Dear {Contact_First_Name}, Here comes another newsletter, oh no!! Not yet, already? Yes because we are such a fantastic club, that so many things are going on. So I’m happy to report them to you, dear members. We had a wonderful time visiting the outdoor annual Brussel’s bright light, followed by an exceptional experience in the Music Village Jazz Club near the Grand Place. So nice to get all these musical notes in our ears! Would you like to know one of my secrets? I love to get people together for day trips or overnight trips! Remember The Val Richer last September? Well now, we can be Dutch on April 18th, visiting the world known tulip gardens of Keukenhof near Amsterdam, but also stopping by the windmills of Kinderdijk and having a lovely lunch in a typical dutch country restaurant. I’m also planning a trip to Paris so you can see the city through my Parisian eyes and discover the unknown. And maybe a trip to Morocco, to one of our member’s Riyadh and maybe, maybe….. So many other ideas are just coming up. Before all these great outings, Marty, our philanthropy Hope planner, is organizing an Easter hunt for 40 children at the Alsemberg refuge center. She will need help to hide the eggs and enjoy seeing the children finding them. So look out for this event (early April). I know how much each one of you likes to help those in need. Of course we always have our monthly pillow group with ladies so enthusiastic that the patients who receive them feel the good vibes we put in them! Lunch at ”Les Petits Oignons”, wine tasting, other lunches coming up such as in “Cru” (Overisje) and much more. And last but not least, the annual Fawco conference taking place in Porto, Portugal. A three day (March 15,16 & 17) meeting with other clubs learning thousands of things from new people. I will be attending along with our Treasurer Kristen and her husband Chris, both sponsors of the event. And… you can count on my report! I’m sure that I will bring back many ideas of new things we can do together for fun but also for philanthropy. As cartoons used to say when we were kids “That’s all for now folks”, but more seriously, have a great time in the weeks coming up, |
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Florence Jeannin President, AWCB |
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“A journey is best measured in friends rather than in miles” Tim Cahall
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Members Quarterly Meeting
Remember when we used to meet regularly with the Board before COVID? Well we want to bring it back! The Board proposes to restart Member Meetings. The idea is to informally sit down together over a Pot Luck Dinner, brief the Members on what we have been doing the last quarter, what we are planning, get feedback from members and to just have a general chat together. We are delighted therefore to announce the first Members Quarterly Meeting to be held on Tuesday 9th April 2024, starting at 7pm in All Saints Church, Waterloo. Registration will be free and all Members should bring something to share for the Pot Luck Dinner, plus whatever they wish to drink. So come along, meet the Board and let’s work together to keep the Club thriving! |
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HOPE News - Alsemberg Refugee Centre
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Our Hope co-ordinator Marty Niebel is setting up an Easter Egg Hunt for the children at the Refugee Center in Alsemberg. Around 40 children are resident there at any time, with little of their own. The joy of searching for eggs and bunnies is for these children a big difference from their past and their journey here. Do you remember the simple joy you had from this as a child? Let's pay it forward and give the same joy to these children.
Marty asks for two types of help from our Membership. Firstly we need donations of easter eggs (better to have many small eggs than one big one!) and small toy cuddly bunnies for the children to find. You can drop these off any Saturday at American Groceries Europe store in Overijse between 10am and 5pm. Other drop off points will be announced in the coming weeks.
Secondly Marty will need some help to set up the event itself. The exact will be held early afternoon 10th April. Please contact Marty directly or message the Board if you are willing to assist. An Event for volunteers will be created shortly.[1]
Go on, help Marty bring some Easter joy into the lives of these children either by donating eggs and bunnies, or by registering to help at the event itself. | |
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General Assembly Minutes and Presentation
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To ensure full openness and visibility, we have published the presentation and minutes from the General Assembly held on 7th January 2024. The material can be found on link below. The Board reminds Members that this is Club Confidential information and should not be distributed outside of the Membership. The Board would especially like to thank those Members of the General Assembly who helped to count votes and who took notes to assist in the drafting of the Minutes. |
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New Members and Sponsors!
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In the last 2 months, we are delighted to have welcomed EIGHT new Members to our Club, as well as 2 new Sponsors! We all know the more Members and Sponsors we have, the more revenue and volunteers we will have, and the more we can therefore do together - and for the community! After a period in which the Membership numbers declined after the clubhouse sale and covid, the Board is delighted to see interest growing, both from Individuals and Sponsors. So, please get the word out there; we are an open, inclusive Club and we welcome new Members. If we all add one new Member, that would double our membership numbers. And remember, existing Members who refer a NEW Member receive a 10 euro credit, towards events or your membership dues. Find 10 new members and get a year’s membership for free! As for Sponsors, if you refer a Sponsor to the Board and they sign-up, you get a 25 euro credit. Please make the local businesses in your community aware the opportunity to being a Club Sponsor: you can download our Sponsorship flyer here:
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Recipe Corner
‘The purpose of a cookery book can be no other than to increase the happiness of mankind’. This is the opening line from a fabulous Cook Book published in 1996 entitled ‘Applepie to Waterzooi’. Each month we will select one recipe from this fabulous cookbook for your pleasure. And for fun, one Board Member or member will publish pictures on our Facebook page of their attempt to produce this dish; then we will invite all Members to post their effort for the Membership to judge!
And for those who don’t know, this amazing cookbook was written and published by……..The American Women's Club of Brussels! So lets get cooking and share our recipes!
Please send us your recipe nomination from the AWCB Book Book for the next newsletter! This month the selection will be Beef Burgundy, which will be cooked by our Treasurer Kristen Crosson.
6 slices bacon, chopped
3lb / 1 1/2 kg stewing beef, in chunks
3 carrots, in chunks
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp freshly ground pepper
2 cups / 475ml Burgundy wine
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 ½ cups / 600ml condensed beef broth
½ tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
1 quart / liter small mushrooms
2 cups / 475 ml pearl onions, cooked
4 tbsps / 55g butter
¼ cup / 35g flour
In a large flameproof casserole, fry bacon until crisp. Remove bacon and brown beef, in batches, in the bacon drippings. Remove beef and set aside. In the sme pot, lightly brown carrots and sliced onion. Return bacon and beef to the pot and season with salt and pepper. Add wine, tomato paste, garlic, beef broth and herbs. Cover and simmer 3 hours. Brown mushrooms and pearl onions in 2 tbsps of the butter and add to stew. Cream flour with remaining 2 tbsps of soft butter and add to the stew. Summer until the sauce thickens, then enjoy with the rest of the Burgundy wine! |
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AWCB attends AWC Antwerp’s 95th Anniversary Celebration
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AWC Antwerp just had a big milestone, their 95th anniversary! Our President, Florence, and Jan Allen, were kindly invited to attend their celebrations at the magnificent Antwerp Town Hall. It was a wonderful day with speeches about the many good works they have done and continue do, from doctors at the hospitals they support, as well as Antwerp City Officials and US Ambassador Michael Adler. Over lunch we reminisced with their Philanthropy committee chair about AWC Antwerp having also taught AWCB to make the Heart pillows, which have such a big impact. It was a lovely reminder of the bond between our two clubs and that we should look for more opportunities to do events together.
It also got us thinking about what we could organize this year for our 75th anniversary! Florence will be following up with Ambassador Adler to see if it would be feasible to do something at the Embassy. However, we could do more than 1 event this year, so please send your ideas to events@awcb.org and help us organize a few momentous occasions for our big milestone this year!
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Call for Members AWCB Investment Advisory Committee
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As detailed in our January Newsletter, the Board wants to establish a team of willing Members to advise on future investment decisions for the future of the Club. Should we buy a ClubHouse in the current market; wait and invest the money in the interim; buy a rental apartment to benefit Members. We want to give you the opportunity to help the Board investigate possibilities to recommend to the General Assembly. Cecile Abric has offered to lead the team, so we would like to ask interested members to contact Cecile directly cecile@awcb.org Come and help us work on the future of the Club!
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Mark your calendars to save the date for our fun lineup of events that provide opportunities to connect, explore and indulge!
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AWCB members enjoyed a walk through the Bright Brussels Festival with all of its lovely lit up buildings and balloons. This was followed by a stroll through the magnificent Brussels Grand Place to reach the Village Jazz Club, where we spent several hours listening to beautiful jazz music while having a light supper and cocktails. It was a fun evening, we will do it again for sure! |
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Monthly networking cocktail on February 23
This month the AWCB - ACB Final Friday networking cocktail was at The Nine, which has such a lovely interior. We had a lovely, relaxed evening catching up with several regulars and new people we had not met before and finished off with a group photo by American and Belgian flags brought in by an ACB member. Join us again next month, our location in Brussels is still TBD but will be decided soon!
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FAWCO is a UN affiliated NGO that, since 1931, has brought together inspiring women working towards common goals of peace, multicultural understanding, and international goodwill; supporting women and girls; and defending the rights of Americans living overseas. Membership in FAWCO is included in your AWCB dues each year, so check out all that FAWCO has to offer! www.fawco.org
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FAWCO Interim Meeting 2024, March 15-17- Porto, Portugal
The annual FAWCO Conference is being held this year in beautiful Porto, Portugal. As is tradition, the Club will be represented by our President, Florence Jeannin, who looks forward to attending the many interesting and thought provoking sessions. Florence will provide a full feedback to the Members in our first new Members Quarterly Briefings, to be held 10th April 2024 at 7pm. Come along and find out about the many interesting things FAWCO are doing! We are also delighted to see that our AWCB Club Sponsor American Groceries Europe, is also Sponsoring the Annual FAWCO Conference. This is an example of the symbiotic relationship we have with FAWCO and other AWC Clubs across Europe! FAWCO Interim meeting 2024 |
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Thank you to our AWCB Sponsors |
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Your Logo Here? Contact us to find out about sponsorship. Do you know of a business that might want to become a sponsor of the AWCB? Let us know at board@awcb.org and we will contact them. We are offering an annual rate of 200 Euros for non-members and 150 Euros for members. Thank you! |
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AWCB Member Email Preferences |
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AWCB sends out many types of email communications - as an example, some are about events, others are about general updates, our newsletter or other official commuications (like General Assemblies). Some people may not wish to receive all email communications that are sent out from the AWCB, and we would like our members to know that you can choose which types of email communications you would like to receive from AWCB. To assist with you with choosing the types of email communications you would like to receive, we have attached a link here to this email preference guide: https://gethelp.wildapricot.com/en/articles/512-email-settings-for-contacts-and-members#updating You can also reach out to our Wild Apricot specialist for advice or help, Karolina via email karolina@awcb.org. |
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Choose to enrich the club's philanthropic or social activities on offer, either one would be gratefully appreciated, and make new friends at the same time! We always need help with communications, especially help in writing our newsletter, website updates, events planning and organization, and many other administrative and operational tasks - every little bit helps. Please contact us if you are interested. Thank you in advance and we look forward to hearing from you! |
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AWCB Member Directory
Have you met someone at a club and want to get in touch? Just log into our AWCB website and AWCB Community and then Member Directory and you can find the contact details of all members who have opted in to share their information. You must login to see information and you can change your own information and visibility by updating your profile.
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AWCB Bulletin Board
While you are on the website, make sure you visit our Club Bulletin Board to announce something special, announce something for sale, or ask for help or advice, on the Club Bulletin Board located in the AWCB Community.
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Get the App And view events on your phone! |
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