Meeting Date and Time: July 14, 2026, 7:00 PM
Location: Zoom
Officers Present
President: Bob Persiko
Vice President: Ciara Halloran
Treasurer: Bruce Truitt
Secretary: Alexandra Persiko
Public Relations Officer: Rose Sharp
Committee Chairs
Small Groups: Deb Leo
Membership: vacant
Cultural Events: Jordan Durst
Penn State Global Representative
Wenjie Fu: not present
Call To Order: 7:05 PM
May 12, 2026, EC meeting minutes were accepted as submitted.
Reports of Officers & Standing Committees
Jordan Durst joined as cultural events chair and introduced herself as a Penn State alumna. She graduated in May 2025 with a BS in Community, Environment and Development. She has extensive international experience and currently is employed at Pathways HealthCare.
President – Bob Persiko
• Based on the success of the May 23, 2026, Kazakh cultural event and dinner, Bob proposed making the Kazakhstan event a regular annual occurrence. Kazakh scholars will be at Penn State again in the coming academic year.
o Debbie suggested following up with a Turkish group that expressed interest after attending the Kazakhstan dinner, while Jordan offered to reach out to contacts from her previous co-living experience.
o The team discussed plans for cultural dinners, agreeing to hold four events per year to maintain regular engagement.
• Bob mentioned that the membership position has garnered interest, but in the end, nobody has committed. He suggested putting the call for the position on social media and talking to people when we have events.
• Global Connections currently has 55 active members.
Vice President – Ciara Halloran
• Ciara provided information about a potential Scottish group event through Bridge of Hope and mentioned a Nigerian caterer as additional options for future cultural events. The team agreed to share these leads with Jordan to help organize upcoming cultural meals. Timewise, we could envision February 2027.
Treasurer – Bruce Truitt
• Bruce noted a checking account balance of $5,727 and $18,311 in the money market account. All bills have been paid.
• Bruce raised questions about the newsletter distribution, and it was decided that he would send his cleaned contact list to Rose for incorporation into the newsletter database, with the next newsletter planned for August. Rose confirmed that GC’s social media presence includes Instagram and Facebook accounts, with a new PR intern starting in August to help with marketing efforts.
Secretary – Alexandra Persiko
• Nothing new to report.
Public Relations – Rose Sharp
• July 18th potluck at Sunset Park: 30 people are expected to attend. Rose and Wenjie have been coordinating the food and setup, with various EC members ready to help.
• The committee discussed sustainability measures such as using compostable materials and encouraging attendees to bring their own containers. Wenjie will send out a follow-up email request to attendees to bring personal Tupperware and drinks.
• Rose reported that she removed the coding text on the website from the meeting notes, did other clean-ups, and plans on adding the citizenship test.
• She will start work on an August newsletter shortly.
Penn State Representative – Wenjie Fu N/A
• Per Rose’s report, Wenjie is coordinating the potluck picnic on July 18 together with Rose, and everything is on track.
Small Groups – Deb Leo
• Deb reported challenges in finding a new leader for the beginner reading book group after the previous prospective volunteer moved away. Deb will send the book club leader description to Rose to advertise in the newsletter.
• She also picked up the book club paperbacks, which are manageable in terms of number. She suggested we revisit the topic of storage in the future.
Special Orders – None
Unfinished Business — None
New Business – see Officer Reports
• Discuss Google Drive photo album and newsletter archiving for next meeting’s discussion.
Action Items
Bruce
• Send the clean list of organizational contacts to Rose for newsletter distribution.
• Draft an initial communication for the cleaned list and send it to Rose for review before sending it out.
• Follow up with the school district about posting a flyer and explore other venues (e.g., Schlow Library) for flyer distribution.
Ciara
• Pass Scottish group contact information to Jordan for a possible February event.
• Pass Nigerian caterer contact information to Jordan for a potential Nigerian food event.
• Send photos from the Poetry evening to Rose to upload to the website.
Deb
• Contact Jordan with information about the Turkish group’s interest in a cultural event.
• Write an appeal for a new leader for the beginner book group and send it to Rose for the newsletter.
Alexandra
• Circulate the meeting minutes and upload them to the website.
Jordan
• Reach out to contacts (co-space downtown, former housemates) for potential cultural dinner hosts.
Rose
• Coordinate with Wenjie to get the food from downtown for the July 18 picnic and confirm if help is needed for setup. Also check with Wenjie for a list of items she has for the picnic (plates, name tags, etc.).
• Work on the August newsletter.
• Post photos from the Poetry evening to the website once received from Ciara.
• Set up a shared photo album (e.g., via Google Photos/Drive) for event photos, using the Global Connections email, and invite relevant members.
• Rename the “Meeting Notes” section on the website to “News and Notes” and upload the last 1-2 newsletters as an experiment
All
• Send the newsletter to personal contacts when it is released.
• Review the Google Drive when set up and post photos to sub-folders.
Next Meeting: August 11, 2026
Meeting adjournment: 7:41PM
Submitted By: Alexandra Persiko Date of Submission: July 22, 2026