Reflections, Connections, Directions Ed Schmidt

Hello everyone, Bits and pieces of this email have circulated previously among those who were at the recent reunion and conference in Atlanta or an earlier conference. Even if that includes you, read on as there are some new bits too. On the inspiration and energy generated at the conference, I quote a line from Joan and Jerry Schieber, "THANKS for a very good reunion, for many inspirations to action, and for nudging us to thinking about the 50th anniversary of TEA!!! How is it possible!!" I have emptied and deleted my email file entitled "Atlanta09." The process reminded me (a) that a tremendous amount of work went into the planning of the reunion/conference and (b) that planning started 18 months ago. So, once again, a big "thank you" to Shelby Lewis and all who helped plan and bring the event to such a glowing success. Oh, and what did I do with all those emails? I discarded most, but the few that I thought might be useful I transferred to a new file labeled "NYC.Africa.2011." That's right, at the Sunday morning meeting there was a lot of enthusiasm for a two part conference in 2011 at Teachers' College in New York and in East Africa. Participants could attend either or both parts. If you are willing to participate in the planning of either part of this extravaganza, contact Brooks Goddard, . Contacts at TC would be especially helpful. ON THE WEBSITE First, Henry has posted more pictures and captions on the website. Check them out by going to the website, tea-a.org and clicking on the icon of the old camera, or you can go directly to the photos at . Henry notes, "(i) that with recent additions 45 out of 49 TEAA attendees are now shown at least once and (ii) if anyone has a photo of someone not there (or a good one of anyone), please send it to me." His address: henryjh@comcast.net If you go to the main page of the website, , and click on "What's Hot," you will see that we are only $2,378 short of our first-year fund-raising goal of $33,333. Outlined on that page are several ways you and your friends may wish to support TEAA in 2009, 2010 and 2011 with your checks, gifts of appreciated stock and bequests. To get additional copies of the fund-raising brochure, contact Brooks Goddard, . Due to an upcoming effort to seek USAID support for improvements to Tororo Girls' School, which was built with USAID funds in the 1960s, Henry has created on the website a summary of what TEAA has done. It's now at "What We've Done" findable within "About Us," a new category that also contains a link to Brooks' history and one to the steering committee. It is the first item after "Home Page" in the revised navigation menu at the upper left in the website, http://tea-a.org/. The direct link is http://tea-a.org/what-done.html Teachers' College hasn't forgotten us. In the note introducing Brooks' history mentioned in the preceding paragraph, there is a link to a page on the TC website describing TEA and TEEA. The direct link is: http://pocketknowledge.tc.columbia.edu/home.php/browse/35918 MISCELLANEOUS Finally, some items I, as newsletter editor and scribe, mentioned at that Sunday morning meeting. Send me items for the newsletter, especially if you were at the reunion, but generally, too. Keep your contact information current, and if it seems practical, send me contact information for someone who will know about you if I can't reach you. At the Seattle reunion, there were questions raised about how much longer TEAA could exist since we are not getting any younger. There was no such talk in Atlanta, probably because during our visit to the Carter Center, we learned that Jimmy CArter had just celebrated his 85th birthday. And he still keeps a rather full schedule of meetings, travel, and pounding nails!