Xenia 2010

Hello Friends,

It’s with good cheer and anticipation of things to come that I write this blog.  Our programming season is in hiatus for the brief pause between fall and spring cycles, and our offices are quiet, allowing for a brief moment to reflect and to look forward to our spring activities.

The holiday party was a very festive evening.  We welcomed around 70 friends, board members, and dialogue fellows for a time of celebration and relaxation in the midst of a busy season.  Two segments of our video on dialogue were shown at different points in the evening.  Those two segments, along with the other two, will be posted on our Web site in the first days of 2010.  It was also with great joy that Jim Agar was named our recipient of this year’s Sam Matthews Social Justice Award.  We look forward to sharing Mr. Agar’s work and story with the wider community; it is truly inspirational and a testament to the power of grassroots volunteerism.

In addition to reflecting on all the wonderful experiences this fall offered, I am also looking forward to several big events in the life of the institute.  First and foremost, our Web site will be dividing into two separate sites.  One Web site will be specifically focused on Xenia’s activites in Norman and the surrounding community.  The other will allow our writers and bloggers to continue discussing issues of regional, national and international significance in the form of an online news magazine.  We anticipate the launch of our new institute Web sites in the middle of January 2010.

On Jan. 29 2010, we will honor the life and work of Jim Agar at the 5th Annual Sam Matthews Social Justice Award Banquet.  This event is the highlight of Xenia’s programming year and is always an evening of appreciation and gratitude.  Tickets are $20 and can be purchased by calling Xenia’s offices at 405.321.8682 or by emailing Paige Hoster at paige@xeniainstitute.org.

In early February, we will be resuming our dialogue program.  Both Fall 2009 dialogue groups will be entering their second phase of the program, which begins to incorporate specific social issues into our monthly sessions.  And even though our Fall 2008 dialogue fellows have officially completed their three phases of dialogue, they have decided to keep meeting as a group and working to affect change on various issues and situations in our community.  I look forward to the ideas and projects that will come from this dedicated group of volunteers.

Additionally, in mid-February, The Xenia Institute will once again partner with the OU Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the newly created Center for Social Justice to bring our community an event concerning violence against women.  This event will take on one specific issue that came out of our event last April and look at it in depth.  We will be releasing details soon.

Again, thank you for all your support, your attendance, and your well wishes this year.  I look forward to strengthening our existing relationships and creating new ones as we move together into the first year of a new decade.

Happy New Year,

Clint