www.edelweissgac.org The officers for 2015 were sworn in during the Officers Ball on January 10th. They are Miguel Mata, president; Mark Meadows, vice president; Christine Philips, finance director; and Kathy Wilds, executive secretary. Please be sure to join us this month for Kaffeeklatsch Feb 1 Page 4 Masken Ball/Damen Ball Feb 8 Page 8 Kehraus Feb 17 Page 6 Roaring 20 s Ball Feb 28 Page 9

The 2015 Officers and Board Jay Vandersloot Chairman of the Board 362-1733 Steve Borbas Vice Chairman 265-7088 Miguel Mata President 620-3666 Mark Meadows Vice-President 296-1328 Kathy Wilds Executive Secretary 265-2082 Christine Philips Financial Director 710-3972 John Waldrop Director-at-Large 298-5893 Michael Begay Director-at-Large 304-1668 Walter Kirsch Director-at-Large 296-7980 The 2015 Committee Chairs and Coordinators Kay Blemel Membership 293-5620 Membership Input: kay_blemel@mgtsciences.com Kathe Mirabal German Culture 836-6182 Alex Mirabal German Culture co-chair 205-3793 Open Position Entertainment Contracts Gloria Casale Functions Coordinator 286-8567 gloria.casale@gmail.com 514-7185 John Waldrop Newsletter Editor & Web 298-5893 Newsletter Input: gacmagazine@live.com NOTE: Deadline for Newsletter Input: 15th of each Month Other Positions and Associate Groups Miguel Mata Past President 620-3666 Kenny Blemel Elferrat Chair 991-6997 Rosalie Pfeiffer Greeting Cards 299-3951 Open Position Volksdance Teacher Carolyn McKenna Decorating Coordinator 298-4555 Luisa Gignac Decorating 881-4847 Kathe Mirabal Kaffeeklatsch 836-6182 Norita Callahan Irish American Society Rep 298-2708 Kathe Mirabal Front Door Coordinator 836-6182 Steve Borbas Hungarian Club Rep 265-7088 Edith Henderson St. Andrew Scottish Society 798-9422 Norita Callahan Dinner Ticket Sales-GAC 298-2708 Casey Denhollander Rio Grand Jazz Society 266-3148 2

Voice of the President Dear Members, Getting ready to leave for GAMGA so this will be short. Despite the cold weather, we gave a warm welcome to 2015 at our New Year s Eve party. We had great food and lots of great music and dancing. Thank you all for braving the elements to welcome in the New Year with your friends and fellow members. Thanks, also, to those who attended the Officer s Ball. A good number of you turned out to congratulate and welcome your officers for 2015. We have a good group of people and I think 2015 will be a good year. Help us make it so. Coming up in February, we have Masken Ball/ Damen Ball on the 14th with Jim Brauer and Die Schuncken Bub n followed by Kerhaus on the 17th with Walter Kirsch providing music for your listening pleasure. Please join Prince Jens and Princess Britt in celebrating the last two Fasching events for 2015. Also, in February, we have the Roaring 20 s Ball on the 28th featuring Joe Sais and Showcase. Check your magazine for details of these and other upcoming functions. See, I told you this would be short. I ll be back next month with a report on the festivities of GAMGA (wait-- what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas). See you at the club. Miguel Mata Sent from Windows Mail 3

Kaffeeklatsch The kaffeeklatsch will be held on Sunday, February 1st this month at 3pm. Call Kathe Mirabal at 836-6182 if you wish to participate. Thank you for all the kind thoughts and beautiful cards I received while I was in the hospital. Hope to see you at the kaffeeklatsch. Kathe Mirabal Calling all Dancers It s time to start thinking about Vienna Ball on April 11th. We will again be performing Die Fledermaus, the Polonaise, and, hopefully, a few new dances. I need a minimum of 8 couples and a maximum of 20 couples. You don t have to be a professional dancer, but knowing and understanding basic commands such as right and left and forward and back would be helpful. You must also be able to commit to the 8 or 9 practices starting in February. If you are interested or have questions, please call me, Sheri Kraemer, at 271-2634 or 620-7768. We will meet at the club on Monday, February 2nd at 7pm to go over general information and to set up times and dates for practice. I thoroughly enjoyed last year and look forward to working with all of you again this year. Sheri Kraemer OOPS! The following attendees at the Royal Ball were inadvertently left out of the January newsletter: 1974-1975 Arthur Barrett 1980-1981 Dennis and Rosalie Pfeiffer 4

We Send Cards! Please notify Rosalie Pfeiffer, at 299-3951, if you know of any Club Member who should receive a greeting card, i.e., get well, sympathy, congratulations, etc. Cultural Exchange Library The bookcases in the hallway hold the library contents. Donations of cultural books, videos and DVDs will gladly be accepted. Borrowing will be on an honor basis. If you borrow from the library please return the items in a timely fashion 5

Tuesday, February 17, 2015 Come witness the demise of Prinze Jens Peters and support his lovely Prinzess Britt in her quick recovery afterwards Ceremony will commence at 7pm Meal served from 5:30-7:00pm Chef Surprise For only $10.00 First Come First Serve Please make checks payable to Elferrat No reservation needed 6

GAC Prizengarde members in the North American Garde Group - Hyunju Blemel (1st on end left back row), Lauren Kelley.(2nd from the end left back row) and Katie Begay (4th from left back row) For more on GAMGA see pages 14-16 7

German American Club Damenball/Maskenball Saturday, February 14th Door Fee: Members $10 Music by: Swing Shift From 7:00 til 11:00 Meal prepared by Miguel Mata and Bruce Miller MENU Normandy Chicken Smashed Potatoes Vegetables Salad Dessert Meal Served from: 5:30 to 6:45PM Meal $10.00 per person Attire: Costume or Smart Casual Please make meal reservations by February 11th, call 888-4833 8

German American Club Roaring 20 s Ball Saturday, February 28th Door Fee: Members $10 Music by: Showcase From 7:00 til 11:00 Meal Served from: 5:30PM to 6:45 PM Prepared by Sheri Kraemer & Miguel Mata MENU Onion marinated Potato croquettes Vegetable Salad Dessert Meal: $10 per person Please make meal reservations by Wednesday, February 25th 888-4833 Attire: Smart casual or costume 9

Upcoming Activities Events and Dates are Subject to change March 3rd Goodbye Dinner Elferrat 8th 1848 Hungarian Revolution 10th Elferrat Meeting 14th St. Pat s Day Jim Brauer 28th Western Night Paul Pino April 4th Private Party-Madie M 11th Vienna Ball Jim Brauer 25th Fiesta Paul Pino May 2nd Maifest Swingshift 16th Sock Hop Showcase June 6th Strawberry Fest Swingshift 7th Hungarian Picnic 13th Private Party-Madie M 20th TBD July 18th Luau Roger Burns August 8th Member Appreciation Showcase 9th St. Stephan s Day 15th Private Party Madie M 22nd End of Summer Bash Paul Pino September 5th Winefest Swingshift 19th 50th Anniversary Party Jim Brauer Jazz Sunday February 15th, 2:00 pm til 5:30 pm GAC Members Welcome! Join us for some great music & dancing! 10

ESSEN UND SPRECHEN This month we will gather at 6:30pm on the second Wednesday, February 11 th, for our monthly Essen und Sprechen Treffen (gathering) at the Haru Restaurant (Japanese, Sushi, Chinese) 1035 Juan Tabo Boulevard Northeast, Albuquerque, NM 87112, 505-200-9253 (which is on the west side of the street a little north of Lomas, and is across from Wendy s). Those at the dinner each month vote on where to go the following month. In January we had 13 in attendance. Come join together at our monthly Essen und Sprechen practice your German and socialize over dinner in German (with some English). Please, PLEASE, reply by the prior Sunday, February 8 th, to Jay by email to JayVandersloot@yahoo.com or call at 505-362 -1733 to let us know whether you will be there, so we will know how large of a table to reserve. With such large groups as we have been having we need to reserve a table. Cigar Evening Maker s and Macanudo Friday February 27th 4pm 7pm Bring your favorite cigar (BYOC) And enjoy your favorite bourbon or whiskey on this relaxing evening We have Bushmills, Maker s Mark, Jim Beam, Wild Turkey and others 11

Thank You to the 50 plus GAC Members and Associate Members for attending GAMGA 2015 at the Tuscany Suites and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. I am happy to report that we had the best representation of Edelweiss am Rio Grande members and Associate Members to date for GAMGA What did we do at GAMGA 2015, you ask? We kicked the weekend off with dancing. ALL GAC and Associate members dressed in fiesta attire for the masquerade party. We won the GAMGA 2015 Group Costume Contest!!! We celebrated with our Prinzenpaar and Prinzengarde as a group at the Hofbrauhaus. We honored our GAC Karnival Group Prinzenpaar Jens and Britt Peters and celebrated karnival in grand fashion Our very own GAC Prinzengarde led by Funkenmariechen Alexandra Mirabal performed at their first GAMGA Dieter Fox was honored as the GAMGA Verdienstorden for 2015 We took the opportunity to enjoy the sights and sounds of Las Vegas throughout the weekend. We had a great time celebrating in the 60 degree plus Las Vegas weather Special Thank You to: GAC Karnival Group 2014 2015 Prinzenpaar Jens and Britt Peters Everyone who attended and participated together as a group, making this a Very Special weekend for Prinz Jens and Prinzess Britt Peters Junior Prinze Jacob Begay and Junior Prinzess Lauren Kelley for attending The GAC Prinzengarde for performing in Saturday evening s events and representing in the first ever North American Prinzengarde. Alexandra Mirabal (Funkenmariechen), Lauren Kelley, Aurora Genne, Katie Begay, Alex Begay, Insun Blemel and Hyunju Blemel The GAC Mariachi Quartet - Bruce Miller, Peter and Insun Blemel, and Albert Deimer You were instrumental in our winning the costume contest. John Waldrop for taking photos and allowing us time to submit for February s GAC newsletter. Our next event is the Masken / Damen Ball on February 14th 2015. 12

Music provided by our very own Jim Brauer. Please RSVP early. (look for more info in this newsletter) I encourage everyone to attend in business / formal attire with masks. Looking forward to a great night. Viva La Karnival, Kenny Blemel Elferrat Chairman 2014-2015 Winners of the Group Costume Contest These and other GAMGA photographs may be seen on our website at www.edelweissgac.org 13

Edelweiss Attendees at the 2015 GAMGA Festival 1. Jens and Britt Peters (Prince and Princess) 2. Jim and Carol Rehbein 3. John & Karin Waldrop 4. Norita Callahan 5. Heidi Meisen 6. Carol Meeks 7. Rosalie Pfeiffer 8. Fritz and Carol Eberhardt 9. Bruce and Cindy Miller 10. Miguel Mata 11. Sherry Kramer 12. Ken and Kay Blemel 13. Maria Blemel 14. Peter and Okmi Blemel 15. Hyunju Blemel (Prinzengarde) 16. Insun Blemel (Prinzengarde) 17. Aurora Genne (Prinzengarde) 18. Alex Mirabal 2013-2014 Princess (Funkenmariechen Prinzengarde Leader) 19. Michael and Kathleen Begay 20. Jacob Begay (Junior Prince 2014 2015, Prinzengarde) 21. Alex Begay (Prinzengarde) 22. Katie Begay (Prinzengarde) 23. Lauren Kelly (Junior Princess 2014-2015, Prinzengarde) 24. Gunter Reinke 25. Elisabeth Daddio 26. Dieter Fox 27. Irma Thacher 28. Kathy Mueller 29. Roland Mueller 30. Liz Frey 31. Carol Frey 32. Kenny Blemel 33. Sherry Tucker 34. Albert and Tricia Deimer 35. Paul Nigrey and Maggie Athaf (Drove up from Lake Havasu and joined in the fun at Hofbrauhaus) 14

Birthdays, Anniversaries, Membership Geburtstage - Herren (Men s Birthdays) Sal (Celerino) Archuleta Art Barrett Valentin Garcia Larry Jones Walter Liske Wallace S. Muenzenberger Jr, Mel Perea William & Erik Rooyakkers Geburtstage-Damen (Ladies Birthdays) Martina Bright Gloria Fischbach Lydia Hernandez Lillian Henson Diana E. Jiron Dottie Kohler Breda Liske Vikki McCormack Jeana Norris Berta Parker Rosalie Pfeiffer Kathy Wilds Anniversaries Fred & Dona Absher Jonathan & Sylwia Evans Richard & Ottilie Golby Hans & Betty Lou Gonzales Jens & Britt Peters Charles & Rosalie Volz John & Karin Waldrop Hans & Lorraine Zahari Membership : Updated as of January 2015 Total 310 Males 148 Females 162 Couples 92 Singles 126 Life Members 14 15

Mon. thru Thur. Night $350 Friday Day $350 Friday Night $400 Saturday Day $400 Saturday Night. $500 Sunday Day Only $400 Call Miguel at 620-3666 or Michael at 304-1668 For more information Security $135 extra per guard Use of Kitchen $100 extra Use of Linen Table Cloths $100 extra Cleaning $100 extra Please note that you must be a dues paying GAC member to rent the club. If you have been a member for more than 3 years, you may rent the club on availability for your family functions at discounted price (weddings excluded). Our advertisers are very important to us. Please mention seeing their ad in the GAC newsletter when you patronize them. Current Advertising Pricing per month Full Page $30.00 Half Page $20.00 Quarter Page $12.00 Business Card $12.00 Insert $30.00 each, per edition 16