A new system for coordinating cultural visits to schools is being tested this year. At the fall orientation, the students were grouped into teams based on their days of availability for speaking and then assigned to a coordinator for their main contact. The coordinators were Marilyn Schlief, for Wednesday students, Norseha Unin for Friday students and Cheryl Highstreet for students who can speak any of the other days.

Congratulations to Marilyn Schlief, who has accepted a new position and is now limiting her volunteer efforts during the spring semester.

To raise SB program visibility at the Friday Coffee Hours, permanent SB name tags with photos are being created for all Speakers Bureau community volunteers and international speakers. Alex McCrae has volunteered to be the official photog-rapher taking digital photos of students as they sign up for SB at the coffee hours and at the trainings. Some photos of SB activ-ities have already been posted on the SB web page on the CVIP website by William Eubank, our CVIP webmaster.

The online Speaker’s Bureau request system is working very well, thanks to William Eubanks and Cheryl Highstreet. We have received several online requests in the last month. Emeka from Africa went to a kindergarten class at Wainwright Elemen-tary School in February. Kian Mehravaran from the Middle East was scheduled for the Okemos Senior Center in March.  Bahrom from the Middle East is scheduled to speak at the Okemos Senior Center in April.  Cheryl is making arrangements with the director, Gail Garber. The SB Team is currently recruiting speakers for Howell Middle School's Diversity Day on April 22nd. 

The Speaker's Bureau can provide speakers from Asia, the Middle East or Africa, who are willing to present their culture and customs from their own personal per-spective.  The Speakers Bureau team members prefer to receive requests by e-mail. If you want to request a speaker, please email Cheryl Highstreet (sbcvip@ aol.com) or Margaret Beall (marbeall@aol. com).