GMF 25th Anniversary take-aways

The reception last night was a wonderful experience and introduction to the GMF network. One of the first speakers talked about the genesis of the German Marshall Memorial Fellowship in the early 1980's. It was envisioned as a way to re-establish what were perceived to be the fraying strands connecting the U. S. and Europe after decades of close cooperation. The founders pushed for a trip of at least six weeks to accomplish a depth of understanding necessary to build relationships.

Germany and France were the first countries to be involved. Denmark and the Netherlands were brought on board because there was, at the time, an element of anti-Americanism taking root there. The GMF founders thought it important to bring Europeans to the U.S. to help them understand America, its people, and institutions.

As our group prepares to leave, we met some of the European fellows who have just arrived in the U.S. They are doing the same thing we are in Europe, but visiting U.S. cities like DC, Raleigh, Montgomery, Phoenix, Dallas, Pittsburgh, LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Pierre (S. Dakota), and Spanish Fork, UT.

Several former European Fellows spoke and talked about their appreciation for meeting American civil rights leaders, community activists, and business leaders who gave them a view of the U.S. from people who are currently shaping it. Others complimented the program for not just exposing them to the bright side, but also to America's challenges, dark sides and problems. They said this authenticity is what makes the program work.

One of the great things about this program is how it brings diverse people together. I struck up a conversation with a woman at the reception who is an intern for the GMF studying its use of public relations, technology and communications - areas of interest to me too. So we talked a lot about that and how my employer, a government agency, has been using technology to do outreach to the community and media. She was particularly interested in the use of podcasts and blogs and whether anyone listens to/reads them and whether they're worth effort. We had a great discussion: I learned about her foundation and the work they're doing and challenges they're facing, and I hopefully provides some insights from my experience using and considering the use of various technologies in public relations and media relations. That kind of conversation and interaction is why I'm even more excited about the days ahead and the experiences to come.

GMF Trip - day one

Well, my German Marshall Memorial Fellowship is officially underway, almost six months to the day after the nerve-wracking but exciting panel interview that preceded my selection.



Three hours before my flight left, I had a minor luggage crisis when I realized that my packed bag weighed 42 pounds – still under the 50 pound limit for international flights, but about a 1/3 of my body weight and too heavy to easily manage if I needed to hoof it at high speed through an airport, or drag it up stairs. I emptied the bag and discovered the empty suitcase weighed 15 pounds! Holy hernia Batman!!



So I made a frenzied trip to the mall to eyeball and heft bags to gauge their weight. Returning home with one labeled “lightweight”, I repacked and discovered I’d saved myself…two pounds. Aaargh! Finally, I settled on one of my husband’s rolling athletic duffel bags.

Though I fretted about the giant logos emblazoned on both sides identifying it from 50 paces as not being a standard business bag, it had one major selling point: empty, it weighs six pounds. Uh, so my shoes go in this corner of the bag? Sweet. If anyone has anything to say about it, I’m making them carry all my stuff. :-)



Me and a fellow fellow took a red eye flight to DC late last night, arriving at 7:30 a.m. with little sleep. Our body clocks were still on west coast time, so we were hoping to arrive, check in early and catch up on our zzzz. No such luck. After a $60 cab ride from the airport (yes, really), we arrived to find that our rooms were not ready. So we trekked a few blocks to a Starbucks and holed up reading briefing materials on the speakers, countries and European institutions ahead until we could check in just before noon.




We met most of our fellow travelers later for the walk over to the GMF headquarters near the embassies for our first briefing and meet and greet.

This is an amazing group of interesting, accomplished people from across the country and I am honored to be traveling with them.



The depth and variety of conversational topics we’ve covered in just the past six hours has been invigorating and fun.

It’s ranged from regional business interests and political campaigns (we have a city councilmember and a former Secretary of State candidate in the group), to the renewable energy debate, cultural challenges and support options for 1st and 2nd generation immigrants, and the best food dishes and restaurants in our respective cities. I think they’re going to be great traveling companions.


After getting acquainted, we headed over to the Dirksen Building for a reception celebrating the 25th anniversary of the German Marshall Fellowship program. I’ll write more about this later. Lots of great observations from the speakers I want to detail.



The Dirksen building is where the Vice President and congressmen and women have their offices. I had to get a shot of Washington’s folks on the building register. See Patty Murray & Maria Cantwell.



The building is named after an Illinois Republican Senator from the 1930-60s who, among his many accomplishments, provided crucial support for the passage of landmark civil rights legislation. Gotta love that. :-) Need sleep. Must go. More later.

Trip countdown begins

So I have about six days until I take off for my fellowship to Europe and I'm getting VERY excited. It seemed so far off during the application process last fall. Now I'm getting down to the wire and need to finalize my packing plan, my usual to-do lists for the household, the trip, and work, and generally make sure I'm not leaving any loose ends when I take off.

Advice from previous fellows has been invaluable. My most recent queries were about luggage and gifts. The notes from the fellowship organization recommended a "medium to large" luggage. Hmm. Is that a 21" carry-on or a 29" checked bag? This handy size chart is good to get a feel for bag size, but I don't know what's appropriate for this trip. I wasn't sure if I'd need to be able to carry my luggage for long periods (I know cobblestones in European cities and wheels don't mix), or would we mainly be leaving our bags in hotels and occasionaly carrying them from the hotel to a nearby bus or train for travel between locations?

And gifts. We'll be having this wonderful adventure and learning experience thanks to no doubt untold hours of planning by the coordinators in each city, along with the people they've matched us with for interviews in our subject areas of interest, plus the officials who will host us for lunch and dinner meetings/briefings and even some homestays. So gifts will definitely be in order.

The fellowship organization and previous fellows recommended gifts that are unique to our home state or job. Someone mentioned the Made in Washington store and I'm planning on checking it out this weekend. But when I passed by one recently, my cursory glance saw lots of jams, goofy t-shirts and Space Needle keychains and such. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the selection and what it might convey. "Hi, thank you for welcoming me and these other complete strangers to your city/office/home and feeding me your delicious food. Here's something to remember me by that you'll never use but will feel guilty throwing away."

I worried I was over-thinking this. (who me?!) ;-) But one of the fellows replied that she had wondered the same things. Her approach? A 29" bag that she checked throughout the trip. The size worked because she ended up needing every little bit of the space for clothes, gifts, and things they gave her which she brought back. And she still ended up having to buy a duffle bag to carry back the loads of papers and gifts collected. Some people shipped them back or even left them there. The one large, rolling bag was also useful for when they sometimes had to race through an airport to make a late connection. I'll be hitting 6 cities during the three weeks (Washington D.C., Paris, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Belgrade, Brussels), so there will be several flights and connections to make.

Since it's a three week trip, they recommend fellows pack 2 suits, 2 pairs of shoes, an extra pair of pants, and several shirts to rotate. Women and men alike. This seems do-able and a fellow told me she wore pretty much every item of clothing numerous times, and even with the huge bag, she ended up washing clothes in the hotel because of high dry cleaning costs. so she found that woolite and a clothes drying line proved invaluable. Another fellow recommended Febreze since smoking in restaurants is still very popular in Europe.

All these tips have been invaluable to me. I have always been one of those 'just in case' packers. I'll take this in case we go to a formal event. And this in case I need a different jacket to go with those pants. And the kitchen sink in case they don't have plumbing. You get the picture. Ultimately, most of the 'just in case' items get used once or not at all, making them not worth the hassle. So I'm trying to pack smart and light. As one person on a travel site said, "You can buy anything you REALLY need in most industrialized countries, and often even the same brand. And if you can't find it, ask yourself how millions of Europeans manage to live without it." Duly noted.

I plan to pre-pack this weekend and see what needs to be purged. Light and nimble is my motto for this trip. As opposed to my 2005 Paris trip motto, which apparently was "heavy and unwieldy," which I learned when I lost my footing and grip on my bag on the stairs of the Metro, nearly taking out my husband and a fellow commuter behind me with a suitcase tumbling end-over-end down the steep flight of stairs. What's French for, "Uh, sorry about the bruise ma'am." ? Note to self...

The Anti 9 to 5 Guide reading

I'm at the University Bookstore listening to Michelle Goodman, author of the book The Anti 9 to 5 Guide about how to craft a fulfilling life without having to work in a cubicle.




I've heard her talk at freelancer events before and she's great. She wrote the book as a way of sharing some of the things she did wrong when she broke into the freelancing ranks.
I'm definitely of the generation that is not approaching life with the idea of getting on the career train, buckling up, and getting off 30 years later.




In fact, I've built a solid career in communications by working at several successive jobs that built my skill set, increased my responsibilities, and provided great experience and contacts. Although I've been in the field for nearly 15 years, the longest I've worked at one job is four years. The rest ranged from one and a half to two years. And I'm still in touch with bosses and co-workers from every one. The serial employment appoach, which Michelle Goodman touched on, works these days. Her book is more about serial freelance, part-time, flex-time or other non-traditional/non-9 to 5 employment, but I think some of the same rules apply.




I'm looking forward to reading the book. The sections I skimmed while waiting for the reading to begin were pretty funny and informative. And I'm always looking for ways to do more freelancing, since I have SO much free time after spending time with my husband, family and dog, working 45-50 hours, serving on a board, volunteering as a mentor, and chairing a committee for a service group. ;-) But you know: you make time for the things you value. Or you should.

Sugar overload

Okay, this is a pet peeve of mine: gatherings or public events that have NO healthy food choices. I know it's cheaper to buy sugary, preservative-laden junk food to feed the masses, but jeez: can you at least TRY? Or splurge on one tray of veggies or something? This is from a public event I attended over the weekend. It may be a bit hard to make out in the picture, but those are two trays of assorted doughnuts (cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar and sugar sprinkles), next to baked jelly-filled turnovers of some sort. To be fair, the picture doesn't show that farther down the table, there were some bananas cut in half, but bananas are one of the highest sugar content fruits around. The beverage choices were coffee and canned sodas. Aaaaargh. It's the same story at high school athletic events, which I attend often because my husband coaches. The concession stands usually only sell an assortment of chips, candy (most of them supersized), and sugary drinks. I mean, would it kill you to have some low-sugar granola bars, snack crackers or trail mix packs on hand?

Am I the only one who has seen the studies that show diabetes on the rise around the world? Heck, walk through almost any mall in the U.S. on the weekend and you'll be shocked by the obesity on display. I know some people will say, "It's their choice to eat crap and look that way." Of course. But I don't have to enable it. I think if people are at least presented with one or two healthy choices, they will occasionally make a better choice. And as someone who has seen the effects of diabetes in her family and who tries not to eat junk, I like to have a healthy choice when I attend public functions. So for those who'd care to do the same, here are some healthy food choice ideas. Happy eating!