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| President -Vivien Black |
Dear ICON Members,
I hope you and your families have all enjoyed a wonderful summer break!
All of us on the ICON Board are excited about the beginning of another great year, and we extend our sincerest welcome not only to our returning members, but of course to our brand new ICON members who have joined us from all over the world.
I consider myself fortunate and honored to once again be ICON’s President this year, and to be part of a strong ICON team, which enjoyed such a successful 2012-13 session. Our Committee has the explicit goal of helping our members experience the best of Norway by organizing social and cultural experiences beyond the confines of our meetings at the Høvik Church Hall. To that end, we offer a wide range of activities, talks, and tours in and around Oslo—and in this news blog and on our website you’ll find a roster of our current activities as well as a calendar of our monthly meetings for the year. I know it can be difficult to say goodbye to family and friends at the end of the summer and get back into a good routine so my advice is this: Throw yourself into anything you can and appreciate all the new and wonderful opportunities that come your way, especially through ICON. I hope you will be encouraged to try new skills this session, or even set up activities which you think would be enjoyable to others. We appreciate any input from you our members. After all it is your Club! I am looking forward to meeting you all again soon (be it at Mah Jong, on the tennis court, the ski slope, at knitting, Vision Boarding, or over a coffee) throughout the year! Meanwhile, please feel free to contact me, our Vice President Marie Clark Orring, or indeed any of the Committee if you have questions, concerns, or suggestions to help us continue to make ICON an enriching and rewarding experience.
Some of our Committee for 2013/14....
ICON Members Meeting on Tuesday 17th September at 10am
Høvik church hall, Sandviksveien 11,
1363 Høvik.
Please be aware that there is a large funeral on at the Church that morning and we have been asked to suggest to ICON members not to park up at the Church on that first day. Indeed there is free parking every day over at the supermarket and most members find this to be the most suitable place to park on a regular basis especially as there is on-going construction work around that area.
We welcome donations of books for our monthly book sale and our Charity Team would love any donations for the Raffle Table! (All proceeds go towards our selected ICON Charities for 2013/14 which will be announced at the October Meeting).
For our newest members who have not been to a meeting yet, directions are on our
Speaker:
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| Kerstin Kraass |
We are delighted to have Kerstin Kraass as our speaker on this day. Kerstin is an intercultural trainer and consultant with specific focus on intercultural awareness and international management.Kerstin supports international working executives and expatriates to develop their competencies and to strengthen their international performance. She encourages tolerance and open mindness towards cultural differences and prepares for better
understanding to make change happen. Kerstin's special expertise lies in training business people or their families working in an International-Scandinavian context. At the September Icon meeting Kerstin will address some specific cultural differences between Norway and other countries in general and why it is so important to be aware about culture and cultural differences while living abroad
Please check the ICON website regularly and of course sign up for our NEWSBLOG Here you will find full details of future meetings, coffee mornings, activities and other useful information.
You can also check out our Facebook page at
At this meeting, you will also have the opportunity to catch up with old friends again, make some new friends and sign up for an Activity or two or even more!!
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in Drobak
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| Recent Explore Oslo trip to Drobak |
Whatever you choose to do, please come along and participate - our members are what make ICON so much fun!
As always, visitors are very welcome and may come to one meeting free
of charge before needing to become members. However, we do ask that
the full membership fee is paid on their second visit.
ICON MEMBERSHIP FEES 2013-2014
A reminder about fees for the 2013-2014 year so you can get organised
before the September meeting:
The ICON Membership fee for 2013 will be NOK 400 for the full year Sept 2013 to Aug 2014. However, if you pay your membership in full before the meeting in October, then this will be discounted to NOK 350. We will also offer a sliding scale over the year for 1st time members e.g. if they join after Christmas.
For those of you who haven’t renewed your membership for 2013-2014 year
yet, please do so ASAP either online or by cash at the September meeting. The preferred method for payment is online and full details of how to do it are described on the ICON website:
The ICON bank account number is
7131.11.99433.
If paying online, please remember to include “ICON 2013-2014
Membership” AND your name in the Reference section when making your
online banking payment.
This is especially important for those of you have accounts in your spouse's or partner's name which is different to your own. This vital information will enable both theTreasurer and Membership Secretary to know for certain who has paid their fees for the coming year.
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| Monday Morning ICON Walk this week! |
ICON ACTIVITIES
Once you have paid your subscription for the new ICON year you will be
able to sign up for as many activities as you have time for. Please
note that for those returning members who wish to continue with an
activity, you will need to sign up again so that the activity
organizer has an updated list of participants. Emails from the
organiser will only be sent to those who have signed up for the new
year. If you aren’t able to attend the meeting on the 17th, then please contact the activity organiser directly.
ICON WEBSITE
A new ICON password will be emailed out to our paid-up 2013-2014
Members and the updated Membership List protected by the new password
will be published on the website in October.
Members are, of course, always welcome to join or renew at any time
during the year, but in order to attend any activities or receive the
new password, you must renew before the end of
September 2013. If you have any questions regarding this, please
LETTER FROM DR HORAN REGARDING THE ECOLE FRANCO ARABE MADEMBA
September 3, 2013
Dear Members of ICON,
Soon we will be starting a new school year at Ecole Franco Arabe Mademba. The school continues to grow due to the support given by you, the members of ICON. Mademba is well known in Thiaroye Sur Mer for the quality of teaching and its educational supplies provided by ICON.
Adama Baldeiroo, the Mademba’s director, has recently opened a new school twenty minutes outside Thiaryoe. Based on the Mademba’s reputation, the village chief asked Adama to start a similar school for his people.
The new school has a preschool and 2 kindergarten classes. (One kindergarten class meets in the morning and the second in the afternoon. Currently there are 103 students. The preschool teacher is from the village and the kindergarten teacher formerly taught at Mademba. The school is currently little more than a building site. There are no desks and children sit below precariously placed concrete blocks.
With donations from ICON both schools continue to be improved and the kids have crayons, paper and a few books. I am including some pictures of the new school. The children are beautiful!
Thank you again for making all this possible!
Julie L. Horan, PhD
Adjunct Professor
University of Virginia
October 15, 2013, Tuesday
10:00 am
Høvik Church Hall
Sandviksveien 11
1363 Bærum
Program: TBA
November 19, 2013, Tuesday
10:00 am
Høvik Church Hall
Sandviksveien 11
1363 Bærum
Program: TBA
December 10th, 2013
Christmas Luncheon
at Baerumsverk at 11am
January 21st, 2014, Tuesday
10:00 am
Høvik Church Hall
Sandviksveien 11
1363 Bærum
Program: TBA
February 25th, 2013
Annual social gathering at Frognerseteren
Program:TBA
March 18, 2014, Tuesday
10:00 am
Høvik Church Hall
Sandviksveien 11
1363 Bærum
Program:
April 15, 2014, Tuesday
10:00 am
Høvik Church Hall
Sandviksveien 11
1363 Bærum
PROGRAM: TBA
May 20, 2014, Tuesday
10:00 am
Høvik Church Hall
Sandviksveien 11
1363 Bærum
Program: TBA
June 10th, 2014
Annual Summer luncheon
11am (location to be announced)
Special Announcement!
Congratulations to Our Vice-President Marie Clark Orring on her other new venture she started in July!
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| Marie and Kai |
Marie and Kai tied the knot on the 20th July, in Kelowna, BC, Canada. We wish them every happiness for the future!
The cost for the lunch is 390 NOK for ICON Members and 420 NOK for non-members. We will also be offering our Members a Complimentary glass of wine, soft drink or coffee upon arrival!
The Raffle held at the Christmas Luncheon the past two years has been a great success and great fun! It is slightly different from our usual monthly raffle in that we ask members to donate "mystery prizes".
Our next coffee morning will be held at:
