UDON THANI EXPATS CLUB
MINUTES OF MEMBER MEETING
| Meeting number: | MOMM 0031 |
| Location: | Bangkok Hospital Udon |
| Date: | Sunday, March 29, 2015. |
| Subject: | See Agenda (Distributed by e-mail and shown on the website) |
| Participants: | See attendance list (For Administration only) |
| Secretary: | J.J. van Spaandonk |
1. Peter Edwards opened the meeting at about 14.00 hour
2. Administrative issues
– 28 members, 1 Sponsor and 6 guests/visitors attended the meeting.
– 9 members notified that they would not be able to attend.
– At present, the Club has 65 members.
– Quorum requires >40% members present. Quorum is OK.
– The minutes of the February 22, 2015 member meeting have been approved. No comments.
3. NewMembers, Visitors and Sponsors
* Mr. and Mrs. Soe Thant Aung, Mr. Peter Covey, Mr. Fred Linden and Mr. Joe Russell are welcomed and installed as members.
* During the Month of March also Mr. Jimmy Ragsdale and Mr. Lee Whittaker applied for and were granted membership.
* Six (6) guests/visitors, Mr. & Mrs. Jay Adams, Mr. Ted Baroody, Mr. Adam Borosz, Mr. Henri Schauff and Mrs. Donna Westendorf attended the meeting.
The Club welcomes them all with much pleasure.
* Staff of our Sponsor, Much-che Manta Boutique Hotel, attended the meeting and surprised us with a selection of their home made Petite Four.
A real treat. We can really recommend to visit the hotel and try their patisserie and take home service.
For details and location please visit the club’s website (Homepage) and click the logo of Much-che Manta or go to: http://www.much-chemanta.com/
4. Announcements by the Board
* Peter remembered, with a word of respect, our Club member Mr. Bob Nelson from the USA, who passed away last Wednesday.
* The Club received an invitation for all of us, to attend the Wonder-Water-land @ UD TOWN, from April 12-16. For details see the attachment to the distribution mail.
* Jacob received a number of T-Shirts (7) from our Sponsor YANG BOONKIT CANDO tire-shops.
See our website for more info or click the following link: http://www.yangboonkit.com/
Ms. Pat Koester, our guest-speaker, was so kind to do a lucky draw, where Norman, David, Nick, Jan, Peter, Dr. Bernard and Joop were the lucky ones to be given one of the BOONKIT shirts.
5. Open Forum
* Mr. Bruce Beale announced that he has made the decision to retire from the Club because he could
not agree with the subject of last Presentation.
The Club regretted his decision and explained that the primary intention of choosing a subject and
Speaker, is to offer an as much as possible variety with the aim to increase our knowledge in various
issues.
It should be realized that, unless explicitly stated, the Club does not take a standpoint itself.
In this aspect, it should also be acknowledged, that ignoring a specific subject does not solve or
eliminate the issue.
On the other hand, by bringing it into the open, it could increase the awareness and efforts to avoid
such a potential problematic situation for the future.
* Nick announced that next meeting of the “Raising Awareness” group will be after Sonkran, at the
pavilion of the Coffee Station. The exact date and time will be published later.
6. Coffee break
At the Coffee Break we enjoyed spring rolls, coffee & tea with assorted cookies, the Petite Four of Much-che Manta Boutique Hotel and of course the animate discussions.
7. Guest-Speaker; Ms. Pat Koester
Pat opened by thanking us for being invited to have a presentation for the Udon Thani Expats Club.
and continued by introducing herself.
After all her years in Thailand, she never had the opportunity to visit Udon Thani. Now that she did,
she was moved by the fine atmosphere and especially the pleasant weather.
In addition to her presentation, see attachment, Pat informed that what most touched her at that time, were the young, recruited, Americans who arrived at the base without a proper understanding of the situation and not really wanted to go to war.
A primary task so was to educate the Americans about the situation, the Thai culture and the local population to understand the Americans.
At closing Peter thanked Pat for coming all the way to Udon Thani to have her very interesting presentation about the turbulent episode of the USA in Thailand. As a token of gratitude Pat was offered the Club’s “Certificate of Appreciation” and a bunch of flowers from Udon.
8. Committee Announcements
Peter painted some possible activities like singing, dancing, etcetera and invited members who would like to start or join such an activity to make the decision, to come forward, and to do it.
9. Closing
The meeting was closed by Peter at about 16.00 hrs.
Next meeting will be on Sunday, April 26, 2015.
Please check at www.udonexpatsclub.com for possible changes and/or further information.
March 30, 2015.
Joop J. van Spaandonk
