New Program Coordinator for UT Mesoamerican Center

I am very pleased to introduce you to Paola Bueche, the young lady who has been appointed as the new program coordinator for the University of Texas Mesoamerican Center. Among her duties will be the job of organizing the annual Maya Meetings. Her start date is August 13, 2009.

Her official title is "Senior Program Coordinator of the Mesoamerica Center". Mrs. Bueche holds a BA in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin. She has extensive experience in program coordination, having worked as the Assistant for the Associate Director within the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Mrs. Bueche is fully bilingual in English and Spanish, speaks Portuguese and has studied Quechua. She is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina and has been living in Austin since 2002.

Casa Herrera Interior Courtyard, Antigua, Guatemala.

Photo by Rene Ozaeta

She will also coordinate a variety of other events that will take place at the University of Texas' conference facility in Antigua, Guatemala.

Two More 2009 Maya Meeting Heros

Our volunteers come from all walks of life.  Above is volunteer Fabian Dominguez.  This picture was taken in Albuquerque just before he left for his summer trip to Guatemala.  He is a computer analyst for Farmer's Insurance here in Austin, Texas.  He also is an advanced reader and calligrapher of Maya Glyphs!!! During the 2009 meetings, he went above and beyond the call of duty by helping us keep our computers running and our slide projectors projecting. To tell you the truth, we sort of pulled him in many directions at once. But as you can see in the photo, he is still in one piece. Thanks Fabian!

This hairy and friendly fellow is Jim Chiavaroli.  At one of our 2009 organizational meetings he unwittingly volunteered to be our Audio/Visual Team Leader.  We drafted him into taking this job after we found out that he had a knack with computers and projectors.  And guess what - he is also a talented Austin tattoo artist who spent several years in the Yucatan where he fell in love with ancient Maya art and glyphs. He is now a beginning glyph reader and an advanced Maya iconographic artist. His advanced artist tallent is partly due to the fact that he has been practicing on people's skin for some time now.  He can give you an awesome Maya art tattoo if you like. Just like Fabian, he did an awesome job helping us with keeping our computers and projectors running during the meetings.  I remember that he was frequently at our volunteer/administration desk asking what needed to be done next. Muchas gracias Jim!

Meet Virginia Walker

Virginia was our 2009 registration team leader.  She is a PhD candidate in the Art History program at the University of Texas and she is studying ancient Malinalco, a fascinating site located in the basin of Mexico. Her organization skills are outstanding and she put them to work for us by delivering the smoothest registration process that we have experience in several years at the meetings.  Her attitude and professionalism were greatly appreciated. Thank you Virginia!

Team Leaders Lynda and Bob

Bob Wald and Lynda Manning-Schwartz were our Workshop Team Leaders this year.  Here they are at Lava Java, sitting next to Adrianne Newman who in addition to being on the Publicity Team, also headed up the Publication Sales Team.  The Workshop Team leaders spent many hours planning the setup of the glyphic workshops.  They also were the primary contacts with the Workshop Instructors/Facilitators - getting information and documents from them in support of the glyph classes.  Of all the teams, perhaps this one required the most time and forethought.  All their planning paid off with workshops that flowed perfectly.

Here is Bob with friends (from left to right) Terry Kaufman, Nick Hopkins, Barbara MacLeod and Bob on the right.

Thank You Caitlin and Lulu!

Lulu Henderson and Caitlin Earley were our 2009 Customer Service Team Leaders.  

In this photo, taken a few days before the event, they are preparing to orient their team members on the "dos and don'ts" of Customer Service a la Maya Meeting style.  If it seems like their audience sparse, its because most of their team members hadn't arrived when this photo was taken.  In reality, I think that they had more volunteers than any other team this year.

Janis Memorial Flyer

Here is the flyer for the memorial.

Memorial

Lynda Manning-Schwartz sent this message to me (and to Aztlan) from Andra Graham, so I thought I would pass it along:

It is with a sad heart but warm memories of Maya Meetings past featuring Janis talking about frogs or snakes that I pass along this memorial invitation from his daughter.

Memorial Gathering for Janis Indrikis

Where: 590 Cedar Way, Laguna Beach, CA (house)
When: Saturday April 18th, 2009, 2:00- 5:00 pm

Note: If you wish to share a memory you have of Janis please feel free to bring a picture, poem or simply a fond story.

Lunch will be served.

RSVP: By April 4, 2009
714.546.7719 or sweetsoda@sbcglobal.net

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to call me.

Kindest Regards,
Andra Graham
www.ocmoxie.com