The English-Speaking Union of the United States – Central Florida Branch

Our Annual General Meeting will precede

our enjoyment of May’s program by Fred Plotkin.

Program Leader: Ovid Vitas

P. O. Box 758, Winter Park, FL 32790-0758 Website: www.E-SUus.org/centralflorida • E-mail: centralfl@E-SUus.org

May 2019 Issue #9 – 2018-2019

President Barbara W. Hughes

Executive Vice President Socky O’Sullivan

Vice Presidents Donna M. Miller Gilda Gomez Reta Jackson Ginger Bryant

Treasurer Jackie Abrams

Secretary Jan McClure

Past President Frank Paul Barber

Directors Judy Beck Jackie Littleford Julie Rankin Michael Kakos Max Reed Robert White Brett Carrier Elaine Laegeler Ralph Rogers

Advisory Council Diane Sandquist

Parliamentarian Ken Hubble

Historian

Open

National Patrons

Vice Chairman’s Circle

Donna Miller

Sponsor

Elizabeth Brothers Michael and Aimee Kakos

Donor

Barbara W. Hughes Reta Jackson Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth D. McArthur, Jr. Julie Rankin

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THE PRESIDENT’S CORNER

I t is hard to believe that as of this May a year has darted by since I was se-lected as President of the Central Florida Branch. It has indeed been an honor to serve as President. We have had some outstanding programs through out the year as can be evidenced in the annual report of the Program Committee. Also, we have many new members who have joined this year, and we have had record attendance at our general meetings. My goal this year has been to recruit members under the age of 60 and to begin incorporating some of our recent T-Lab scholars on committees and the board. We are moving forward in those directions!

Some of our board members have been actively communicating with National ESU to work towards our common goals and creative partnership; I look forward to continued collaboration between the U.S. branches and National ESU. I do hope you will take the time to read the annual committee reports which are included in this Newsletter. We will be approving these reports at our annual meeting on May 13 as well as voting on the Slate being presented by the Nominating Committee. Hope to see you on May 13 for our Annual Meeting and a presentation by Fred Plotkin on Verdi.

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether this happens at twenty or

eighty. Anyone who keeps on learning not only remain young, but becomes

constantly more valuable regardless of physical capacity.” Harvey Ullman

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Barbara W. Hughes President

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The English-Speaking Union

Central Florida Branch

Nominating Committee Recommendations

for Executive Board 2019-2020

Members: We will vote for our 2019-2020 Board at our May 13, 2019, meeting.

“Any member shall have the right to make additional nominations from the floor

at the Annual General Meeting, but they shall be only submitted with the pre-

approval of the nominee. Such nominations must be duly seconded.”

President Barbara W. Hughes Continuing

Executive Vice President Socky O’Sullivan Continuing (Former Scholar)

Vice Presidents:

Endowment Jan McClure

Membership Gilda Gomez Continuing

Programs Open

Scholarship Open Chair To Be Appointed

Shakespeare Competition Open Chair To Be Appointed

Treasurer Jackie Abrams Continuing

Deputy Treasurer Aaron Liberman

Secretary Deborah Williams

Directors:

2019-2022 Reta Jackson (Former Scholar) Ginger Bryant (Former Scholar) Sheri Hjelm (Former Scholar)

2019-2020 Michael Kakos Continuing

Max Reed Continuing Robert White Continuing

2019-2021 Brett Carrier Continuing (Former Scholar)

Elaine Laegeler Continuing Ralph Rogers Continuing

Past President Frank Paul Barber Continuing

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ANNUAL REPORTS 2018-2019

The Drey Endowment

In 2018-2019 the Drey Endowment supported our ESU Central Florida Branch meeting programs; the Central Flor-ida Branch ESU-US Shakespeare Competition for high school students in Orange, Seminole, and Osceola Counties; British Summer School/T-Lab Scholarships for six teachers; and our ESU branch newsletter and yearbook. It also supported thirteen education projects and programs: (1) The Battle of the Books (Seminole and Orange County Public Schools) (2) A writer of young adult literature as speaker for the Florida Council of Teachers of English Student Writing Awards Session (3) The Young Company (Orlando Shakespeare Theater) summer program student scholarships (4) The Horse Tales Literacy Project for elementary students in Orange County Public Schools; (5) The Central Florida Debate Initiative for middle and high school students (6) The Hannibal Square Heritage Center (Story Teller Program and Summer Art Program Scholarships) (7) Grants for four teachers to attend the National Council of Teachers of English Conference in Houston 8) The Literacy League of Orange County for its pre-school literacy pro-gram (9) The OCPS Media Competition (10) The Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s Shakespeare at Heart Program for special needs students (11) The Middle School Writing Coach Pilot for the purchase of supportive materials 12) The OCPS School to Work Program to provide a cultural arts event for its students and (13) An English in Action pilot pro-gram offering one-on-one conversations with adult English language learners. Total expenditures stayed within the allocated budget of $157,000.

Donna Miller, VP Drey Endowment

Programs

Between September and May each year, Branch members enjoy one of the most outstanding speaker series in Central

Florida, bringing lecturers from across the United States and abroad. The meetings are usually held at The University

Club of Winter Park in late afternoon and are preceded or followed by refreshments at no charge to members. Two

dinner meetings (Winter/Fall) are also held each year.

2018-2019 Speakers have included:

Jerry Schiffhorst - Topic: Chatsworth House and its First Ladies

Peter Gilliver - Topic: The Making of the Oxford Dictionary

Andrea Mays - Topic: The Millionaire and the Bard, Henry Folger’s Obsessive Hunt for First Folio

E SU Scholars’Report

Shakespeare Competition

Dr. Sandra Spanier - Topic: On Hemingway’s Paper Trail: The Hemingway Letters.

Professor James Drake - Topic: Covent Garden.

Fred Plotkin - Topic: Verdi

The October Dinner Program featured the Central Florida Jazz Society and the January Dinner featured a Rollins a cappella choral group.

The following people have served on the Program Committee this year; Frank Barber, Dot Cline, Gisela Davis, Ann Hellmuth, Nick Leo, Michele Levy, Jackie Littleford, Michael Kakos, Sandra Powers, Jerry Schiffhorst, Ovid Vitas

and Barbara Hughes (Interim Chair)

The Program Committee has been meeting monthly to plan for the upcoming year of 2019-2020. Plans have almost been solidified. The committee has designed a questionnaire to assist as they continue to plan for future years. The

input of the membership is crucial in this planning process.

Barbara Hughes, Interim Chair

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ANNUAL REPORTS 2018-2019, continued from page 4

Communication’s Committee

The Yearbook and nine monthly newsletters have been successfully published. Newsletters are sent by mail and email every month. The first of every month is the deadline for the next month’s newsletter. An email “blast” is sent to mem-bers at least one week prior to that month’s meeting as a reminder. TLab (BUSS) Scholar reports and Drey funded ac-tivities are a prominent part of the newsletter as well as welcoming new members and any information of import. Any member is welcome to submit an article that might be of interest to the membership. The Communication’s Committee would like to broaden our outreach in hopes of increasing our membership.

Submitted by Barbara Hughes

Scholarships

This year we granted six Drey Endowment scholarships. Scholarship recipients Paul Dedge, Lake Nona High School, and Rick Rodriguez, Lake Howell High School, will attend programs at Oxford University. Jennifer Bennett, Markham Woods Middle School, and Tara Whitman, West Orange High School, will be at The Globe’s summer program in Lon-don. And J. Marie Bailey, Winter Park High School, and Jeffery Cook, Ocoee High School, will attend the University of Edinburgh. A reception was held to honor the 2019 scholars on Sunday, February 3rd with a great turnout of friends, col-leagues and ESU members. Our Central Florida Branch of ESU is fortunate to have such highly qualified educators to represent us in the United Kingdom this summer. We wish them many adventures and safe travels and look forward to hearing from them at the Scholars Report program next year.

Finance and Governance

The Finance & Governance Committee under the Chair Ralph Rogers reviewed the draft response for the period July 2017 to June 2018 prepared by Jackie Abrams and Clayton Swain. The Committee’s findings and recommendations were forwarded to the President and Treasurer for review and discussion prior to formal approval and submittal to Na-tional. Committee members were Ken Hubble, David Torre and Ralph Rogers (Chair).

Ralph Rogers, Chair

Shakespeare Competition

On February 25, 2019, students from seventeen schools representing Orange, Osceola, and Seminole Counties presented their sonnets and play passages at the annual Central Florida Shakespeare Competition. The First Place winner was Marcela Griebler from Freedom High School, who was awarded $1,000 plus additional funding for travel costs. The Second Place winner was Christopher Echevarria from Cypress Creek High School, who was awarded $500.00; and the Third Place winner was Joshua Lefkowitz from Trinity Preparatory School, who was awarded $250.00. The three judges for the Central Florida Branch competition were Anne Hering: Director of Education at The Orlando Shakespeare Thea-ter, Kate Ingram: professional actress and director, as well as Associate Professor and Graduate Acting Program Coordi-nator at UCF, and Dr. Maurice “Socky” O’Sullivan: Professor at Rollins College. Marcela Griebler will represent the Central Florida ESU Branch at the national competition in New York. The first prize at the national level will be a full scholarship to the British American Drama Academy’s Midsummer Conservatory Program in Oxford, England (including tuition, transportation, food, and accommodations). Since all seventeen students who competed had won First Place at their individual schools, each performance was exceptionally well presented to a large audience at the Univer-sity Club, who thoroughly enjoyed these talented young people.

Ginger Bryant, VP Shakespeare Competition

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REMINDER

Please contact Gilda Gomez, VP Membership, with any address, phone number, or email changes so that we may update your contact information. Please email any changes to esucfbmembership@gmail.com.

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ANNUAL REPORTS 2018-2019, continued from page 5

Membership

The newly adjusted membership numbers reflect 174 single members, 44 couples, and 18 scholars. Totals for 2019 equal 280 current members. There were 17 single members and 5 couples, for a total of 27 new members accepted during the 2018-2019 program year. Guests are personally greeted and given membership information and a current newsletter.

Attendance at branch meetings has been consistent throughout the year reflected by the quality of the speakers brought in by the program committee. Average attendance is 75, with the Shakespeare Competition over 100.

Gilda Gomez, VP Membership

Finance

The Finance Committee recommended a rebalancing of both the ESU and Drey Endowments to make them slightly less volatile. The rebalancing shifted the allocation of assets from 90/10 to 80/20.

The Committee will consider a formal Investment Policy Statement, which will eventually be submitted to the Board for its approval.

Socky O’Sullivan, Chair

Hospitality

The Hospitality committee has gone over budget by about $600 due to an increase in the cost of catering. We have had an average attendance of 80 people at each of our meetings and all has gone smoothly due to the help of the Hospitality Committee. The Hospitality Committee consists of Judy Beck (Chair) and Lorre and Chris Davis.

Judy Beck, Chair

Nominating Committee

The members of the Nominating Committee met February 19, 2019, after having solicited and received suggestions for nominees for next year's board from other board members and from within the general membership. A proposed slate of nominees was prepared at the meeting and presented to board members at the April 9, 2019, meeting. The slate will be included in the May Branch newsletter and presented to the membership for a vote at the Annual General Membership meeting May 13, 2019.

The committee members are Frank Barber, Gilda Gomez, Sharyn Jontz, JoAnn Palmer, Diane Sandquist, and Elaine Laegeler (Chair).

Elaine Laegeler, Chair

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APRIL PROGRAM MEETING

D r. James Drake, a retired college president and former professor, shared a presentation about Covent Garden which has long been used as a synonym for British Opera. His presentation in-

cluded famous opera star photographs, snippets of operatic performances and recordings, as well as

engaging and entertaining information about some of the most famous world-known operatic stars.

IN MEMORIAM

Barbara Farquharson

Died April 11, 2019

A member since 2014

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Pictured left to right: Ovid Vitas, Dr. James Drake, Barbara Hughes

SUBMISSIONS

TO THE NEWSLETTER

W e welcome articles and pictures taken at our E-SU Central Florida Branch events to the monthly newsletter. Newsletter deadlines are the first business day of each month for inclusion in the fol-lowing month’s newsletter (i.e. Septem-ber’s newsletter deadline is August 1). Please email any information to esu.rebeccavanhorn@yahoo.com.

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The English-Speaking Union

Central Florida Branch

Post Office Box 758

Winter Park, FL 32790-0758

THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING UNION

CENTRAL FLORIDA BRANCH

Membership Application

I wish to become a member of the English-Speaking Union, Central Florida Branch.

I wish to renew my membership of the English-Speaking Union, Central Florida Branch.

Please send a check for $45 (single membership) or $60 (couple membership) to the English-Speaking

Union, PO Box 758, Winter Park, FL 32790-0758.

Name and Spouse’s Name _____________________________________________________________

Address _________________________________ City ___________________State ____ Zip _______

Phone, Fax, and Email ________________________________________________________________

Visit the E-SU Central Florida website at www.E-SUus.org/centralflorida for more information.