Dear All,

Welcome to the Egyptology Club. Thank you so much for your interest in dedicating your time and efforts to our small academic/cultural club. I hope that, with your support, ideas and contributions, we are going to have a lot of fun this semester! And yes, we are on Facebook! :) http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#!/group.php?gid=48773696172&ref=ts

For all of you, but especially those who have not made it to the First Official Meeting on time or at all, here the promised summary of the main points.

My name is Sabine Harding, Egyptology major/Philosophy minor, Dr. Salima Ikram’s assistant, and president of the Egyptology Club, which I re-founded in 2009. I am originally from Germany and have been living and studying in Egypt since November 2006. This semester, the people primarily supporting me (and the Club) are:

Aliaa Ismail: aliaa_ismail@aucegypt.edu
Lori Lawson: jolojake@earthlink.net
Sotiris Efstathiadis: sotef@yahoo.com

They are awesome, and essentially share the role of representative president, vice president and treasurer. Thank you, guys! I could not make it without you!

In addition, my dedicated husband, William, who works as a CTMS rapid response support staff for HUSS ( CTMS essentially deal with the class room podium computers) is the webmaster/webdesigner/web and tech support for our Club.

William Harding: williamh@aucegypt.edu (Thank you for all your past and future support and hard work!)

He will also be helping out with movie nights, etc. Primarily, he is in charge of the AUC website

www.egyptologyclub.co.nr ( it is co.nr, because that is a free domain;) )

which will be updated shortly! He wasn’t at the meeting today, but you will meet him soon!

In addition, however, and in order to make and keep the club running smoothly, I’d appreciate if some of you could sign up for one or several officer positions. The available positions are:

Office of Budget & Finances: deals with the Club’s budget, money reimbursement from the Office of Student Development (OSD), funds and fund raising, etc.

Office of Activity & Event Planning: deals with planning and organization of events, field trips, lectures, as well as catering for meetings and PR work for guest speakers, etc.
(incl. Catering and PR)

Office of Promotion & Advertisement: deals with promoting and advertising events and the like, but also with searching the net for upcoming lectures and posting them on our Facebook group (see above)

Office of Study & Research: deals primarily with the Hieroglyphic and Research Support Group (see below)

Office of Writing & Publication: deals with reading, editing and publishing possible student papers on our website and/or being actively involved in creating and maintaining a Club Egyptological Newsletter (more information on the letter will be provided shortly!)

If you are interested in filling one or several of these positions ( be assured: you won’t have a lot to do! I am well aware, that we are all busy, busy apt pupils;) ), please simply email me with your preferred position. Email me also, if you just want to learn more about a certain positions. Thank you!

What the Club offers:

We are a small, academic club, with a very limited budget and timely restraints. Nevertheless, we will try to fit in as much fun activities and interesting lectures as possible. Events, field trips and the like will be announced at least 1-2 weeks in advance, so you have plenty of time to plan accordingly. Here are some of the upcoming events and activities:

*”Chasing Mummies”-Movie and Gossip Night: We will meet every other Thursday to gather, enjoy some food, watch Chasing Mummies and discuss, why this is neither Egyptology nor Archaeology. The first episode will be shown next Thursday, September 30th, 2010. I will send out a couple of emails beforehand, to get to know your schedule for Thursdays, and inform you about the exact time and room ( here on campus). Chasing Mummies can be supplemented by other shows/movies, ranging from documentaries over classics, like Cleopatra, to pseudo-Egyptological/Archaeological movies, such as The Mummy, Indiana Jones, Stargate, etc. The main reason is to gather, chat, have fun, and maybe learn some things from the discussions.

*Club T-Shirts: I will soon send out an email to find out, who would be interested in purchasing a T-shirt with the Club’s or Ancient Egypt theme logo, your preferred sizes, colors etc. There will be a discount for club members. Non-club members can purchase T-shirts, as well, but to a slightly higher price. The profit will directly go to the Club’s budget. We will start printing these T-shirts fairly soon (sometime in October or as soon as we have found a suitable print shop)

*Minor Field Trips: These field trips would include e.g. moonlight trail ride ( on horse, camel, or donkey back) at Saqqara, Faluka rides, a trip to the Pharaonic Village and/or Cairo Museum etc. As these are mostly self-funded, we can organize them rather quickly. They will probably all take place on weekends or Tuesdays. There will be plenty of emails beforehand, so you will not miss any of these trips, if you wish to attend them.

*Major Field Trips: Overnight or all-day, weekend field trips, e.g. to Alexandria, Delta sites, etc are currently pending a sponsor or larger Club fund. However, if we agree that we can mostly self-fund some of them, we can just as well organize them ourselves. Again, there will be plenty of emails, notes and organization before actual dates are set.

*Egyptology Lectures: Dates for major Egyptological lectures and/or guest speakers at AUC and Cairo in general will primarily be posted as an event on our Facebook group, by the Event and Promotion officers. Important lectures, you should definitely attend ( e.g. any by Salima Ikram;)) will also be announced via email.

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*Hieroglyphic Study and Research Support Group: In addition, the Egyptology Club offers a Hieroglyphic Tutor/Study and Research Support Group, in order to aid anyone, who needs or wants it, in Hieroglyphic and/or with research for essays, presentations, projects, etc. Since this “Group” is primarily run by me (Sabine), supported (hopefully) by other Egyptology majors at AUC, as well as the Study & Research officers, meetings will be held upon request, either on Tuesdays ( preferred!), or if doable, during Assembly Hour (roughly: 12.50 to 01.50pm, Sun/Mon/Wed/Thu).

If enough of you are interested, I will offer a Rare Books/Library Resource crash course during one Assembly Hour sometime next week. In this case, please email me separately, subject: Research Crash Course, and a day of the week, except Tuesday, that would suit you best. If enough of you have answered me by Thursday, I will try to sort out a day over the weekend!

As part of the Research Support Group, I also offer summaries and/or translations (if the text is not unrealistically long, that is) of German and French sources that you may need for your projects/articles. Egyptology, especially in fields like religion, language, literature and art has A LOT of those. You should give me a weekend or Tuesday in between, depending on the length and complexity of the text. I will always try my best to finish on time, but sadly, I am still only human after all, and although I have been working on ignoring my social life and living on the bare minimum of sleep and meal breaks ever since I have started my degree at AUC, I cannot completely go without just yet ( that is what grad school will teach us anyway ;) ). So,bare with me :)

Those of you, who put their names on the Hieroglyphic Study/Research Support Group will receive another email from me, probably by tomorrow or Wednesday.

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Finally, I want your input, ideas, criticism, etc. This is not MY Club, will say, I am not (solely ;-) ) telling you what to do or when/where to meet. I am merely suggesting things to get started. So, please, please, please don’t be shy to throw in any ideas and suggestions. And please feel free to schedule meetings without me (if I am not available). If people are interested, we can meet weekly, discuss current topics in Egyptology or share our research foci and ideas! Be creative and interactive!!! :)

Also: If you have friends/classmates, who want to join the Egyptology Club, please tell them they can still do so until September 30th, 2010. They just need to send me an email (Subject: Egyptology Club) with their name, and maybe phone number, and I will add them to the list. For organizational reasons, I can and will not accept any new members after September 30th.

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I believe, that was it for this time. Thank you all so much for coming, and/or showing interest in the club! Please join our Facebook group!

If you have any questions, problems, etc, not only concerning Club stuff, but also Egyptology courses or professors in general, please do not hesitate to email me, or try to find me in Dr. Ikram’s office ( 2073) in the Egyptology department.

I look forward to seeing you again soon!!

All my best wishes,
Sabine Harding