Farewell From PTPDE’s Co-Presidents - June/July 2009

      As our two-year term comes to a close, we would like to thank our dedicated Board of Directors for their fantastic support and enthusiasm. Together we have accomplished a great deal from 2007 to 2009.

Our goals during that time were to increase the diversity of ages and backgrounds of our audiences and to grow participation in our events. We continue to make good progress in both areas. Our Action Plan, developed last year, acts as a guide in our decision-making and helps us measure our progress.

One way we have increased our reach to high school and college-age audiences is to ask our State Department speakers to talk with at least one high school class and a Widener Law School group when they come to Delaware to address an evening audience, which typically consists primarily of adults.

We have also re-activated our hosting committee in order to provide more opportunities for our members to have direct contact with overseas visitors. Similarly, we initiated on-going dinners where PTPDE members host international students, usually English teachers, who are studying at the University of Delaware’s English Language Institute.

To give members and the community more choice in how to participate in PTPDE, we offer events that range from intimate groups of less than a dozen people to large audiences of diverse ages and backgrounds, and formats that include discussions to performances to hands on projects such as Books for Overseas Youth. We have also tried to de-centralize responsibility for activities so that more members can exercise leadership in their areas of interest.

We steadily reduced our use of and dependence upon printed materials, opting for communication by email and our website whenever possible.

New bylaws developed last year set up procedures for proxy and electronic voting that enable the chapter to conduct business more efficiently and effectively.

We initiated connections with individuals at the News Journal who helped us understand how to work with them and how to better use new media for the benefit of PTPDE. To counter the difficulty in publicizing our events, we increasingly partner with organizations that have their own mailing lists, memberships, and often paid staff. This has been particularly successful with Girl Scouts, Cokesbury Village, Brandywine and Concord High Schools, World Trade Center Delaware and Widener University, all organizations that take care of most of the publicity for our joint events.

As a result, this year PTPDE programs and activities reached more than 1700 people, up from 1200 last year. This includes more than 850 young people.

Support from the community is evidenced by the number and diversity of people who participate in our events and by outstanding support from our Pacesetters. A third of our members contribute well beyond their basic dues and become Pacesetters. With careful planning, our finances continue to remain stable. PTPDE receives assistance from the State of Delaware Grant-In-Aid program, which, along with generous contributions from our members, enables us to continue to offer most programs and events free of charge.

We appreciate the opportunity to help PTPDE bring international issues, culture and information to our community.

Thank you for visiting our website. If you’re not already a member, we invite you to join us and help us make People to People Delaware even more relevant in years to come! Out-going Co-Presidents,

Georgi Marquisee and Jean Raleigh,

Out-going Co-Presidents, People to People Delaware