Sometimes it takes so little to get something big out of it. Even if it needs three ingredients only such as a bunch of Bobcats, the lovely time of spring and a fabulous location. Being brought together ensures having a great weekend you won’t soon forget.

 

Usually, it’s not good news at all if you come to realize that everyone’s in the same boat. However, as the latest Europe chapter meeting revealed this may only be true as long as this metaphor is used in the figurative sense. If you do take it literally and board a boat its meaning changes to the opposite. It had been a grand idea brought forward by our members Ralph Adelseck and Wibke Reger to have our 2009 spring meeting taken place in one of the most beautiful regions of Germany: Starnberg. Located southwest of Munich, sitting picturesquely at the foot of the Alps,  it has the reputation of being the wealthiest town in Germany. No wonder the city and particularly its lake are famous not only for its magnificent castles and villas erected by aristocrats and the upper classes in the 19th century – but also for a great area of retreat for the proms and upper classes today.

 

Besides Wibke and Ralph a few more Bobcats traveled south to enjoy living the life of a prom for a day on May 30: Evelin and Chris Wright, Hugo Straumann, …[wibke’s boyfriend]……., and myself. And to enjoy something we hadn’t been blessed with too much during past meetings: being warmed by the brightly shining sun. Though the morning hadn’t started that great the sky turned blue at pretty much 1pm – that moment the seven Bobcats were boarding the boat. It’s a three-hour trip that takes you aross the entire lake that is 34 miles long and 8 miles wide. Reflecting on the perfect weather conditions and the inspiring scenery passing by it must have been in the middle of the journey when Ralph sitting on the sun deck with everybody else was coming to conclusion: “Isn’t that wonderful? It’s like going for a walk but much better! It’s even without the need to walk!”

 

And yet, he was fine with interrupting the trip in Bernried in order to… go for a walk. It’s a beautiful path with old trees and sculptures lining it which leads to the well-known Buchheim Museum – called the Museum of Imagination. Sitting on the banks of Lake Starnberg it’s home to four museums that bring together exhibitions that would usually be displayed separately. It hosts two collections of ethnic and folk art and for Lothar-Günther Buchheims own work; a third section is “The Living Museum” where special exhibitions rotate several times a year. The museum’s legendary heart of the collection, however, are the works by the German art group “Die Brücke”. Being into existence from 1905 till 1913, the young artists (like Nolde or Schmidt-Rottluff) fought against bourgeoisie and naturalism and wanted to give “unmediated and genuine” expression to that which “impelled them to create” in protest against the official Wilhelmine era.

 

Although especially inspired by the wide spectrum of outstanding expressionist and, most important of all, anti-naturalist art the group eventually left to fulfill a very natural desire: to have a hot cup of coffee and a delicious piece of cake on the museum’s patio. Being picked up by the last boat coming along around 6pm we returned to Starnberg and enjoyed dinner at a Greek restaurant. Besides getting a taste of all the delicious dishes which, of course, traditionally came into full flavor in combination with a few ouzos we held the official part of our get-together there: the meeting. As I had participating in the annual Alumni Leaders Conference I was sharing the news about this event which a total of 42 chapter leaders had been gathering for in Athens in early May. We were also joined by Roderick Mc Davis, the current President of OU, who seemed to be especially pleased about the number of OU prize awardees last year. OU students won 78 national and international prizes, moreover, OU had 12 Fulbright awardees, making OU rank 21st nationwide. OU currently has about 20,000 students – Mc Davis’s goal is to increase the number to 40,000. He also announced that OU will finally switch back to semesters by the fall of 2012, marking the end of the quarter system introduced in 1967.

 

That day the chapter also elected a new Vice President. Katja Auen, one of the chapter’s founders in 1997, had returned to office two years ago and been deputizing the chapter since. Due to family commitments she had asked to release her from that position. The chapter came to the unanimous decision on electing Evelin Wright to succeed her in office who’s been a loyal member of the chapter since the very beginning. The steering committee would like to thank Katja for her commitment and wishes her well. It’s almost certain we’ll lose her in that capacity only, however, she’ll always be welcome to join in one of our future meetings – just as everybody else will be welcomed and invited! If you couldn’t make it to Starnberg or haven’t had the chance to join us for awhile, keep your email accounts clear and your eyes peeled, please. Another invitation to just another chapter weekend we hold about twice a year will certainly follow!

 

Ruediger Mandry

– President –