KA SID, posting 9/18/07

It's been a very busy two weeks for meetings not related to work or school (directly that is). We had the YMCA Garden Party where they introduce the new board members and the new chair, and also present the Andrew Carpendale International Award, which I was the recipient of this year. The next day we then had our Taiwan Camp celebration where all the kids and their parents and the YMCA board members on the diversity committee came to dinner at the YMCA and we played the 20 minute iMovie I made of the trip. They gave Tiffany and Rolf a beautiful picture signed by the kids and me a generous gift to Stanford Shopping center. Then a few days later we had our first YMCA board meeting of the year and again we showed a shorter version if the iMovie. I also had coffee with 2 people on our board the day before who are on our Human Relations Committee for the city of Palo Alto, to discuss diversity and the committee structure. It was a very interesting chat about their concerns, which I brought up at the end of the YMCA meeting the next day. Then on Sat. we had our first cluster meeting with Lee Mahon and Nickola Smith. A board member, Margarita Rosenthal also attended, along with several people from Southern California that are now working with Lee. It was almost 4 hours long and was a wonderful chance to meet people - several people are doing work in my area or are interested in what I am doing.

And then there were the political campaigns...my friend asked my son to play music at her kickoff for school board and that was a project - renting the electronic keyboard, then setting up 3 hours early and then playing for 2 hours. Plus 2 other events, and another one for the Foundation for a College Education tonight. Meetings should be over this week!!!

I am also reading Molnar, A. (1996). Giving kids the business : the commercialization of America's schools. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, and I plan to read Crawford, J. (1995). Bilingual education : history, politics, theory, and practice (3rd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Bilingual Educational Services.

I also plan to apply to the Human Relations Commission (HRC) for the City of Palo Alto. I will try to get out of other commitments to make room for this.

- June