April 2011 Program Meeting

(NOTE: Meeting date is one week earlier than usual this month -- April 13)

The featured speaker will be Dr. Katharina Bernau-Seiguer, founder of the San Francisco Coffee Company, a German company rooted in an American idea and customer service model. Dr. Bernau-Seiguer, who studied law in Bayreuth, Lausanne, and Munich and has a Phd. in IP and copyright law fron Max Planck Institute, worked at a California law firm in Silicon Valley before returning to Germany and starting her company as sole founder of SFCC in 1999. Her husband followed her into the business about six months later. Dr. Bernau-Seiguer is on the forefront of business trends and will speak about this topic as well as about improving customer service and women in business. She no doubt will inspire us!

When: 6:30 PM on Wednesday, April 13, 2011

April Book Club

Come join us to discuss Marilynne Robinson's much anticipated Novel, Gilead. The 77 year old Reverend Ames is told he only has a few months to live and starts to pen a letter to his young son. What unfolds is a wonderful memoir of his life in which he shares his views on family, love, religion. The result is a testimony of struggle and faith over three generations that's more intimate and revealing than most parents can articulate in decades. According to reviewer Ron Charles, of the Christian Science Monitor, "There are passages here of such profound, hard-won wisdom and spiritual insight that they make your own life seem richer."

When: Monday, 04.April at 6:30 PM

March Program Meeting

The topic for our March meeting is Intercultural Awareness and Communication

Our speaker is
Professor Dr. Gertrud Kalb-Krause
Hochschule München
(University of Applied Sciences)

Gertrud Kalb-Krause teaches business languages and intercultural communication classes in the business faculty and thus prepares students for their international careers. She will talk to us about differences between cultures, how to deal with them, and the challenges of diversity in a global world.

Gertrud studied English and French language and literature and worked at the University of Manchester in the U.K. before working at various German Universities. She has published numerous articles; among them are articles on the American writer Joyce Carol Oates, but also on the American political system.

Don’t miss the opportunity to boost your intercultural skills and come and join us for this stimulating and enlightening evening.

When: March 16 at 18:30

March Book Club

After reading The Happiness Project in February, we thought we would explore the other end of the spectrum with Bright Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking is Undermining America by Barbara Eherenreich. She really is not grumpy, but she has an interesting take on the whole movement of "The Secret" and being only cheerful and upbeat. She even proposes that this, on a national level, brought us to an irrational optimism which might have even been a root cause of the financial crisis. Should be a very interesting book and discussion.

When: Monday, 07.March at 18:30.

Here is the line up for the next 2 months:
April: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
May: We pick our books for the next season!

February Program Meeting (change of speakers)

One of Munich's experts on subculture and the underground cultural scene, Patrick Gruban, talks about "How We Turned a Department Store into a Temporary Cultural Space," referring to one of many sub-culture events he has helped organize over the last 10 years in Munich.

Patrick Gruban's professional work is in the field of conceiving and developing internet applications. There, his main focus is on social media and online communities. But he is equally involved in non-mainstream cultural projects and will point out to you sides and sites of Munich which you will like to get to know.

Further information can be found at www.gruban.de

February Book Club

This month we are reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. She had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. "The days are long, but the years are short," Gretchen realized. "Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter." In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project. In this lively and compelling account of that year, she chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier.

Are you ready to start your Happiness Project? Come join us for the February Book Club on Monday, 07.Feb at 18:30.

Prospective club members are welcome - for more information, please e-mail aaupw@yahoo.de

January 2011 Program Meeting

On January 19th, we will kick off 2011 with a look at one group working to ensure Munich remains a wonderful city in which to live!

Benjy Barnhart will speak about Green City, a 20-year-old Munich-focused environmental group that has helped make Munich one of the most environmentally friendly cities in the world. As a Green City board member and an American, Benjy can provide unique insight into the nonprofit and its programs.

Green City funds, sponsors, or organizes many projects, such as the successful Streetlife-Festival, Blade Nights, Bicycle Film Festival, educational programs for Munich public school children, tree-planting, and gorilla gardening.

The group prides itself on not only "talking" about protecting the environment and reducing greenhouse gases, but taking concrete steps to do it and raising awareness all along the way. Join us as Barnhart, an artist who has lived in Germany since 1999, paints a future Munich we will all want to live in!

January Book Club

The book for January is Thomas Hardy's classic Jude the Obscure. Called "Jude the Obscene" by at least one reviewer, Jude the Obscure received a harsh reception from scandalised critics. It is thought largely for this reason that Hardy made the decision to produce only poetry and drama for his remaining 32 years. The book was burned publicly by the Bishop of Wakefield in the year it came out. Now if that doesn't entice you to read the book and find out what the fuss is all about, what will?

Next Book Club: Monday evening, January 10th, 2011

AAUPW Holiday Party - Dec. 15th

Our annual holiday party takes place on Wednesday, December 15th. Please note that this is a members-only event (no visitors, please).

Each member brings a holiday food item for the potluck dinner and a wrapped present -- something humorous, inexpensive, and/or used -- for our White Elephant gift exchange. Holiday entertainment will be provided by some of our talented members in the AAUPW Seasonal Choir.

November Program Meeting

Our speaker for November will be Diana Graham.

Diana Graham founded the New York based design firm of Diagram Design and Marketing Communications, Inc., which was chosen as one of the top marketing and design firms in the United States in the early 90’s. She was the first recipient of the "Women In Design International Award" and has been creative director and marketing consultant in the real estate, corporate and entertainment fields for numerous Fortune 500 corporations. She has won awards and judged competitions of the Type Directors Club, Art Directors Club, Communication Arts, American Institute of Graphic Arts, and Society of Typographic Arts, Chicago.

A graduate of New York's School of Visual Arts, Diana Graham began her career in 1965. She founded Diana Graham/Graphic Design in 1973, which merged six years later with Frankfurt Balkind Partners.

Ms. Graham is much in demand as a lecturer and has addressed design and marketing organizations and college groups around the world. She lives in Munich and New York.

www.DianaGraham.de

Program Meeting Schedule for the 2010-2011 Year

These are the dates scheduled for our monthly meetings this year.

November 17
November 25 - Thanksgiving Dinner!
December 15 - Holiday Party!
January 19
February 16
March 16
April 13 - Not the third Wednesday!
May 18
June 15 - Walking Tour (tentative date)

AAUPW Book Club - November

This month’s book club pick is “Audition” by Barbara Walters. She gives us an entertaining look at a full life lived and recounted with humor and honesty. Read about her personal struggles, professional achievements and get an insider's look at some of the interesting people she has interviewed. There will be lively discussion – hope to see you there!

When: Monday, November 8th at 18:30

AAUPW Book Club: Fall/Winter Reading List

We have an interesting line up for fall/winter 2010-2011 with a good mix of fiction, non-fiction and classics. Here is the list by month:

Oct 2010 ... Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers

Nov 2010 ... Audition, by Barbara Walters

Dec 2010 ... NO MEETING

Jan 2011 ... Jude The Obscure, by Thomas Hardy

Feb 2011 ... The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin

Mar 2011 ... Bright Sided, by Barbara Ehrenreich

Apr 2011 ... Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson

October Program Meeting (change of speaker)

Please note that we have had a change of speaker. We're excited to be able to introduce Yan Lavallee, volcanoligist, who had been unable to attend last spring.

Yan Lavallee received his undergraduate degree in Earth and Planetary Science at McGill University in Montreal, a Master in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, and a PhD in Volcanology (2008) at the LMU-Munich. After graduation, he was offered a position of assistant professor in Mineralogy. His current work mainly revolves around the deformation of magma and understanding transition between effusive and explosive eruptions.

In his presentation, he will introduce the Earth and its volcanoes as well as their eruptive styles and discuss some of its effects on human activity. He will then present the different methods used to play with magma in his lab.

We will also be hearing about the Munich Ausländerbeirat (foreign nationals' advisory council) and meeting our Junior Year in Munich scholarship recipient.

AAUPW Book Club - October

This month’s book club pick is “Zeitoun” by Dave Eggars. A harrowing account of one family’s ordeal through Hurricane Katrina. As if losing your house to the devastation wasn’t enough, imagine being suddenly and inexplicably arrested in the aftermath of the hurricane. The book is sweet in its simplicity and the heartfelt story will keep you turning pages and drawing your own conclusions. Come and discuss the book with us on Monday, October 11th 18:30.

September Program Meeting

Not only does school start back in September, but it is the beginning of the AAUPW operating year. September is traditionally our get-to-know-you meeting, with lots of time for chatting and catching up on everything. Plus a couple of fun games to break the ice.

We also will have a brief presentation from IMMA (Initiative Münchner Mädchen e.V. - our adopted charity) to let our members know more about what IMMA is, what it does and how we have been and can continue to help.

September Book Club

Our Book Club starts their new year on September 6th, when we will be picking the Fall/Winter line-up for 2010/2011. Bring your favorite books that you have either read, or would like to read, and tell us what made them fun for you and how they would make good fodder for discussion. At the ends of the session, all participants vote and we select the next six months of books to read.

Prospective AAUPW members are also welcome to visit the book club.

July Meeting - 4th of July Event

Instead of our usual potluck picnic, we celebrated the Fourth of July this year with other Americans and friends of America on the Amerika Haus lawn.

We brought our families. There was live music, as well as games for the kids, barbequed steaks, and other traditional American picnic fare. The AAUPW Seasonal Choir was a big hit, providing a lively medley of songs from the musical, Music Man.

June Tour

On Wednesday, June 16, 2010, we enjoyed a wonderful walking (and climbing) tour in English at the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek (Bavarian State Library). We were very interested to visit one of the most important European general libraries which also ranks among the best research libraries on an international scale.

We greatly enjoyed walking through this impressive building with 9,530,000 volumes (total holdings) and 856 reader desks. It was interesting to see two different reading rooms with contrasting characters: the quiet Aventinus Reading Room for scholars to read old books and the more crowded General Reading Room for students and scholars. We saw a facsimile of the world map from 1507, which was the first map to use the name America.

Our tour was not only a “walking tour,” but also a “climbing tour,” since we climbed 7 flights of stairs to better visualize the stacks of books in the library. It was worthwhile to see the books damaged by fire and water that were stored on the 7^th floor of the stacks, as well as the damaged books (e.g. a book with acid-containing paper) in the display cases located near the InduPrint copy services company. After seeing these damaged books, we can understand why it is important to digitize the library’s old and new collections to promote long-term preservation. The closing presentation about digitization included innovative robotic scanning technology. The presentation provided insight into the digital and Internet-based services, for example in the areas of electronic journals and the mass digitization of the collections.

With almost 10 million books, about 55,000 current periodicals in printed or electronic form, and more than 93,000 manuscripts, the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek is one of the most important knowledge centers of the world.

For more information about the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek, please see the following website: http://www.bsb-muenchen.de/. If you have questions, please write to the following e-mail address: fuehrungen@bsb-muenchen.de

May Program Meeting

In addition to our all-important AAUPW Board Elections, we are excited to have a speaker who will be talking to us about VOLCANOES! Please plan to come via ground transportation (no airplanes :) please).

Yan Lavallee received his undergraduate degree in Earth and Planetary Science (2001) at McGill University in Montreal and went on to the University of North Dakota for a Master in Space Studies (2003). He crossed the ocean in 2004 and did a PhD in Volcanology (2008) at the LMU-Munich. After graduation, he was offered a position of assistant professor in Mineralogy. His current work mainly revolves around the deformation of magma and understanding transition between effusive and explosive eruptions. In his presentation, he will introduce the Earth and its volcanoes as well as their eruptive styles and discuss some of its effects on human activity. He will then present the different methods used to play with magma in his lab.

Please join us for this informative and timely presentation.