Seacoast Friends Host Regional Conference

Post date: Apr 30, 2015 5:53:19 PM

Friendship Force of the New Hampshire Seacoast recently hosted the 

Northeast/MidAtlantic Regional Conference for Friendship Force members from clubs as far south as Virginia. Held at the Sheraton Harborside Hotel, the conference featured training sessions for exchange directors, information on using social media for club promotion, and walking tours of several of Portsmouth’s most interesting sites and areas. About 50 members from nine different clubs enjoyed warm Seacoast hospitality. Friendship Force is an international organization of almost 400 clubs around the world. Headquartered in Atlanta, members commit to the mission of building international understanding and world peace through people-to-people exchanges among clubs. The organization will soon celebrate its 40th anniversary. More than 5,000 individuals travel annually on exchange visits among clubs.

Friendship Force of the New Hampshire Seacoast hosts two groups per year and travels 

internationally once each year to visit another club. In June 2015 the club will host 15 

Australians, followed in September by a similar size group from New Zealand. In recent 

years the club has hosted clubs from Turkey, Japan, Brazil and Germany. These 

“ambassadors” from other countries stay in member homes and come to know our region through daily activities organized by club members.

For more information about Friendship Force locally visit www.ffnh.org or 

internationally www.friendshipforce.org. The local club meets monthly at 6:00 p.m. on 

the 6th of each month. Contact president Jim Verschueren for information on meeting 

locations, jd.verschueren@gmail.com. 

Friendship Force club presidents from up and down the East Coast “put their noses to

the grindstone” at Dover’s Woodman Museum.