Monthly Newsletter of the World Affairs Council System

In this issue...

New Flagship Travel Program
Mexico City Board Meeting
President Leads Trip to Turkey
NewsNotes

Did you know...that WACA has a new website going live on September 15?

PHILADELPHIA TRAVEL AS WACA FLAGSHIP PROGRAM

The National Board voted in August to make the Philadelphia Travel Program
the fifth national flagship program of the world affairs councils system.

The travel program is 29 years old and with over 300 trips to date.  Some
250-300 people travel go every years from participating councils.

The 2006 trips are the Classic Rhine, Danube: River of Emperors, Eastern
Baltics, Provence, Inside Washington, London and Berlin, Italian Riviera, Russia
and Ukraine, Vietnam and Cambodia, Wings over the Nile, Beijing, Yachtsman's
Caribbean, Inside Thailand, Inside Israel and Turkey, Mexico's Baja, Colonial
Mexico, Egypt and Greek Isles, Libya, and Tunisia.

We look forward to working with national board member Claudia McBride and
Travel Director Joan Russell to make this the best educational travel program in
the country.

More details on how you can join in will come out in September.

NATIONAL BOARD MEETS IN MEXICO CITY

The board met with President Fox at Los Pinos, the presidential palace, and
had a candid discussion on the future of Mexico, education, border issues, the
upcoming elections, and his legacy.

We had a superb 5-hour session with the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations
on migration, Mexicans in the US, the economy, US-Mexican relations, the 2006
presidential elections, and the new Security and Prosperity Partnership.

The discussions focused on forward strategies for developing our flagship
programs, raising national visibility, building the national conference,
expanding our international outreach, enhancing fundraising, and increasing our
national capability.

The board meeting was bubbling with remarkable new ideas, a strong spirit of
cooperation, and an optimistic outlook for the future. It featured a 3-year
action plan for the WACA system.  The action plan includes strategy for
improvement of the four flagship programs, raising visibility nationally, expanding
the national conference, expanding our international outreach, and increasing
our national capabilities.

The complete action plan will be sent to everyone in the fall.

JERRY LEACH LEADS TRIP TO TURKEY

As our first new flagship travel event, our president Jerry Leach and his
wife Marianne of CARE will lead the Philadelphia Travel Program to Turkey
starting September 3 for two weeks.

The stops include Ankara, Konya, Catalhoyuk, Kusadasi, Pergamum, Troy,
Gallipoli and Istanbul.  The group will meet the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and the Charge d'Affaires at the American Embassy.

Dr. Leach will give talks on the Turkic peoples and languages, the Ottoman
Empire, Turkish democracy, Islam and secularism, entering the European Union,
the Kurdish question, the Armenian issue, Troy, the agricultural revolution, and
more.

NewsNotes

* Conference brochures go out to all councils in September.  Online
conference registration through the national website starts September 15.

* The next national Academic WorldQuest is scheduled for March 31 - April 2
next year.  A detailed announcement goes out on September 6.

* WACA is finalizing now a 15-event book tour for Ray Baker of Brookings on
his new book "Capitalism's Achilles Heel" about dirty money and how it works
worldwide.

* Congratulations to our own Francesca Martonffy, former Program Director,
who is now a World Economic Forum Fellow in Geneva and Davos for the next three
years.

* The San Francisco council is organizing a North American Forum for
officials from the US, Canada, and Mexico relations in Sonoma County in October.

* A hearty welcome to Lilly Wahl, the new Executive Director in New Hampshire.

"No good deed goes unpunished in Washington."
- Clare Booth Luce -