A Club Inspires: AWC Amsterdam
There are FAWCO clubs of all sizes and shapes across the world. A Club Inspires is a feature
where you will learn more about one of them. This time we are pleased to share with you one of
the FAWCO clubs based in Region 4: American Women’s Club of Amsterdam. Over to their
FAWCO Reps Lauren Mescon and Julie Lehr...
The American Women’s Club of Amsterdam (AWCA) was started in 1927 by Carolyn Korthals
Altes. The first meetings were held at the home of the wife of the US Consul General, who was an
early member. While the club was started for social and cultural purposes, they soon began to
get involved in serving the public. The club actually began their own “Marshall Plan” before the
official one started. They would reach out to their friends in the States who would send care
packages full of needed items and the AWCA would distribute the packages. The Americans
back home were so happy to help that this continued for several years until the AWCA actually
had to beg their friends to stop sending them!
We have about 260 members representing a
variety of nationalities. The majority are
Americans but quite a few are not. Many of
our members are here for their husband’s or
partner’s job, although, not exclusively;
many women also came sans partners for
their own careers.
There is an elected board and candidates
are solicited via our nominating committee,
in accordance with club by-laws. We usually
have an amazing slate of officers, with most
positions being filled with co-leaders (i.e. two
people). With the busy schedules of many of
our members as a result of their jobs,
children or travels, they are more comfortable not having sole responsibility for something. The
beauty of our board, though, is that everyone does everything; if someone is missing, even last
minute for unforeseen reasons, the rest of the board does not hesitate to step in.
We have two monthly meetings - a daytime General Meeting (GM) and an evening event the
following week known as At Night. The speakers are different as the At Night meetings tend to
be smaller and attended by members who work during the day. Naturally we also have regular
activities, from book clubs to cooking club to
Pokeno nights to Guys Night Out to pub
nights. There are tons of newcomers’
activities, including a monthly newcomers’
coffee, lunch and a Saturday night cocktail
party. Everyone is welcome and there are
plenty of non-newcomer regulars at each
one. We also have a robust excursions
program which includes day trips and
overnight trips.
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The club also fundraises for the FAWCO Target
project. This year we were really excited to
have “Raise Your Hand for Education” events
both for members and a corporation. We
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