. So please, if you have a moment, join in, so you can keep current on what's new and what's happening.

Nach langen Jahren des Haderns, habe ich endlich den Schritt unternommen unseren Deutschlub offiziell zu etablieren. Das erste Organisationstreffen fand am 11. Januar bei mir Zuhause statt. Eingeladen war jeder, dessen email Adresse ich hatte. Erschienen sind Heidrun, Angelika und Simone. Zu viert haben wir uns fuer einen Club Namen entschieden, haben die Vereinsstruktur ausgearbeitet und haben einen Vereinsrat gebildet. Viele Clubs fingen im kleinen Ramen an einem Kuechentisch an, und haben sich dann zu einer unetbehrlichen, wertvollen Einrichtung etabliert. Ich hoffe, dass es bei uns auch so sein wird. Letztendlich ist ein Verein nur so gut wie die Einsatzbereitschaft, die Ideen, Talente und Tatkraft der Mitglieder. Das Potenzial ist auf jeden Fall geschaffen, dass unser Verein, der uebrigens der erste etablierte Deutschclub in Olympia ist, eine wertvolle Einrichtung fuer ihre Mitglieder sowie fuer die Kommune wird.