October 2006

UNIVERSITY WOMEN'S ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER
October 2006
P.O. BOX 81776 FAIRBANKS, ALASKA 99708
www.uaf.edu/uwa

FALL WELCOME TEA

from Vice President of Membership, Helen Howard

The Fall Welcome Tea was held at the home of Patty Hamilton on September
17th. Patty is a wonderfully gracious hostess and we all appreciate her
kindness in opening her and President Mark Hamiltonâs home to our group. The
event was attended by 24 members, new and old. We were especially glad to
welcome back Irene Peyton, who was visiting us from her new home in Des
Moines, Washington. She has renewed her membership.

We welcome our newest members: Amy McClung, who was brought by Anupma
Prakash; Barbara Williams, who recently moved to Fairbanks to rejoin her
husband, Dr. James Williams, the Dean of Engineering and Mines; Art
professor, Mary Goodwin, and Linette Finstad, who is a watercolorist. Rita
McGrath and her daughter August-Michelle Abukasis also joined us. Dr. Ro
Bailey, who has been in Fairbanks for only three weeks is the new Dean of
Administrative Services. She is not new to Fairbanks, however, because she
spent two years here in military service, at which time she bought a house
with the intention of returning here to live.

Our theme this year was to wear or bring something that relates to a book we
liked. Several people participated in the fun by bringing a book (or in the
case of Cynthia Dorman, several nature books - she won the Denali lottery).
We all participated in guessing which book was brought by whom. The star of
the guessing game was Mariclare (Mary) Langan, who was dressed in a
long-haired blonde wig as the protagonist of White Oleander. Rita Osborne
brought Bird by Bird by Ann Lamott, which apparently is required reading at
several high schools. Patty Hamiltonâs choice, May I Quote You, General Lee?
was appropriately chosen ö and she didnât need to dress up for us to guess
it was her book! Ruth Levey recommends Birds Without Wings, and wore a
headscarf from her Turkish travels. Jane Reilly wore a compass, and
recommended, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman; Ro Bailey, UAFâs Vice
Chancellor of Administrative Services, brought Death Trap by Sue Henry, and
wore wearing earrings to match her chosen book. Mary Goodwin highly
recommends local author, Seth Kantnerâs Ordinary Wolves, and she wore a
beautiful Canadian wolf-trimmed parka to relate to the book. Helen Howardâs
necklace of hand-colored beads and tubes of watercolor paint, made it easy
to guess that her book choice was Color: a Natural History of the Palette.
She highly recommends this interesting accretion of historical, cultural,
anthropological, artistic and general knowledge, woven together with a
personal travelogue of discovery. The most exciting book was brought by, and
written by, Kristina Ahlnas. BopŒlari i Alaska was published in Sweden.
Kristina plans to publish it in English as My Cache in Alaska. Our best
wishes for the birth of this book!

UWA ACTIVITY GROUPS

It was gratifying that many members at the Tea signed up for the Activity
Groups. These include the Holiday Bazaar, which takes place on November 4-5,
2006; the Skiing/Walking Group; the International Diners; the Recycle Sale;
the Book Group; and the Scholarship Committee which reads student
applications for UWA Scholarships.

One of UWAâs most enjoyable and popular groups, the Salad Luncheons, needs a
coordinator. Fifteen people have signed to participate in Salad Luncheons.
This group plans to meet monthly, and coordination is not hard.

We hope that we will receive more additions to the Activity sign-up sheets.
Some members have not recently indicated their preferences among these
groups. Helen Howard, our Vice President ö Membership would like to know
where your interests lie so that we can make sure you get announcements.

If you would like to organize any other groups, such as Needlework,
Quilting, Sewing, Chess, or Play activities for children, Georgene Nielsen
(479-0988 or nielsen@mosquitonet.com) would be glad to announce them in the
UWA Newsletter.

2006 HOLIDAY BAZAAR

The Holiday Bazaar is scheduled for two days; Saturday, November 4th and
Sunday, November 5th in the Wood Center on the UAF campus. We expect to
have over 100 vendors each day. UWA volunteers are needed to put in a few
hours on either day of the Bazaar. Your help will be appreciated and is very
much needed. Please contact Bazaar volunteer coordinator, Ginny Kawasaki, at
456- 5192 to sign up for a shift.

INTERNATIONAL DINERS

>From Barbara Braley, coordinator

For those who have not participated in International Diners before: A host
chooses a month and decides upon a cuisine theme. The host contacts all
International Diners who have indicated that they plan to attend. Based on
the response, the host plans a meal, and all participants will get a recipe
to prepare. Participants are asked to keep a monetary total of what they
spend to prepare their dish. During the dinner, all totals are added
together, and an average sum is assigned to each person. Thus, a person who
prepared an inexpensive dish will likely end up paying some money, and those
who prepared an expensive dish will likely get some money back. It is a fun
way to collect some great recipes and the dinners are a feast.

The first meeting of the International Diners will be held on October 28th
at 7 PM in the home of Alan and Barbara Braley. It will be an organizational
meeting for the upcoming membership year. Anyone interested in participating
in International Diners should attend. The cuisine will be Pan Asian
mini-plates. That means any Asian dish that can be shared in small portions
(you can even offer supermarket sushi). The Braleys will supply beverages,
condiments, soup and rice. Please contact Barbara if you plan to come (and
if you need ideas). Her phone number is 457-8957 and her email address is
<mailto:bbraley@acsalaska.net> bbraley@acsalaska.net. We will not calculate
costs at this first meeting.

KUAC-FM Festival

The current KUAC-FM fundraiser needs volunteers or organizations to sign up
to answer phones during their Fall fundraiser. Helen Howard has personally
signed up for Wednesday afternoon from 2-5 p.m. on October 18th. If other
members of UWA would like to join her there, UWA would get mentioned over
the air and we may have new members want to join us. Please call Helen at
488-2314 - leave a message on the answering machine, not with her husband,
please! Or e-mail her at hmh@acsalaska.net to let her know you will be
there.

SALAD LUNCHEON

The Salad Lunch group meets once a month at a member's home. The hostess
chooses the date. We each bring a salad and the hostess usually provides
beverages, bread and dessert. If you would like to introduce a friend to
UWA, please invite them to attend as your guest. It's a fun way to meet with
friends and relax.

Judy Williams will host the October salad luncheon at her home at 3868
Chigmit Drive on Wednesday, October 25th, at noon. RSVP via the e-mail
address, fljlw@alaska.net, or call Judy at 479-5465. Judy writes ãI live off
Cripple Creek Road, about 4 miles south of the Parks Highway. When I hear
from you I will be happy to give detailed directions. Our perennials are
still blooming now on October 10th - I can't promise that for the 25th :-) .
Warm or cold, it will be great to get together.ä

Our Membership VP, Helen Howard, is in the process of assembling a list of
members interested in the monthly Salad Luncheons. If you would like to be
our November luncheon hostess, please give Helen a call and together you can
set a date and time.

A BIG THANK YOU FOR A JOB WELL DONE

We send our heartfelt thanks to Floss Caskey, our previous Salad Luncheon
coordinator. Those of us who have enjoyed the lunches in the past
appreciated Floss for her wonderful hospitality and for arranging lunches
hosted by others.

RECYCLE SALE

The Fall Recycle Sale is set for Saturday, October 28. Helpers will be
needed for a variety of shifts to cover from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Please
contact Rita (osborne@gvea.net or 479-4535) or Georgene Nielsen (479-0988 or
nielsen@mosquitonet.com) if you would like to help with this event.

BOOK GROUP

Mary Langan has volunteered to head the Book Discussion Group. Although it
was announced at the Fall Tea that Octoberâs book would be The No.1 Ladiesâ
Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, the book group will not meet
until November 24 when they will discuss Devil in the White City, a
nonfiction selection about the Chicago World Fair at turn of the century and
a notorious crime spree.

Call Mary Langan at 479-2332 for more information regarding time and place
of the meeting. After the new membership directory comes out, Mary will get
an email system worked out for those that signed up. The book group plans
to alternate fiction and nonfiction and hope to choose new books two months
ahead of meetings.

Decemberâs selection will be Pearl Buck's The Good Earth. The author won the
Pulitzer Prize for this book in 1932. Ms. Buck was awarded the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1938, primarily in recognition of her masterpiece novel,
The Good Earth, and two biographies she had authored.

In June, perhaps the group can read the current Nobel book when we can get
it in paperback or used on Amazon. Other than that, the group will try to
stick to best sellers available in paperback because they are easy to find.

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

We welcome all of those who just joined UWA and remind our other members
that itâs time to renew your membership for 2007-2008. The membership form
can be found both as an Adobe attachment to this newsletter or you can get
the form from the UWA website, www.uaf.edu/uwa. In order to be included in
the 2007-2008 Membership Directory, your renewal form must be in by October
18th.

As always, if any members have friends who would like to join UWA, please
let Helen Howard know.

CHANGING ADDRESSES

Send us your new e-mail address, if it has changed. Also, if you know
anyone who has changed her address and is no longer receiving the
newsletter, please let us know.

WEBSITE
Current and past UWA newsletters are available on the website,
www.uaf.edu/uwa, which is maintained by Uma Bhatt.

Please send newsletter corrections or comments to Georgene Nielsen at
nielsen@mosquitonet.com or phone 479-0988.