Yale Club of the Netherlands

Hello everyone and thanks to all of you who have already signed-up to come along on the bike trip this weekend!  We’re very excited about this outing and hope to see many Yalies there!

We will be meeting at the park this Saturday, 9 June at 11:00am at the Vistor Centre and will take a break for lunch at 12:30 at one of the park’s restaurants.  You are welcome to stay as long as you like.  The park officially closes at 22:00, but the Vistor Centre, Museum and restaurants will all close around 17:00.  Entrance to the park is €8.20. Please send your RSVP to Megan at social@yaleclub.nl by Friday if you plan to attend.

The park is accessible by both car and public transport.  Note that you may park for €2 outside the park entrances, and parking within the park grounds will cost €6.  If you travel by train, you will need to take a bus to the park from the Apeldoorn or Ede-Wageningen stations.  Please see the accessibility and contact information sections of the park website for more information.

Free bicycles should be available throughout the park (you may also bring your own, of course).  We advise you to pick up a bicycle at one of the entrances on your way into the park.  In the event that there are no free bikes at your entrance, there may be more at the Vistor Centre.  You may also rent a bike for €3.50 from the Bicycle Workshop near the Vistor Centre.  If you would like to reserve one of these bicycles in advance, please contact reserveringen@hogeveluwe.nl by Friday.

If you have any further questions or comments on the bike trip, please contact social@yaleclub.nl.

I was surprised how good I felt after the last Yale Day of Service here in the Netherlands. It was my first, and the first time in a long time that I had volunteered. You might think that just doing physical work could account for those good feelings, but the work wasn’t too different from what I had been doing renovating our house and while that’s satisfying, it doesn’t make me feel the way this did. No, this was purely the inner peace that comes from helping someone else, expecting nothing in return except the happiness of others. I thought about the kids who would come the next Monday to a room that felt new and shiny and how much better playing in a brighter place would make them feel, and how that subconscious feeling would influence them and their parents to feel better about the world. And I just felt good, looking around, seeing what we had accomplished, and knowing that we had anonymously made a little corner of the world better.

And this year we have the chance again. This year we’re helping out at Uit Je Eigen Stad, an urban agriculture initiative in Rotterdam. This is a project that will, when finished, brighten up a whole corner of a deserted industrial area and bring people back. It will connect people with what they eat and provide a gathering place and a center for a redeveloping neighborhood. It will supply good local food to residents and restaurants, including the one on site. And our work will have helped it.

What will we do? We’ll clean, paint, plant and sow seeds, helping them get ready for their first public event next week. And, if there are any among us with talents for planning spaces, graphic design, translation, ICT or marketing, we may be able to help by using our professional talents as well. But whatever we do, we’ll go home after our Day of Service, happy to have done good.

We have a good group already ready to go, but we still have a few places left. So, please, if you would like to be part of the Yale Day of Service this year, email me at harmony@yaleclub.nl or register on the Yale Day of Service site: http://www.yaledayofservice.org/node/1029.

On May 12, the International Yale Day of Service, the Yale Club of the Netherlands will be volunteering to help “Uit Je Eigen Stad” start up its first site in Rotterdam, just in time for their first “pre-event” on May 15.

Uit Je Eigen Stad (From Your Own City), is an innovative urban agriculture project using desolate urban areas for small-scale and local agricultural production. They use flexible, modular, scalable and duplicable production systems to produce vegetables, fruit, fish and chicken to be sold in an on-site shop and restaurant as well as to local shops and restaurants. The farming areas will also be gathering places for the community, serving as a focal point for the redevelopment of these neighborhoods. For more information (in Dutch) see: http://www.uitjeeigenstad.nl/

At the Rotterdam site, the soil is there, the old building is there, and the greenhouse has been built and they have been planting and sowing. But they can use some help from us. Some of this help is typical garden and renovation work such as planting, sowing, cleaning and painting walls, but they also have some other needs that may benefit from our alumni’s expertise in various areas. Some specific areas that they have specified are:

• Designing a summer terrace for the restaurant
• Graphic design to incorporate sponsor logos so they are visible but not overwhelming
• Translation of the website
• Design of a digital planning system for events
• International marketing advice and networking – they have been approached by Belgian and German media and would like to generate international attention for their full launch in September

However, there may be other opportunities for alumni with specialized expertise that have not been identified, so if there is something else (or several something elses) that you can do that you think may be of benefit to Uit Je Eigen Stad, let me know what it is when you sign up and we will see if there is indeed a need. One note: There is no internet access or desk on site at the moment so we will need to bring any needed computer equipment/dongles. I will have a couple of extra tables in the van.

The day starts at 10 am, and lunch will be provided. There is enough work to do inside if the weather doesn’t cooperate.

Let me know quickly (email harmony@yaleclub.nl or sign up on the YDOS site: http://www.yaledayofservice.org/node/1029) to reserve a spot helping on the day – they can only accommodate a maximum of 15 helpers at one time. All alumni and partners/family are welcome to come and help. Let me know if you would like to offer your labor and/or your expertise, and what that expertise is.

Location: Marconistraat 37, 3029 AG  Rotterdam

How to get there:

By car: The site is fairly close to Exit 12 from the A20 on the west side of Rotterdam (near the junction with A13).

Carpooling: Let me know when you sign up if you need a ride or can give one, and from where.

By public transit: From Rotterdam Central or Schiedam Centrum: take trams 21 or 23 to tram stop Het Witte Dorp – it’s a 2-minute walk from there. Or take the metro to Marconiplein – it’s a 10-minute walk from there.

Let me know if you need more detailed directions or have any questions.

I look forward to seeing you on May 12!

Harmony Folz, ’92

The Yale Club of the Netherlands will be participating in the Yale Day of Service for the second year on Saturday, May 12, 2012. This year, we will be helping out Uit Je Eigen Stad (From Your Own City), an innovative urban agriculture project getting its first project off the ground (so to speak) in Rotterdam. Further details will follow, but we’ll only be able to have 15 volunteers this year, so please let us know as soon as possible if you’re planning to help out. Please email Harmony at harmony@yaleclub.nl to reserve your spot, or sign up on the Yale Day of Service website – the site description has been submitted and should be up shortly.

Please confirm/register if you haven’t already done so. A good group has registered, and a lot more have indicated they’re coming.

On Friday, February 10, the Yale Club of the Netherlands will host our third annual Feb Club Emeritus party in the center of Amsterdam at Café Luxembourg.

With over 80 events across the globe, the Feb Club Emeritus has become the largest Yale alumni event. Meet old friends and make new ones. Dinner for those who want it, and general festivities for all, from 19.00 on.

Please confirm by sending an email to yaleclubnl@gmail.com, or visiting the FebClubEmeritus.com website, and registering for the Amsterdam event.

Cafe Luxembourg
Spui 24
1012 XA Amsterdam

On Friday, February 10, the Yale Club of the Netherlands will host our third annual Feb Club Emeritus party in the center of Amsterdam at Café Luxembourg, described as “one of the world’s great cafes” by the New York Times.

With over 80 events across the globe, the Feb Club Emeritus has become the largest Yale alumni event. Meet old friends and make new ones over from 19.00 on.

This year the European Yale Clubs will also be holding a competition for the largest party and the persons who travel the longest distance and attend the most Feb Club Emeritus parties. (What would Yale be without a bit of competiion?)

Come and join us, and set your own record. Dinner for those who want it, and general festivities for all, from 19.00 on.

Please register by sending an email to yaleclubnl@gmail.com, or visiting the FebClubEmeritus.com website, and registering for the Amsterdam event.

Cafe Luxembourg
Spui 24
1012 XA Amsterdam

10 February: save the date as Feb Club Emeritus returns to Amsterdam!

We are looking forward to carrying on a Yale tradition of conversation, drinks (and dinner for those interested) from about 19.00.

Mark the date in your calendar, and keep an eye out for our email on location.

Please confirm your attendance by replying to info@yaleclub.nl or on the FebClub website: http://www.febclubemeritus.com/  (click through to the Amsterdam page on February 10, and follow the instructions).

Dear Yale club members,

We would like to wish you the very best for 2012 and are looking forward to seeing you all this year.

We will start the celebrations on February 10^th with the annual Feb Club Emeritus get-together in Amsterdam.

Please also save the date for the Yale Day of Service on May 12^th.

With kind regards,

Paul Broholm

Join fellow Yalies for dinner on Sunday December 11 to celebrate the Association of Yale Alumni Excellence award. This award was contested among many international clubs, and the awards committee was very impressed with our programming and activities. We’re doing good things, and compliments are due to everyone involved.
Dinner will be in Amsterdam, and will cost about € 42,50 per person. Info on payments next week, but let us know now that you’ll be joining everyone by sending an email to yaleclubnl@gmail.com
Join in the fun! (Spouse/partners/friends are welcome!)