To the Members of the Hilton Head World Affairs Council,
As we enter the homestretch of our 2011-2012 program year, I appreciate your broad support for our efforts in bringing you a meaningful speaker program. Thanks to so many of you bringing guests to our programs and discussing your experiences, our membership now stands at 825. Although the days of smaller group meetings at Temple Beth Yam and Main Street Theater are gone and missed by some, we now have the opportunity at First Presbyterian Church to share our wonderful programs with so many more of our friends and neighbors. I believe as many as are interested should be able to experience the high quality programs that each of us has come to expect. For this, we owe a debt of gratitude to the late Jim Fall, to Bill Pendley who ably chaired our Program Committee this past year after Jim’s illness and death, and now, to Marion Conlin whose devotion and efforts to bring the most interesting speakers to our Island are continuing in this tradition.
As with every other organization supported by member fees, we are experiencing an increase in the expenses of presenting this speaker program. Facilities fee at First Presbyterian increased dramatically during our second year there; but we have now settled into a two-year contract for 2012-2014 with a normal 5% per year increase. The soon-to-be-completed Gathering Space should make our next program year and beyond even more pleasurable as our members can meet over coffee at HeBrews before each speaker’s session. Thanks to WAC members’ generosity, the audio system has markedly improved and the hearing devices available for our members have made the listening experience better for those with hearing challenges. For those of you who have traveled during the past several months, you know that transportations costs have increased. Our speaker transportation budget has risen by 50% in the past six months and we expect this trend to continue. Although we have been able to hold our membership fee steady at $75 for the past two years, we now must increase it by $1 per speaker meeting, bringing our annual membership fee to $90 for the 2012-2013 program year.
In addition to our speaker programs, our community outreach efforts continue to mature. Educating the next generation of global citizens is the number one challenge goal of both our Hilton Head WAC chapter, as well as national WACA. In this regard, we are seeking to develop new relationships with both the University of South Carolina Beaufort (USCB) and the Technical College of the Lowcountry (TCL), with local area high schools, and civic organizations. Even middle schools have sought our members as speakers for their students. And, for many of you, the Academic WorldQuest competition among our five Beaufort County high schools, was a highlight of our year. You can learn more about the future of this exciting program on our website. Many of you are participating in the Great Decisions Discussion Groups, a program open only to WAC HH members. In the Fall, many of you joined in our Inaugural Fall Forum, this year focusing on Islam. During the summer of 2011, many of you were in attendance in our overflow audiences as we highlighted the knowledge and experiences of three of our own members. Summer 2012 will bring equally exciting programs; look for details on our website.
You should all know that our community Outreach and AWQ programs are funded separately through your contributions, not through our annual membership fees which support only our speaker program. On your membership renewal forms you will see a space to contribute above and beyond the annual membership fee to Outreach and to AWQ. We are recommending that you support our AWQ program as generously as you can, but with a suggested contribution of $15. Our Council became a non-profit tax exempt organization when we joined the national World Affairs Councils of America in 2004. Now, as a tax-exempt organization under the Internal Revenue Code 501(C)3, our members and friends in the community may help finance the Council’s Outreach and AWQ programs.
Thank-you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
Blaine Lotz, President
