AAUPW December Events

Holiday Party

December 9th at 6:30 PM

Our Annual Holiday Party is this coming Friday. Join us and rejoice in some holiday revelry! If you have recently joined our group, this is a nice event and a great way to meet other members of the group in the cheery holiday season. We look forward to enjoying each member's shared dish, playing games, wrapping gifts donated for the young ladies of IMMA (a ‘safe house’ for young women in Munich we support) and dancing the night away.

For those who would like to take part in the white elephant exchange, please bring a wrapped gift of something you no longer want, but which may be a treasure to someone else!

Sing-a-Long Messiah Dec. 11 and Christmas Carol Sing-a-Long Dec. 18^th

English Speaking Church of the Ascension Holiday Events

Church of the Ascension, Seybothstrasse 4 81545 Munich

Every year the English speaking congregation of the Munich Church of Ascension hosts two wonderful holiday events not to be missed. Take this opportunity along with family and friends to join others from the English speaking community in celebrating the holiday season.

The Sing-a-Long Messiah (Handel's Messiah) with an orchestra and soloists will be held on December 11 at 2 p.m. Admission is free, scores are provided for those who want to join the fun. And of course listeners are always welcome!

And the very popular and fun filled Christmas Carol Sing-a-Long will be the Sunday following, on December 18th also at 2 p.m. Admission free, music is also provided. Get there early if you want a seat!

Glühwein GNO!

Its Glühwein time! Let's bundle up and enjoy some festive drinks and fun together at one (or several) Weihnachtsmarkts around town. We can meet at Odeonsplatz and decide where the evening takes us! Hope to see you all there!!!

Where to Meet: Contact club president at: info@aaupw.de

When: Tuesday Dec 13th at 7pm

Mark your calendars! Book Club in January/February 2017

Many thanks to Carolyn for kindly hosting us twice in a row! Mark your calendars for our next meetings:

Jan 10: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Feb 21: 'Eligible': A modern retelling of 'Pride and Prejudice' by Curtis Sittenfeld 

March 16 (tentative): Angus Wilson's Anglo-Saxon Attitude

March Events

Program Meeting Wednesday, March 16 at 6:30 PM

Women Helping Homeless Women is the topic for our March meeting with speaker Agnes Kupka, who works with Café 104, an organization based in Munich which helps immigrants without legal residence status. Undocumented immigrants face a number of challenges, as well as the constant fear of being deported.We are looking forward to hearing Agnes talk about the amazing Cafe 104 and all the great people who volunteer to help these homeless women.

Book Club

Please join us and get to know other members better, discuss interesting books and topics, share ideas and fellowship while enjoying homemade treats and a glass of wine! The club normally meets on the SECOND Tuesday of the month at 7pm. This month’s book was the novel Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell, an easy read about life in the Ozarks.

For more information and details about AAUPW meetings, please contact our club president at: info@aaupw.de 

What We Walk Past

Our October meeting will focus on the Stolpersteine - the stumble block. You might have seen one around town or several in other cities. It is a small brass square, just slightly raised from the ground so you know the terrain underneath your feet has shifted but not so much you fall over. On the square is someone's name, when they were born and when they died. Which will be in the 1940's because the stolpersteine is placed in front of the homes of people deported and killed by the Nazi regime. The Stolperseine Initiative website notes that while 16 countries have about 42,500 stolperseine, Munich has but a  few on private property. Munich banned the stolperseine in 2004. Our speaker will talk about his experiences as the chair of the Munich Stolperseine Committee on Wednesday, October 23rd in the early evening. Why is the stolperseine banned here and why is it so important that so many have been placed elsewhere in the world?

For more information about our meeting, or any of our other actives, please contact the club president at info@aaupw.de

A Busy Fall

The book club is reading, meeting and eating; the Sichere Wiesn communications support team is celebrating a great year of getting the word out as well as reconfiguring; and the holiday choir is digging the music books out of the back closet. September's general meeting was so filled with the announcements about upcoming events as well as the joy of simply coming back together we never really got to the program. Kein Problem, we're back and we're rolling with plans for a Fall filled with ongoing work with young women and celebrations with the Girl's Night Out just to name a few items on the calendar.   

For more information about AAUPW,  please contact the club president at info@aaupw.de

September Festivities!

It's September in Munich and you know what that means.... You're right! Time for the AAUPW Monthly Meetings to start a new season!! We gather on the Fourth Wednesday of the month for food and always engaging conversation near Marianplatz. Easy to find us via S-Bahn, U-Bahn, bus, bike, dog sled, or on foot. 6:30 p.m. - September 25th.

August Break, September Meet

It's August and the living is easy. Our next general meeting will be September 25th. The Program Committee will update us soon. In the meantime, stay cool and enjoy the best of summer in Bavaria.

Just to let you know, AAUPW earned and donated over 230 Euros to the Klinik Clowns by selling cakes at their very warm 15th birthday event on Odeonsplatz in July.

Plus, our table at the U.S. Citizen Information and Passport Day 2013 was greatly appreciated by the U.S. Consulate in Munich. Not only did we have a chance to enjoy some junk food from home (not available in stores here), we helped contribute to a 20% increase in attendance over 2012.

We said a fond good by to our Junior Year in Munich student whom we support with our dues and our love and wisdom. We are a community for young women a long ways from home.

In June we hosted a picnic at the English Garden with the young women of IMMA (see link on the side) and delivered our annual donation.

On the Fourth of July weekend, we had a great picnic and visit at the home and yard of one of our members where we also elected a new leadership board.

See you in September!

July Program Meeting

Given the AAUPW emphasis on women, education and empowerment, you will not want to miss the July meeting! Come hear our members Betty Camacho & Wendi Boxx tell about their involvement and recent trip to India to see first hand the work being done at the Pardada Pardadi Educational Society, an NGO that runs a girls school in Anupshahar, Uttar Pradesh.

Here, deep in provincial India, a world away from rapid modernization, you will be inspired by the story of “Sam” Singh, the industrialist turned idealist who returned to his hometown village with the task of educating the rural Indian girl child. Through this mission to educate girls in the countryside, Pardada Pardadi started a movement that is literally transforming one of the poorest areas of India.   You will be moved by the story of the 1,118 girls currently getting an education in an environment where once there was no chance to dream.  This school is giving these amazing young girls the opportunity to shine.  More importantly these gifted young women are being given a voice to declare defiantly: “I AM NOT A BURDEN.”

Please come and learn more about how you can aid in the education of the most marginalized girl children and about current volunteer opportunities!

When:    Wednesday evening, July 18th, 2012

May Program Meeting

The May meeting is primarily devoted to electing officers for the coming year.

After the elections, Christine Rudolf-Jilg of AMYNA will speak briefly about the Security Point at Oktoberfest. Christine will provide details on the fascinating history of the Security Point and will as well explain how best the AAUPW can help moving forward.

She will detail the latest outreach and education efforts of the Sichere Wiesn, which started as just an idea 10 years ago and first served women at the Oktoberfest in 2003. Much has been accomplished and it will be a great opportunity for us to learn more.

When:  Wednesday evening, May 16th, at 18:30

April 2012 - Program Meeting

Our topic for the month is IT security with speaker Kim Gaddy. Kim is an American who has been working in Munich for 1.5 yrs. She is the Group Information Security Manager at Allianz SE.

She will address security for business and personal data. You won't want to miss this eye-opening session.

When: Weds. evening, April 18th, at 6:30 PM

March Program Meeting

Carolyn Morrow will speak on the topic of Expressive Arts for our March Meeting.

Carolyn currently teaches classes and workshops in acting and writing in Munich. She has an MA in Theater with a focus on Directing and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. In the last 10 years, she has become increasingly involved in other arts such as dance, painting, and sculpting with clay. For most of her life, she has recognized and personally experienced the healing effects of the arts. She has just completed pre-doctoral course work in the field of Expressive Arts at the European Graduate School in Switzerland, where she was taught by Paolo Knill, the founder of Expressive Arts. Because Carolyn has found her work in the Expressive Arts both moving and transformative, she would like to give us a taste of what it’s all about:

Expressive Arts places arts at the center of its theory and practice, and Expressive Arts trainers are specialists in the intermodal use of arts as a means to helping individuals or communities to increase their imaginative play-range and to help them identify their own resources. Trainers are specialists in the intermodal use of arts as a means to helping individuals or communities.

The field is beginning to flourish within coaching, qualitative academic research, as well as within socio/political agencies worldwide. It works with individual clients and small group workshops as well as team building and problem solving for businesses and countries that have experienced acute trauma.

Expressive Arts facilitators begin with the assumption that their clients are the experts of their own problems...so let's start there. Please join us!

When:     Wednesday evening, March 21st

Feb. 2012 Program Meeting - Update

In February we are happy to welcome Jane Scheiring, Program Manager, Election Services, of Overseas Vote Foundation.  (Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, originally scheduled to speak, has been unexpectedly called away on business.)

Jane is from Minnesota, has lived in Munich for nearly 20 years, and has been with OVF for about two years now. The Overseas Vote Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that helps overseas and military voters participate in federal elections by providing public access to interactive web services.

We're looking forward to hearing how we overseas voters can register, and why we should be passionate about the presidential election coming up this year!

For more information about Jane and her organization, go to:
https://www.overseasvotefoundation.org

Potential members are welcome to visit. For info about meeting time and location, please contact Claudia at http://aaupw@yahoo.de

When:     Wednesday evening, February 15

January Program Meeting

Our January speaker will be Sonia Allinson-Penny.  She will cover the topic 'The Female Antidote to Corporate Greed' at this month's AAUPW meeting.

Sonia will take us through important shifts in the business world, where governing bodies have learnt valuable lessons from high profile and widespread corporate failures that, in part, can be attributed to a homogeneous group being in positions of power. She will draw linkages between the move by Stock Exchanges to impose gender quotas for board membership, to the increase in emotional intelligence being applied in the business world, to a shift in our understanding of what drives and motivates us and wider societal changes -- a current and controversial topic that promises to generate good debate.

For more information, please contact aaupw@yahoo.de

When:   Wednesday evening, January 18, at 18:30

November Program Meeting

Please join us for our November program meeting. Our guest speaker is Courtenay Smith, design expert from the Neumeister Auction House. There is always a lot to discuss and tons of fun to be had.

Be aware that we have a new meeting location near Viktualienmarkt. For more info, please contact aaupw@yahoo.de

When: Wednesday evening, 16 November, 6:30 PM

October Meeting 2011

Our October meeting speaker is Barbara Gottstein-Schramm, a teacher with the KIKUS language program since its start-up in 1989. KIKUS offers a fully-integrated language learning method designed to encourage and promote early multilingualism. KIKUS (pronounced “keekooz”) stands for „Kinder in Kulturen und Sprachen" (which can be loosely translated as “Children of Many Cultures and Languages").

Originally developed to support the German language skills of young children from immigrant families in Munich kindergartens, the concept has since been expanded and applied to other languages, including English, Spanish, and Turkish. Gottstein-Schramm serves as a trainer and seminar leader for KIKUS, as well as the head of the foreign language department of the association. She will not only detail how the program has helped more than 20,000 students since its founding, but also explore the benefits of early multilingualism and development. Please join us to learn more about this important topic!

Date: Weds. evening, Oct. 19, 2011
Time: 6:30 PM

September Meeting 2011

September marks the beginning of a new academic year - and the beginning of a new year in our club calendar. As is our custom, we have no formal speaker this month.

The evening will feature a meet-and-greet exercise, special surprise, regular announcements, and plenty of time to meet new members and catch up with old members we haven't seen all summer. We will have a catered salad-and-pizza dinner featuring several options of each (both vegetarian and non-vegetarian) for approximately 10 euros per person. We will also have several delectable desserts.

This informal evening is a good time for potential new members to get to know us. For more details, please contact Claudia Ziersch at aaupw@yahoo.de.

When: Weds. evening, Sept. 21st, at 18:30 (6:30 PM)

No Program Meeting in July

Because of our Independence Day Party on Sunday, July 3rd, there will be no program meeting this month.

June Program Meeting is the Annual Walking Tour

Our June meeting features a special "walking tour" of the Museum Villa Stuck - which includes a look at the historical rooms of Franz von Stuck and at the exhibition currently on display in the extension.

Afterwards we will go out to dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Members may bring a guest.

When: Wednesday evening, June 22

May Program Meeting

After much cajoling, our intrepid member, Elyse Shustak, has agreed to tell us about her recent trip to Israel and Palestine at the May meeting. Elyse traveled with the Abraham Path management team from the village of Beit Sahour in the West Bank to Be'er Sheva in the Negev Desert of southern Israel, and was deeply moved by what she saw and heard; the people she met, Israelis, Palestinians, Bedouins, and American peace pioneers. The Abraham Path (http://www.abrahampath.org/about.php) is a cultural tourism initiative - a pilgrimage which traces the footsteps of Abraham through the Middle East. We look forward to hearing about Elyse's experiences and to find out just what she has taken away from a most unusual vacation.

When: 6:30 PM on Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

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

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