I would like to invite any ladies in this forum to attend a meeting of the newly-formed Bangkok Expats' Association (which has its own forum here).

The next meeting will be Wednesday, August 13th, 5:00 P.M.-8:00 P.M. at The Office Bar & Grill just off Sukhumvit Soi 33, down the car park drive immediately beside Degas Club.

Women are badly under-represented in this two-week-old association and I would dearly love to see some of you come around.

Thanks!

Kurt Francis, Acting President

The Bangkok Expats' Association

Ladies Under-Represented?

There must be at least 35-40 bar-girls in your beer bar according to male sources.

Are you now procuring Expat women for your rent-a-woman-for-a-night business ?

How many pimps do yo have in your association ?

What kind of association are you ?

Are SheMales welcome in your ass-o-ciation ?

Do you have any credibility at all?

Bobby Bang - Bangkok (female)

Mekhong is an extremely polluted river

Hi Kurt,

Thank you for your invitation, I know some of the girls would maybe feel this was a male dominated event, (not sure why, just the way it is sometimes!!??) so your invitation has opened a channel for us girls to feel more comfortable coming along.

Unfortunatly, I will be out of the country until the beginning of Septemeber & then spending a week or so in Bangkok before heading home down south so please keep us informed of future dates & meeting places.

Regards

Boo

Hmmm... BangBang has just joined ThaiVisa but sounds a little bitter and aggressive for a newbie... To my taste, though.

(Cannot think that any competitive Club could ever put itself in a such down position so let s consider it is 'genuine' and just ignore this comment).

As Boo commented, I also felt this was a male-dominated event, but your invitation eased my worries. Will try to pass-by on Wednesday evening (if I manage to find my way in Sukhumvit   )

Cheers anyway.

Bang Bang, would you like to expand on your comments,maybe you know something we on this board need to know, or are your comments from other peoples experiences??

Timba, some posts were made last night in Expat community & then removed suggesting this organisation was not completly kosher or nice so any info of your visit you have would bee good to hear.

To me, it sounds fine but I suppose, anyone not happy with the running or people attending, could just stop going?

There must be at least 35-40 bar-girls in your beer bar according to male sources.

Bang Bang, seems that you did not attend the event personnaly. However, I trust that we Girls (Farang or not) would be most interested if you could develop your thoughts a little bit more...

Thanks Boo for your explanations, it sounds like I missed some 'interesting', controversial posts. This makes me still more curious to go and see on my own too...

At least to witness the association in its early stage...

Maybe indeed they found it as a 'marketing tool' to rent the company of some ladies to attract the male community

(no barfine system yet for The Office Bar & Grill ? ).

At least I would expect they ll do the same for the expat female attendants... Introducing a handful (or more!) of good looking men to entertain us if we are bored of being robbed the attention by the local birds.:laugh:

But at the end, unhappy people just have the choice not to attend the events if they dont find them to their taste.

Got to go, try and decide on our own without get blurred by evasive post   ???

ha ha ha, not a bad idea about providing good looking men for the farang girls, sadly I am spoken for but what an incentive to move from the southern sticks to the big city Automatic dating pool.

Seems to me there might have been someone getting a bit carried away after a few drinks, I don't know, but it wasn't flattering thats for sure.

I will do my best to attend when i'm in Bkk next month & then I can see for myself.

Thanks to all of you who commented.

Of course, as members and officers of an association that has been meeting for such a short period of time, we recognize we will have to work hard to establish our credentials.

It is due to that consideration that we are casting about for a more neutral -- and more lady-friendly/family-friendly -- meeting place than our current one.  One of the owners of the venue is himself very concerned about this very issue.  There are plenty of groups, formal and informal, of guys who get together for whatever they believe constitutes "fun" in The City of Angels -- and The Bangkok Expats' Association is actively trying *not* to become just one more such grouping.  I myself have stressed again and again that we need to distinguish ourselves from other groups if we are to have appeal for potential members.

As I am not the sort of person to try to pressure anyone, I want to be clear that all I want to do by inviting any lady who wishes to attend a meeting to do so.  And if she is not comfortable to come to a venue such as our current one, I certainly can understand that.  Once we have a venue of broader appeal, I will be announcing it here and elsewhere, so if any of you lady posters would prefer to wait, fine.  I hope you will come when *you* feel comfortable so doing.

Again, thank each of you for your revealing comments; we've had so very few ladies attend so far that I have little feedback from how our potential female members feel.

Sincerely,

Mekhong Kurt

Any girl of the forum went to any of the two events (Bangkok Expat Club & Association)? YesterdayI was stuck doing computer work and could not attend the meetings .

All feedback would be most welcome!

Thanks.

Hi, Timba --

I'm sorry you were unable to attend the meeting -- I was really hoping some ladies would come, especially ladies from this thread, but in the event we didn't have a single lady come.

This is problematic for me, given that I really would like for the BEA to reach out to *all* parts of the community.  There are a few -- but *only* a few -- of the members who would be just as happy to see the BEA become nothing more than a boys' club.  I myself see no reason to have a formal organization for a boys' club -- all that is required for that is for a bunch of guys to get together and do their thing; no forms, no meetings, no dues, no nothing.  Yet if I cannot get any ladies to attend, then I may well be overwhelmed should that sentiment grow.

On the plus side, we had 8 or 9 first-timers, of which about half a dozen filled in membership forms; our number of registered members now stands at about 40 -- not bad for 6 meetings to date.

Bob, the owner of the meeting venue, and I have talked intensely the past 2 days about making the venue more attractive to people not given to going to bars.  The Office Bar & Grill has an outdoor "beer garden" sort of area, and he's considering air-conditioning it so we can meet there, away from the music, television, and bar activity.

I've changed my own travel schedule so as to be able to attend this coming Sunday's meeting, and I hope you can make it then.  The midday meetings have proven to be considerably calmer than the early evening ones in terms of bar activity.

The theme for Sunday's meeting is the buying of motor vehicles.  Andy, owner of Expats Motors, will be on hand to answer any questions.  Even if you don't care about such information it would be useful for you to attend so you can pass on the information should you meet someone else looking for it.

Cheers!

Mekhong Kurt

Oops -- I forgot to include ANdy's web site information; it's at http://geocities.com/kfarang/expat_motors.  He suggested anyone seeking information look there first, as the site is exhaustive and some may find it more convenient to look on the web than to come to the meeting this coming Sunday.

Hope this information is useful for anyone in the market for a car.

Cheers!

Mekhong Kurt, Acting President

The Bangkok Expats' Association

Hi Kurt, I'm sorry the turn out of ladies wasn't very good at the last meeting, hopefully it will pick up in the future, as you said, it's a new organisation & it will take time for people to become aware.

Maybe you could try advertising in other arenas, such as the big companies in BKK or English language schools that employ farang, it would fairly cheap to produce a basic poster & then ask existing members if they could post put them in their work places & at language schools they know to be near where they live or work? As for the ladies, there aren't many of us who use this board (in comparison to the men) & a fair percent of us don't live anywhere near BKK so attanding wouldn't be possible on a regular basis, but keep those invites coming, as we never know when we may find out selves in the big city.

Thanks, Boo --

I've done the poster bit on a very limited basis already in the immediate area.  Naturally, most other bars don't want to advertise a meeting in a competitor's place, so those are pretty much out.  Put one notice at the Villa on Sukhumvit, but it disappeared quickly.  Have put mentions here at www.thaivisa.com, www.nanaplaza.com, and www.nanapong.com.  I also just now set up a Yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thebangkokexpatsassociation and will start advertising it around.  (After some thought, I decided to leave it open to any and all for now, not just to people in Bangkok or who are here regularly enough to want to join.)  I also registered a wedsite URL to use for a site, http://www.bangkokexpatsassociation.com, though I don't have any pages made and loaded yet -- did the registration just this morning, and have to get it migrated over to the web hosting service.

In weeks to come, if we keep gaining members at the rate we did the first 6 meetings -- about 40 registered so far -- and as we get more organized and decide as a group just what directions in which we wish to go, I plan to invite reporters to attend, in their roles as reporters.  I've already asked Ricky Vaughn, the gentleman who does the morning show for Smile Radio, to ask his boss if she will let him donate a short block of air time to mention the BEA.  A member knows a lady who does a morning English-language show on one of the local TV stations and he is going to talk to her.

Anyway, it's all slowly beginning to take shape.  While there remain the odd naysayers, for the most part people have responded positively to the concept.

One thing we're going to do starting tomorrow is to hold the formal meeting itself in the covered patio area of the venue -- that way, ladies and children can be more comfortable, as can any gentlemen who prefer not to go inside a restaurant-bar.  Bob and Sam, the owners, are looking into air-conditioning that area.  Meeting there also gets us away from the television, music, and the sometimes loud volume of conversations among patrons not attending the meeting at all, but who come for the drinks and food the bar offers.

I'm also working on a logo so we can get proper business cards, stationery, etc. made up.

The one area of promotion where I'm pretty well stumped is formal advertising; ad rates here are high, compared to the dues we will eventually charge.  I'm hoping we can convince some company to sponsor some ads.

We do have 2 sponsors already, albeit ones related to each other: Asia Land Solutions and European Land Solutions; they specialize in landmine clearance, weapons deactivation, and other areas.  Two friends in 2 other corporations have recommended to their home offices they okay the Thai branches to sponsor us.  So we're looking at building a group of sponsors.

I also plan to join, for instance, the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, where we could get some excellent networking done.  The Rotary is another organization I'm looking into, for the same reason.

I've learned ONE thing might quick -- this sure is a lot of WORK!!!

Thanks for your post, Boo.

Yours,

Mekhong Kurt

Good afternoon --

Just to let readers in this thread know that the Expats' Association of Thailand (formerly "The Bangkok Expats' Association) has moved our Sunday business meetings to The Bourbon Street Restaurant in Washington Square 3-5 P.M. every Sunday; the venue owner, Doug Harrison, has kindly agreed to let us use his back dining room (it's actually off to the left as one enters) -- at no cost to the Association, for which we are in his debt.

We had our first meeting there yesterday.  Though we had submitted the info to Bernard Trink to include in his column last Friday, it didn't appear, so the turn-out was low.  But those of us present thoroughly enjoyed Christopher G. Moore's presentation about being a farang writer living in Bangkok.  Chris has been rightly called "The Hemingway of Asia," and has agreed to appear again at a later date.

We then held a business meeting.  We elected a young Thai lady, Khun Aom, to be the Association's President, thereby complying the Thai legal requirement the President be a Thai national for the type of registration we are pursuing.  I have agreed to continue as Head Flunky, or whatever we end up deciding to call me, and will as such be the senior member of the Board that is also required by law, though membership requirements are far more flexible for board members than for the holder of the Presidency.  Two other members, one farang gentleman, Khun Mark, and one Thai lady -- a friend of Aom's (and kine), Khun Pui -- volunteered to be Board members.  We still need 6 more, though we *may* have 1 more lined up already.  (Anyone interested, hint, hint???)  ;-)

A word about Khun Aom.  She is 23 years old, about to graduate in a few weeks from the prestigious Assumption University with a degree in Japanese Business.  Besides her native Thai, she speaks very good English indeed and even better Japanese -- I've had native Japanese speakers tell me that if they were to speak to her only by phone, they would take her to be a native of the Tokyo area!  Aom owns a Japanese restaurant and a small bar -- and no, the ladies there are most assuredly *not* "on the menu" nor is there any barfine system! -- both in Sukhumvit Soi 22, establishments she owns and runs on her Mother's behalf.  Some of our members already had met her and welcomed her as President.

I've known Aom for 7 years.  Quite by happenstance, I have no children and she has no Father.  Over the years a Father-Daughter sort of relationship has developed between us.  Not that anybody cares, but that sort of information needs to be known to avoid appearing to have a secret agenda.

Two ladies don't equal a lot, true -- but both are Thais AND both are officers!  Yesterday represented a good start on our broadening our appeal as an Association.

And the name change.  Well, as some of you know (and may ave experienced personally), there has been a lot of confusion about the distinction between our Association and a similar organization also here in Bangkok.  We felt the new name would help us to distinguish ourselves from that and other groups.  To Drop the name "Bangkok" and to add the name "Thailand" not only broadens our possibilities for future growth -- chapters in other cities around the Kingdom? -- but also is sounder legally, as I understood it in the meeting I had last Tuesday with the Thai attorney who is handling our registration as a charitable organization.  By the way, Attorney Perasit offered -- unsolicited -- to bill us *only* his actual out-of-pocket expenses (government fees) and his actual time spent, and to charge a very low rate for that time.  This wonderfully generous offer will save us several tens of thousands of baht.  And though there are 2 types of nonprofit groups legally possible here, the other type doesn't not allow contributors to receive any tax deduction for their donations whereas the type we are forming *does* allow that benefit to any donors.  While there are still be bridges to be crossed, papers to be drawn up, etc. etc. etc., we are moving steadily forward.

We also voted yesterday to set annual membership fees at a flat 500 baht; the virtually unanimous opinion of our members is that 200 baht was just to low a figure to expect to have any reasonable daily operating capital.  And we actually COLLECTED dues from a few members!

Next Sunday's (the 14th) meeting will feature the American novelist Dean Barrett.  Dean was in the [American] Army Security Agency here in Thailand during the 1960s as a Mandarin-language specialist.  He wrote a hilarious novel, "Memoirs of a Bangkok Warrior," based on his experiences here in the war years.  He will be contrasting Thailand of 40 years ago with contemporary Thailand.

The Sunday after that (the 21st) will offer an opportunity to meet and talk with Police Senior Sergeant Major Kanit, who spent most of his career in the Immigration Bureau, to which he awaiting transfer-back after a stint helping out elsewhere in the city.  He will explain the various kinds of visas, their requirements, the procedures for applying for them, and the new fee schedule for visa applicants.  I have know PSSM Kanit a number of years as a friend, and his insight and advice has proven useful -- invaluable -- to me and countless others many times.

Other speakers are in the works; I got an out-of-the-blue farang lady attorney just yesterday to come speak to us if we like; I replied instantly, and am awaiting further correspondence with her.

I hope all this brings anyone interested fairly well up to date, and we really *would* love to see any of you, especially you ladies perusing this thread, come give us a look at our new venue.

And it sure would hurt to have some more ladies on The board! -- but anyone with the interest and a bit of time (I'll do my best to do the drudge stuff -- I'm retired and have no family) who is 20 years old or older is eligible, without regard to your type of visa, possession or not of a work permit, etc.  Of course, you need to be here legally, and need enough skill in speaking and understanding English to help conduct Association business.

And to all who have been supportive of us, both here and elsewhere, again, a heartfelt thanks from all of us at the-now-named Expats' Association of Thailand.

Kurt T. Francis

Heady Flunky or whatever

Expats' Association of Thailand

I can't *believe* what a stupid oversight I made in typing my last posting!  I wrote having more ladies "would hurt" when what I MEANT was to have more ladies would NOT hurt -- that is, we WANT more ladies.  Excuse the slip-up, and I sincerely hope some of the ladies reading this will both forgive my error *and* come join us.  You are MOST welcome -- I promise!

Kurt T. Francis, Vice-President

Expats' Association of Thailand