Wednesday, October 15th

Day two of the conference.  By now, getting around has become pretty easy.  Of course, I have to notice something to comment upon.  This is what I put to a local Auklander: They drive on the left-hand side of the road.  Why is it, then that I notice that a large number of people WALK on the right side of the sidewalks.  One would think that they'd naturally stay to the left.  No scientific examination.  Just an observation.  Anything to have a little fun with locals at the conference.  Come to think of it, do many of OUR people walk on the left and not the right?  Dunno.

Main tent (they use the word "plenary", whatever that is) session.  The first speaker is a woman humorist who tries to explain and teach us "Kiwi" and shows the difference between "Kiwi" and "Strain" (Australian, mate).  Pretty much howling from the audience.

The next were two high school girls who presented their views of their country and culture, and their aspirations for themselves and their peer in the future.  So very eloquent.  And it was a pleasure to hear from someone who wasn't "an oldie".

 The next presentation was way too time-curtailed.  The speaker talked about technology and what he saw as it's possible future directions.  He encouraged everyone to become involved lest they by left behind.  He was our age, and I think that resonated with people.  As an add attraction, he had a 3D printer at work in the corner creating little plastic doo-dads. That attracted a crowd.

The final main presentation was from Joy Di Benedetto who presented the results of the FFI survey, nicely summarized.  She then continued with the results of the FFI strategic planning sessions to come up with new initiatives for the next 3 years.  We saw some very welcome directions, including NEXTGEN exchanges with mixed age groups, a consistent exchange fee structures, and new technology efforts, to name a few.  We will need to set discuss these efforts and how they pertain to our club.  Yes, there are issues, but the message was very positive.

All this time, we were supported by the very professional FFI staff.

After lunch, Joy went to a session on New Zealand flowers and flower arranging.  She was very impressed with the skill of the presenter. 



David went to the session on NEXTGEN.  It was exciting to him to hear of various exchanges or events that included Grandparents and grandchildren, youth groups, and such.  We saw that it is unlikely that a single club can put together enough young people for such exchanges, but a global exchange concept, or multiple local clubs could pull it off.  I came away with two thoughts:  (1)  don't exclude children or grandchildren when hosting - if it's natural, let it happen; and (2) including children and grandchildren could be one of the ways to ultimately grow a club.


We bagged out of the last session - just didn't see anything that called to us. Joy had a swag of the flower arrangement that we decided would look good in Ben's apartment.  Then we strolled a bit.  We watched several jumpers from the tower building - controlled by a set of guy wires.  Of course I forgot the camera, so we might just have to stake the place out in the next day or so.