January 2008
Update
Dear Members Only,
Here we go again!
January always brings grant and report writing time around the office, so we have been consumed with gathering statistics for NCIV and working on city and state department grants. BEST NEWS! We just received word that our State Dept. grant, based on the number of visitors we bring to San Diego, is thee largest in the history of our organization! I am especially proud of our team, (including Billy Colestock and Tanya Chongchit) since it was a year of major staff transitions, and nicely drowning in the search for Home Hosts for our new client Community Connections! We are ‘high fiveing’ around here today!
And January also brings goals. I have always thought that a goal can be enjoying what you already have, so with that in mind, and including the work on goals that came out of our last Advisory Board meeting, I present 2008.
► Stabilize and enjoy what we created in last fiscal year: the growth spurt to two full time programmers and two new fee for service clients.
► Focus on the visitors’ experiences and add personal touches.
a) Orientation Session added to most agendas where visitors meet our staff face to face and/or a CDCSD member b) add another downtown hotel to our mix
c) provide more opportunities for visitors/our members/the public to interact. (Example: invite members to invite visitors to have lunch during their meeting day. More events!).
► Add three new business members.
► Assess and grow diversity of Board of Directors.
► Update website.
2008. Who will come to visit us this year? Will you be the one who hosts Dinner Hospitality for the first time? Or adds new members to our team? Or becomes a Star Diplomat? Or sits on the sidelines and wishes us the best?
We welcome all versions of support.
I am so glad we are all together in this work.
It appears we are in for a very good year,
Stay tuned,

Cath DeStefano
Executive Director
Contents
1. Mark Your Calendars!
2. NCIV Impact Report
3. Gratitude
4. Member News
5. Board of Directors
6. New Interns Have Joined Us
1. Mark Your Calendars!
Mark Calendars! We are all invited!
February 5th 6:30 PM
Bristol Hotel Social and then walk to Golden Hall
Headquarters for Primary Election Results
with eight visitors from Kazakhstan (HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY AND AWARENESS) and Turkey (INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS)!
More information as time nears.

2. Impact Report
RESULTS FY2007
Each year the National Council of International Visitors requires our statistics of exactly what happened in the last completed fiscal year.
Volunteer Hours: 9,088 hours (a $178,247 value!)
Visitors Served: 564
Professional appointments: 654
Dinner Hospitality Meals: 168
Home Stay Nights: 70
Hotel Room Nights: 2399
3. Gratitude
New STAR DIPLOMAT:
Sally Baldus
Thank you Sally for stepping up to this high level of financial support. You have long given to this organization in many ways, and I especially appreciate this new added support.
For additonal information on becoming a Star Diplomat, click here or email Cath.
Thank you also to Sherry Hughes and Ambassador Charles and Chin-Yeh Hostler for all the people you send our way.
Thanks to you who responded to our End of the Year Giving: Ms. Gwenyth Mapes, Ambassador Richard and Mrs. Katherine Matheron, Ms. Laima Tumas, and Ms. Joan Dahlin.
4. Member News
New Members:
Mr. Jared Levinson
Mrs. Marilyn and Mr. Gene Marx
Ms. Trina Hester – gifted by Board Member Anne Rosser
Mrs. Delsee and Mr. Steve Altman – Gifted by Lisa Black and Ken Klein
We welcome you our newest citizen diplomats with open arms. You are now amongst people who ‘get global’ and work to make peace among all humans. And thank you to our members who gifted memberships!
OOPS & Apologies: Virginia Huschke and Jim Brown are still members! Through a quirk, they were accidentally left out of the new directory.
5. Board of Directors
Thanks to Board members Ileana Ovalle and Peter Bickelmann we are doing an official board assessment to clearly define our needs for new members. Stay tuned. Results next month.
6. New Interns Have Joined Us!
If ever you get discouraged about the state of our world, you need only meet our interns. I am continuously amazed at their brightness. Our future world is in good hands. We welcome and thank them for their service to our work.
Hannah Soo Lee: UCSD student in Political Science/International Relations. Proficient in Korean.
Johanna Karlsson: Graduated Cum Laude from SDSU in International Security and Conflict Resolution. Master of Arts, Lund Sweden. (Wants a J-O-B locally in international. Let me know of any possibles please.)
Lasith Ranasinghe: UCSD Bachelor of Arts degree. Masters candidate at UCSD International Relations Pacific Studies. Immigrated from Sri Lanka. Speaks Sinhala.
Luke Jarrett: Real world experience in U.S.Navy and then security force in the Middle East. (Our first intern who came to us with M16 and 9mm experience.) Currently SDSU International Security and Conflict Resolution student.
"All people can be peace workers.
Whenever you bring harmony into any unpeaceful situation, you contribute to the total peace picture.
Insofar as you have peace in your own life, you reflect it into your surroundings and into the world."
- Peace Pilgrim |