Hey TASCC members and friends,
Understanding that the City of Tucson's budgetary process has rendered our Sister City program a death-blow, I think now is a good time to take a deep breath and move forward in expanding our Central Asian connection with Almaty, Kazakhstan. Knowing that it takes money to run a program such as ours, I have been exploring ways in which TASCC can extend it's outreach to programmatic issues there.
The information (click here to view the PDF document) has been generated by Mia Hansen, Tucson's patron saint and 'endless-energy representative' of the changing Tucson Festival scene, "Head Chef" of Tucson-Meet-Yourself AND in conjunction with the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center,. busily trying to salvage and improve Tucson's festival atmosphere.
Central Asia, home of Tucson's beautiful sister city of Almaty, Kazakhstan fits very well into the plans for this first annual "Taste of Asia" festival.
Our committee asks your help and support for this festival, April 30 through May 1 of this year.
With proper planning, and an indication support from you, TASCC is in a position to make stay financially healthy and continue to support projects in education, culture and economic development in Central Asia. Being a part of "Taste of Asia" sounds exciting.
Please let me hear from you with indications of support in moving our sister city program forward to the next level of involvement in Kazakhstan.
Warm regards,
Jerry M. Gary,
Chairman Emeritus
Tucson Sister Cities Association
Almaty, Kazakhstan Program
P. O. Box 32527
Tucson, AZ 85751-2527
Phone: (H) 520-886-1260
Fax: 520-628-1317
Tucson-Almaty Sister Cities Committee
MEETING AGENDA
Next meeting will be March 17, 5:30 pm, in the Rincon Room of the Alamo Building at Tucson Medical Center.
Tucson Sister Cities Association Almaty, Kazakhstan Program
P. O. Box 32527 Tucson, AZ 85751-2527
Phones: (H) 520-886-1260, (C) 520-241-1687 Fax: 520-628-1317
MINUTES OF MEETING
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Website http://www.Tucson-Almaty.info
Attendees: Jerry Gary, Sally Gary, Gary Sawyer, Barbara Chinworth, Saumya VanderWyst
The meeting was called to order at 5:30 P.M. by Jerry Gary.
The minutes from the last meeting were reviewed. Motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes as submitted. Passed on a voice vote.
The major agenda item today was the future of TASCC. The City of Tucson will be cutting all funds next year to all sister cities. With no funding in the future, the umbrella group, TSCA, will probably have to disband.
We still plan to present the bronze to the city of Almaty next October 2010. A delegation from TASCC, as well as Mark Rossi, the artist of the sculpture, will travel to Kazakhstan to present the bronze to the city of Almaty. Barbara said she would be willing to be part of the delegation and Jerry is planning to go.
Our future was discussed and Jerry said he would like to make one more appeal to the City next week at its meeting. Our history with Kazakhstan is long and treasured by many of us and it will be sad to let it go. However, we have had many successes and should be proud of that.
The Embassy has opted to fund the two Kazakh culture classes this year which makes us think they are pleased with our Kazakh connection in Tucson.
Membership has definitely declined over the last year. However, we will continue to meet in some form (perhaps an on-line meeting would be more acceptable) until we take the bronze to Almaty in October. After that presentation we will see what happens.
Next meeting will be February 17 in the Rincon Room of the Alamo Building at Tucson Medical Center.
Meeting was adjourned at 7:00 P.M.
Submitted by: ______________________________
Secretary, Sally Gary
