Sarasota Sister Cities Involvement
Through “gentle persuasion” by Bill and Jean Wallace who I introduced Gayle to early on, we became members of Sarasota Sister Cities. Bill, Jean and I go back to being freshmen together at Drake University in Des Moines in the fall of 1950. Bill and I were journalism graduates at Drake in 1954. He went on to join Hallmark Cards in Kansas City and I entered the Air Force. Bill and Jean eventually moved to Sarasota where he became a financial advisor.
Bill was city director for SSCA (Sarasota Sister Cities Association) and deeply involved in 2002 with the establishment of Dunfermline, Scotland, as a Sarasota Sister City. Dunfermline is the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie, the industrialist and philanthropist, who led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in history.
The signing ceremony was a major weeklong event. Bill recruited me to head public relations outreach for this event. From this beginning Gayle and I have been deeply involved with the international outreach program begun after World War II by President Eisenhower based on the premise that if people in other countries got to know each other – there might be fewer wars. President Eisenhower was responsible for the term Sister Cities, a program that throughout the rest of the world is termed Twined Cities.
We both became SSCA members in 2002, both of us serving many of those years as board members, and are still members today. The Sarasota outreach grew to including Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Dunfermline, Scotland; Perpignan, France; Treviso Province in Veneto, Italy; Tel Mond, Israel; Vladimir, Russia; Xiamen, China; Mérida, Mexico; and Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland. I began on the board as Vice President for Public Relations and later served as President.
Becoming Embroiled in Embezzlement
Using Investigative Reporter Skills
As I mentioned earlier my first initiative at becoming involved in my new community was when Bill and Jean Wallace “nudged” me to assist in the establishment and sign- ing ceremonies of Dunfermline, Scotland, to become an official Sister City with Sarasota in 2002. That led to both Gayle and myself becoming members of the board of directors and greatly expanding our friendship base, our knowledge of the communities, and civic leadership of Florida’s Culture Coast. That culminated in my becoming President of Sarasota Sister Cities in the spring of 2011 and walking blindly into a disaster.
Following my election in May, the organization entered a pause time in what has become for Sarasota two seasons. One season when the snowbirds are here and one season when they are not. During the summer months we did hold board meetings, but not major community events. It gave me time to learn the role of president. Being a reporter deep in my being, I knew my first job was getting to know our finances. Our treasurer gladly shared his monthly finance reports, but I had no verification of what was in the reports and that bothered me. Two months later I got access to our banking account. But I was not able to get the records in our savings account held by a non-bank institution.
By digging into the records I learned our bank balance was $111, not the $24,000 that was reflected in our treasure’s reports. And I had nothing to back up whether we had any funds in our saving account or not. The treasurer’s report indicated we had about $20,000 in that account. My first initiative was to inform senior officials in the City of Sarasota of my concerns. I formed an advisory committee that included Bill Wallace, a Sister Cities past president, and two members who were retired bank presidents. That was a lucky choice as Bill Wallace still had access to our savings account allowing us to determine that it was apparently still secure.
Further digging unearthed the fact that our treasurer had several civil legal cases pending for fraud and misappropriation of funds filed by three separate widows in Tampa. I also learned he was not a U.S. citizen, but an Italian from Sicily. My advisory panel and the city leader I was working with concurred that I should initiate a criminal case against our treasurer. I turned over the evidence to a city police force detective and the state’s attorney in Sarasota. A year later the District Court of Florida in Sarasota found him guilty, with a sentence that he would be deported to Italy plus a courtroom surprise. He had made an agreement to make restitution of $24,885.75. The funds came from an unnamed individual in Guam. The amount was equal to our known banking account losses that covered only two years of the four years he had been treasurer. We were not able to get past banking records beyond the two-year look back to determine our real losses.
“State of Sarasota Sister Cities” Speech
April 5, 2013
On April 5, 2013, I gave my “State of SCAS” report at the annual general meeting held at SaraBay Golf and Country Club. My report shows the detailed initiatives in spite of the criminal fraud we lived through. The 2013 State of SCAS follows:
Undoubtedly the most important fact I can provide you in this report is that based on initiatives in October 2011 as I began my first term as president we are solidly based today. That was when I discovered we had just $111 in our banking accounts. I can tell you that today we are solvent, have created steps to ensure we have full and transparent financial records and this morning our gross balance in our accounts is $46,335.06 to continue our citizen diplomacy programs. Our membership has increased to 230, including 45 new members in the past 12 months. And all the credit goes to you, our board and members.
This is the time for me to take a moment to say thank you. Because really and truly, as President of Sarasota Sister Cities I am grateful. Grateful for each and every person who has dedicated his or her time, energy, money, and passion to making our Sister Cities association of Sarasota so special. Grateful that because the collective action of the passionate, active membership has supported our mission of making the world a better place. Grateful for the words of kindness and encouragement that has motivated all of us to do our volunteer jobs well every day.
In nine days the La Musica Celebration concert at the Sarasota Opera will honor Sarasota Sister Cities. Then we hosted the Florida Sister Cities State Convention in May followed by involvement with the Sister Cities International annual convention on the River Walk in San Antonio, Texas, in July 12-13. More anniversary events are in the works. The monthly Chinese Film program in conjunction with Alliance member Ringling College of Art and Design continues. We are excited about the timely blog and social media innovations we have initiated and we are excited about the travel opportunities available to Russia and Italy in 2013 and to Israel in 2014.
Two other special events are already ongoing. The 10th annual Embracing Our Differences outdoor art exhibit is on display until June 2 at Sarasota’s Bayfront Park, plus now until April 29 at Rossi Waterfront Park in Bradenton, and will be on May 1-June 2 at North Port High School. The annual exhibit attracted more than 2,400 entries submitted by individuals from 44 countries and 32 states. Sister Cities Association of Sarasota has partnered with Embracing Our Differences through our Alliance member of the Sarasota Manatee Jewish Federation since the initiative began.
The second is the Sarasota Film Festival which is also on going. This event traces back to the 1994 Sarasota twining with Perpignan. That tie was initiated by Alain Taulere who had homes in Perpignan, France, and Sarasota. He owned the Cafe of the Arts in Sarasota. He was very prominent in organizing the French Film Festival in Sarasota, which evolved into the now prestigious Sarasota Film Festival.
Our successes certainly began with Sarasota itself. Sarasota, on Florida’s Cultural Coast is home to the greatest concentration of natural beauty, art museums and galleries; an abundance of theaters; performing halls featuring orchestra, opera, choruses; film production, and educational centers that make this remarkable city an important venue of creativity. The wealth of cultural resources and creativity in Sarasota match well with the diversity of our sister cities relationships that began in 1963 in response to President Eisenhower’s vision to enhance worldwide understanding one handshake at a time.
During the past year we have been busy with events, visits. For example, Tel Mond came to Sarasota in a big way in December with 27 young women who danced and participated in discussions with students at Sarasota Military Academy, Booker and Riverview High Schools and the Sailor Circus. They visited a Sarasota Ballet workshop and danced at the 12th Annual Holocaust Luncheon sponsored by our alliance member the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee. Their spectacular closing show was co-sponsored by the Federation and ourselves where they received Honorary Citizenship Certificates from Sarasota Mayor Suzanne Attwell.
One very active city has been Xiamen, China, led by City Director Dr. Carolyn Bloomer. In June we learned the results of a University of South Florida business opportunity research project conducted on behalf of SSCA. The research was by 11 MBA students who were divided into three teams to identify export opportunities from Sarasota to Xiamen. The students created three business models that could be adopted for expansion to our seven other twinned cities. One plan has led to further exploration with meetings in Xiamen this fall.
In late October 2012 our alliance member State College of Florida hosted the 2012 Sarasota-Manatee China Town Hall at their Lakewood Ranch campus. Presentation speakers included Dr. Charles Steilen, our VP for Business and Economic Development; The Honorable Gary Locke, U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, participated by webcast. Locke’s remarks placed great importance on citizen diplomacy initiatives. Locke said, “We need more people from America to come to China to understand the history, the culture, the language and the values of China to gain greater cooperation.” These contacts provide expo- sure to citizens of both nations with a positive impact of calming of fears and tempers.
Another success story happened this fall when Sister City member Dr. Edward Lin, who is founder and CEO of HealO-Medical, won a $1 million technology innovation contract in an international competition sponsored by Sarasota’s Chinese sister city of Xiamen. A Beijing Review magazine writer/photographer team from New York City visited Sarasota January 9 to research Vladimir, Russia, also had several activities during the past 12 months beginning with an international photo contest titled “A Day Together” on July 13, 2012. Sarasota is one of 20 sister cities in 12 countries twinned with Vladimir.
We learned about the death of Yuri Federov, our primary point of contact in Vladimir since our establishing the twinning with Vladimir. Yuri enriched Sarasota’s Sister Cities program with Vladimir through innovative ideas that served to bring people closer together. Mayor Suzanne Atwell proclaimed June 20 as Yuri Federov day in Sarasota.
Vladimir Chief of Police Alexander Rasov visited Sarasota October 17 in an effort to reactivate the relationship that had been dormant for several years. Rasov met with Sarasota Mayor Suzanne Atwell, City Manager Thomas Barwin, police counterparts, and Kate Alexander of Florida Studio Theater. Kate had been the house guest with the Rasov family when she was in Vladimir with the Florida Studio Theater Young Playwrights program. It was a result of this visit that SCAS gained Yulia Gauckhmann as our city director for Vladimir. Yulia is leading the Golden Ring tour of Russia to St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Vladimir.
City Director Pauline Mitchell skillfully handled the visits of the Florida Studio Theater Young Playwrights winners from Dunfermline, Scotland, in May. Plans were also made to host winners from Vladimir and Tel Mond, but conflicts prevented their travel to Sarasota. But for Kelly Fairbairn, Matthew Walton, and Teacher Elspeth McDonald it was an eventful five days in Sarasota that included viewing their “Hagis Hunt” play presented by FST actors on the FST stage. The Poet Laureate of the United States presented their awards at Holly Hall.
The 10th anniversary of our twinning with Dunfermline was celebrated as our first SCAS 50th anniversary event in February 2013. Dunfermline city director for the twinning, Mayor Ben Conway, was on hand with a delegation from the Kingdom of Fife community. The event, complete with pipers and tartans, packed the Bird Bay Yacht Club banquet room. SCAS continued to play the bad host, as our Sarasota Sister Cities golfers won the Competition Cup for the fourth straight time. The tournament is held biennially with revenge on Dunfermline’s mind for 2015.
Our final luncheon at the Sarasota Yacht Club was in November 2012 after we were notified that the yacht club had to restrict business events due to concerns on maintaining IRS tax-exempt status. A review of options included Bird Bay Yacht Club, Marina Jack’s, Michael’s on East and the SaraBay Golf Club. SaraBay Golf Club was selected as the best option considering price, availability, technical sup- port and quality of meals.
Our luncheon season began in October 2012 by honoring Dr. Mary Elemendorf, an active member for more than 41 years who had released an interesting new book just days before her 95th birthday. “From Southern Belle to Global Rebel, memoirs of anthropologist and activist Mary Lindsay Elemendorf” has several references to the history of Sarasota Sister Cities.
Our November luncheon featured guest speaker Hadda LaMotte, a teacher at the Pablo Picasso Lycée in Perpignan, France, who reported on her students’ preparation for the SCAS sponsored Sustainability, Renewable Energy Confer ence to be held in Sarasota in November 2013. Hadda had just hosted SCAS Board members Beth Ruyle Hullinger and Craig Hullinger in Perpignan in September 2012. It was their first visit to a Sarasota Sister City, but they are veterans of other visits to sister cities in Europe and Asia while in key city positions in Illinois.
Our first luncheon at SaraBay Country Club featured Fran Harris who presented a special program about her late husband’s passion with the architecture of Venice, Italy – the capitol city of Veneto.
The hit of the year has been our meet and greets arranged by Gayle Maxey. This event has provided double benefits – bringing customers to Sarasota businesses and enhancing our membership roll. What began with a modest attendance made up of mostly board members has now mushroomed to where 40 is a small number of attendees – and many of them first-time visitors to a SCAS event. Our last event at Blue Rooster drew 66 attendees. Our membership has grown to where we have 230 members on the roll – including 12 we can only reach by snail mail. Thank you all for being involved in the use of this event to provide new members who see value in the Sister Cities Citizen Diplomacy concept!
But my favorite site is Pinterest pinterest.com/sarasotasister. No longer are photos of events and of our history just collections in our office. Pinterest is the place where we now have an unlimited collection of current and historical digital images to provide anyone worldwide access to learn who we are, what we do, and the community impacts we have made. Consider it a pin board or even a refrigerator door where you have your favorite photos to informally share with friends. What’s in it? It is divided into sections including a section for each sister city, great photos of Sarasota, Meet and Greets, Current Events, and Historic Collections. More than 1,000 photos in all and more to come.
What can you do with it? Pinterest is not just to look at. It is to share. It is our best opportunity to expand community knowledge about SCAS – bypassing the established news media. It allows anyone in our twinned communities to learn more about their Sister City and the cities we are twinned with.
Who views our Pinterest site? As of this morning in the short time we have had our Pinterest site active we have followers from Australia, Canada, Italy, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Nevada, Massachusetts, California, Virginia, seven media outlets, Tervis, Sarasota Memorial Hospital, Florida House, Homosassa Springs, Bradenton, Lakewood Ranch, and Sarasota plus seven SCAS board members.
And with this report I pass on the Presidency to Beth Hullinger - knowing that the Sister Cities Association is in good hands and knowing that the framework for our organizational future is solid.
Despite the extraordinary challenges I faced, my best memories remain at the forefront – those being involved with an outstanding group of people, finding close friendships with people globally that I would have never met otherwise and being so deeply involved in an organization that has such a great mission. Again, thank you – thank all of you!”