UPDATES!

Valentine's Day Party
Where: Project Team
When: 1-2pm Tuesday, February 14th

Valentine's Day Cards Sale Fundraiser
Where: Commons East Walkway
When: Feb 9, 10, 13, 14 from 11am-2pm

Watching UCR Men's Basketball Game
Where: UCR Rec Center
When: Saturday February 18th Time TBA
FREE!!!! (w Student ID Card)

For Saturday, March 4th, we will be having our 10th annual Best Buddies Bash. Details are not available now, but it will probably be held at USC and consist of a Friendship Walk, bands, activities, and speakers. We will have our own booth so people can meet our chapter. All Southern Best Buddies Chapters have been invited to this event. We know that this event is some kind of fundraising one and that all chapters are urged to raise as much money as possible for this event. We will give you more information about this event as soon as we get it! LET US SHOW OUR HIGH SPIRIT THERE AS WELL AS BE THE CHAPTER THAT RAISES THE MOST MONEY!!!! WE ALSO HOPE THAT OUR 2 ADVISORS CAN COME AS WELL! Becky (our program manager) will be there.

March Bash
For the March Bash, we are trying to get as many college buddy pairs as possible to come walk and as many people (associate members, college buddies, family members, and all your friends/guests) to come to this event. It's Saturday March 4 from 10am to 4pm at the University of Southern California (USC), so PLS reserve this date. It will be a VERY BIG event with lots of free food, and we have an EXCELLENT chance of being recognized as an outstanding chapter, so PLS come to this once in a life time experience!

Calling all College Buddies and Associate Members,

(For College Buddies)Please let us know if you are interested in walking in the event with your buddy. After you let us know, we will give you a form for you to get friends and people to sponsor you. We also need associate members to volunteer to gather donation money as well, so let us know if you are interested.

Our goal as an organization is to raise $1,000 total for the event. This means that if 15 buddy pairs walk, then each buddy pair just needs to raise around $65 dollars for our chapter to raise around $1,000. We will be getting 25% of what we make back to our chapter ($250 if we make $1,000), so pls try your best!!!!

Vote for Buddy Pair!
Do you have a buddy pair that just stands out in your mind, or even a couple of buddy pairs that deserve to be recognized because they do such an amazing job and have such an amazing friendship?If you do and you think they should be recognized by Volvo for the Volvo for Life Friendship Award then go to www.volvoforlifeawards.com. When you get there go to the Best Buddies tab and it will walk you through a series of questions regarding you and your buddies friendship. This award basically recognizes outstanding members and you have a chance to win 25,000 towards you and your chapters.

TV TAPING RECAP!

On Friday, January 20th, we went to a TV Taping Fundraiser. We were scheduled to watch "Love, Inc" (a relatively new show) but the show all of a sudden became so popular (no more seats to fill) that we couldn't get in........So we had to leave LA. Despite this, everyone had a great time eating dinner in LA and later also watching movies at Anna's house! Among the people who came were Stephanie Do, Kieu Luu, Andrew Pham and buddies Andrea Sultan, Stacey Box, Jane Hon, Robert Sweetwater, Johnny Haines, and Rachel Contreras! A million thanks to Kieu and Stephanie for providing rides!!!!

So, here we are at the end of January. We had a successful Dance during the first week of instruction, and we've made $400 total for January (MLK Run + Vendor). What a great support we have from our members to make our organization so successful! We now only have $800 left to raise to reach our goal of $2000 by June!!!!

Our Program Manager Becky Boatwright is amazed and very impressed with all of your work and input in this organization. She feels that all the members in Riverside has got it together and that you are making an impact in the lives of many others!!! :)

Regards,

Best Buddies Officers

We have sponsored a vendor!

It's only the end of week two this quarter, and Best Buddies is on a roll! A huge thanks goes out to Anna for working with a vendor to come on campus this past week. Sonia Ibanez came out on Wednesday and Thursday to represent Matachos, which sells handbags and the like. By sponsoring Matachos to sell on campus, we've earned $300!

Leadership Positions Available

Please email us if you are interested in any of these positions! Spaces fill up quickly...Hurry! We need to pick a CBD by mid February, who will then have a friendly interview with our Program Manager Becky......

College Buddy Director

-The CBD organizes, leads, and maintains a chartered chapter of Best Buddies and ensures that chapter members fulfill the mission of Best Buddies for one academic year

Qualifications:
-Full time undergraduate student
-Must have completed one full year of college
-Must be a matched college buddy
-Must attend international leadership conference in July 2006
-Must fulfill role for one academic year

Responsibilities:
-Hold regular meetings
-Establish regular contact with Host Site Coordinator, Faculty Advisor, and BB staff
-Supervise the distribution and collection of all Membership Applications, etc
-Submit all paperwork by appropriate deadline
-Ensure monthly Friendship Updates are completed and submitted by the 15th of each month
-Update webpage and send out mass emails
-Delegate tasks to officers and make sure tasks are done

Membership Coordinator

-Ensures full participation and conducts monthly friendship Updates on each match

Qualifications:
-Must be enrolled as an full time undergraduate student
-Must be highly organized and willing to work with all chapter members
-Must be a matched College Buddy
-Must fulfill role for one academic year

Responsibilities:
-Prepare chapter roster and distribute to Program Manager, College Buddies, Buddies, Faculty Advisor, and Host Site Coordinator
-Maintain regular communication with Host Site Coordinator to monitor matches' progress
-Help matches resolve problems with assistance from College Buddy Director and Host Site Coordinator
-Conduct monthly Friendship Updates with HSC and submit to Program Manager

Activities Coordinator

-Supervise and documents all chapter activities, including a Best Buddies Month activity

Qualifications:
-Must be enrolled as full-time undergraduate student
-Must be organized and creative
-Must be a matched College Buddy
-Must be able to fulfill role for one academic year

Responsibilities:
-Prepare and distribute semester schedules to Program Manager, College Buddies, Buddies, Host Site coordinator, and Faculty Advisor
-Plan, direct, and supervise group outings including fundraising activities
-Appoints committees to help plan activities when necessary
-Keep accurate information about member attendance and committee participation for all group activities

Treasurer

-Works with chapter officers to monitor financial resources and prepares chapter budget
-Plan and execute fundraisers

Qualifications:
-Must be enrolled as a full time undergraduate student
-Must be detail oriented and capable of balancing ASUCR checking account
-Must fulfill role for one academic year
-Must be a matched College Buddy

Responsibilities:
-Prepare chapter budget
-Meet with Activities Coordinator to ensure chapter activities are funded
-Keep financial records in accordance with college rules and procedures
-Work with College Buddy Director to prepare chapter's financial reports
-Manger chapter fundraising activities
-Communicate and lead Fundraising Committee

E Buddies Coordinator

-Works with buddies to introduce them to the Internet and e-mail. If the Buddies are interested, the e-buddies Coordinator will help them to sign up for and participate in e Buddies
-Maintains our webpage

Qualifications:
-A college buddy who has interest in the internet and email
-Student willing to work with the Host Site and Buddies on a regular basis
-Must be enrolled as a full-ime undergraduate student for the academic year.
-Must fulfill role for one academic year
-Must be a matched College Buddy

Responsibilities:
-Invite Members to our webpage
-Post Blogs
-Disseminate e-buddies information at the meetings
-Present the program to the buddies and UCR members


Co-Publicist (We have 2 of this position)

-Publicize our organization via banners, flyers, and other ways

Qualifications:

-Able to meet deadlines and publicize in a timely manner
-Must be enrolled as a full time undergraduate student
-Must fulfill role for entire academic year
-Must be a matched College Buddy

Responsibilities:

-Communicate and lead Publicity Committee
-Publicizing include calling members and making and putting up banners around dorms and campus
-Publicizing by making flyers, making copies, and posting around campus and dorms
-Publicize at other organizations' meetings and in classrooms
-Publicize by putting an add for the Highlander Newspaper
-Any other form of publication
-Responsibilities of the two co publicist can be delegated between the two officers

Active Members of December!!!!!!

Spotlight College Buddy Pair:


Stephanie Do (*CB*) and Stacey Box (*BB*)

Stephanie is our current Treasurer! She has been a part of Best Buddies since winter of 2005 and has been very loyal to our organization! She was the only officer, besides Anna and Johnny (Buddy Director), who attended the local leadership conference in Los Angeles during the summer. Stephanie attended our Block Party, our November and January meetings, the "Love, Inc." TV taping, the November Ice Cream Social, our recruitment events, the January Dance, the X-mas Party, the MLK Run, and the list goes on! She posts many blogs, takes initiative to send out emails, and she is very willing to learn and help out her CBD! Stephanie has helped us open up an ASUCR account that we have not had for years, and because of her, we have fundraised $900 so far! Thank you Stephanie, for always providing rides for the buddies at Stacey's group home! Stacey Box has been Stephanie's buddy since last year. She is a very friendly person who is a very active attendee in our events, including the Ice Cream Social and January Dance. Go Stacey!

Associate Member of the Month: Victor Iniguez

Victor joined our organization in the middle of Fall Quarter and has been active since. Victor participated in our See's Candy sale and actually the first to turn in his money to us! He wanted to sell more candy, but we ran out of chocolate to sell. Victor attended our November meeting and also our November Ice Cream Social!!! Thank you Victor for your commitment to our mission, and for supporting Best Buddies at UCR!!!

Jan 15 MLK Run-Third Place!

The MLK Run on Sunday was a paramount experience! Our volunteer runners Paola Martinez, Cassandra Forrest, Brian Ngo, Christopher Rivera, and Derrick Hansen woke up before 7am in the morning to volunteer for this event! Buddies Stacey Box, Andrea Sultan, Jane Hon, members Anna Nguyen, Stephanie Do, and two guests also cheered the runners!! At 22 minutes 23 seconds (and just 2 minutes from 2nd place) for a 5K relay race, we earned third place and also $100 for Best Buddies! At first place was the Army, and at second place was Alpha Phi Alpha (fraternity). Given that we were the only true non profit (we get no government funding) + we started our race off a little late, this event was a really exciting/fun one and this experience was definitely one we are proud of! Thank you runners!

In Friendship,

Best Buddies Officers

Jan 14th Dance Pictures!

Hey there!

This weekend was a busy one! With 49 people in attendance, Saturday's dance was definitely a success~! Everyone brought a little something for dinner. We ate and chatted, watched cable, and danced the night away~! Let us thank all the officers for making an appearance, as well as

Lars
Kevin I.
Matt
Brian
Khoa
Mohammad
Ariel
Miriam
Angel
Cassie

Special thanks to those college buddies that went that extra mile of calling up their buddies and also driving them to the dance!

This event was the most successful so far because almost all the buddies came to the dance: 17 out of 21 buddies~!

Jan 10th Meeting Recap/MLK and Homecoming Competition Update

Dear Friends,

Let us welcome to Best Buddies Lisa Sun, Lien Do, and Candace Best!!!! May we all enhance each other's lives! This makes 74 members so far.........

Thank you for all who were able to make it to the meeting! We started off with the BB cheer and closed the meeting with it~! Here's a recap of the meeting:

A) Key Players
i) Dr. Blacher-donated a total of $75 to our club
ii) We met Dr. Patricia Walsh on the Ireland Board of BB
iii)We met new Program Manager Becky Boatwright (Heidi Morey recently resigned)

B) Events
i) Dance Sat. January 14th

C) Fundraisers
i) MLK Run, Sun Jan 15th
ii) Homecoming Spirit Competition (moved to the end of the quarter)
iii) TV taping Fri Jan 20th
iv) Sponsoring Vendor onto Campus in January

D) Signed up for leadership positions
i) College Buddy Director
ii) Membership Coordinator
iii) Activities Coordinator
iv) Co-Publicist (*banners*)
v) Co-Publicist (*flyers*)
vi) Treasurer
vii) E-Buddies Coordinator

Please email us if you are interested. We are interviewing and picking people by the end of Winter Quarter.

E) See's Candy

Please call Stephanie (951-454-7521) to turn in your See's money

We've made $800 last quarter and if everything works out, we will make another $800 by the end of January.....Kudos for us!

Homecoming Competition Fundraiser

The competition has moved to the end of the quarter. We will notify you when we get further information. Thank you for those who signed up to participate.

Events for January!

Meeting
Tuesday, January 10th 6:40pm sharp (ultra short meeting!)
Humanities 1400 (next to spiral staircase).


January Group Event Dance
Saturday, January 14th 5-8pm
Location TBA
Potluck event-Christina will be sending out an email for people to sign up to bring food


Fundraiser: Martin Luther 5K Run
Sunday, January 15th Time TBA.
1st place organization gets $300, second place $200, etc.

Runners out there! Please contact us if you are interested!

Fundraiser: "One on One" or another show TV taping.
Friday, January 20th: leaving UCR at 2pm.

Christmas Party Extra Pictures!

Picture 1: Andrea Sultan w/ College Buddy Miriam Torres
Picture 2: Sepideh Farnia
Picture 3: Thi Mai w/ Buddy Jennifer Snedden
Picture 4: Josh Ridder, Associate Member Mustafa Maloo, Advisor Eldon Rynders, Timothy Fewkes
Picture 5: Jennifer, Felix Guillen, Brigette San Miguel, Timothy, Andrea, Trent Haas