CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE

The Club is off to a good start for 2008!

Meeting dates have been set for March 8, June 14, September 13 and December 13. All are Saturdays and we hope to see as many of you as possible at these events.

Normally, we issue the “new country” list every two years. The last issue is dated August 2007, and is valid until next year.

Your membership renewal invoice was sent the first of the year. Please return the invoice with your payment and include any address correction.

Congratulations to our London Coordinator, Donna Marsh, for doing an outstanding job, and especially for organizing our London International Meeting.

E-Mails: Please send us an e-mail without a message to tccclub3@verizon.net. We are planning a separate listing of e-mail addresses in the rear of the next Roster, alphabetical by name. We receive many e-mail changes and this way we can keep you advised of any and all changes.

Special thanks to Outgoing President Kevin Hughes, and congratulations to our Incoming President Christopher Hudson. I also would like to welcome Tim Carlson, our Northern California Coordinator, who joined our Board of Directors.

The World Travel & Tourism Council recently stated that the travel industry will be only moderately impacted by repercussions from the ongoing global credit crunch. International inbound numbers to the USA topped 47 million for the 12 months that ended October 2007.

We look forward to seeing many of you at our March 8 meeting.

New TCC President Christopher Hudson is Publisher at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He resides in West New York, NJ, but also has a home in Malibu, CA, though it was recently destroyed by last fall’s wildfires. He previously was Publisher at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and he was also affiliated with other publishing companies.

He was born in Watford, England, just outside of London. According to a recent feature story in the New Jersey Sunday Star Ledger, Hudson got the travel bug during a family trip to France when he was about 8. He has visited about 250 of the TCC destinations. His wife is Lois Lyons.

• Several TCC members were interviewed during the International meeting in London, October 26-28. The story by Randall Hackley appeared in the Bloomberg News in December.

• Another feature story about TCC and five of its members appeared in Explore, Canada’s Outdoor Magazine.

• Donald DeBarry, DDS, and Charlotte Smith, PH.D, Berkeley, CA, have traveled to 316 of the TCC countries as partners, with Wake Island being the one missing destination. They write that they especially enjoy reading the Centurian.

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Dear Fellow Travelers … Do you remember when, in the Cold War days, that was a favorite term of abuse? Fellow traveler, bourgeois running dog, imperialist lackey, capitalist roader. How quaint that rhetoric sounds now, when something approaching nostalgia for the clarity of the Cold War seems to be in vogue, and when, in the ex-Communist nations, a sort of neo-socialist realism is taken up by young artists.

One great expert in the handful of remaining officially Communist states is my indefatigable predecessor as TCC President, Kevin Hughes. We all owe Kevin a lot – he has worked tirelessly with the TCC chapters, and eloquently reminded us of the best reasons for traveling and experiencing the diversity of the world and its wonders. Well, the Communist bloc has dwindled to not much more than Cuba, North Korea, capitalist/communist China, and the sleepy socialism of Laos.

Times do change, and as I write, the New York papers have been discussing the life and death of Sir Edmund Hillary, who with Sherpa Tenzing, was the first to climb Mount Everest, way back in 1953. Afterwards, Hillary did speak at the Explorer’s Club in New York, but he and his team are always thought of as the old-fashioned type of explorers, uncomfortable with publicity and public speaking. They were no fools, though, and lack of self-promotion did not mean lack of determination. Climber Stephen Venables tells the story of Hillary and his expedition leader, John Hunt, coming out of a London restaurant to be accosted by a beggar asking for money. Looking at Hillary, the man said, “You’ve no idea what it’s like, night after night, out in the open in the cold.” Hunt tapped the beggar on the shoulder and said, “I’m awfully sorry, but I think you’ve got the wrong man.”

I see similar characteristics in a lot of TCC’s 1,800-strong membership. There is a tolerance and gentle wisdom borne out of extensive travel and exposure to other cultures, but it usually goes hand-in-hand with a hard-headed “savviness” and knowledgeability about traveling successfully.

Regarding Internet searches, I just loved the response I encountered when looking on a reputable website for recommended hotels in Ulan Bator – “Sorry, we’re having trouble finding the location you requested. Please try a new hotel search or browse hotels in these destinations: Paris, New York, Bangkok, London, Rome, Las Vegas.” I guess they don’t cater to TCC members or to anyone who actually knows where they want to go. Knowing where you want to go is important. So is knowing where you are. “Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold” said Keats in one of my favorite poems. He was talking about metaphorical travel, specifically his delight in reading Homer, but he conjures up a wonderfully sonorous sense of travel achievement. “Then felt I like some watcher of the skies. When a new planet swims into his ken; or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes he stared at the Pacific – and all his men look’d at each other with a wild surmise – Silent, upon a peak in Darien.”

Stately verse, but the only trouble is that, of course, Cortez never went anywhere near Darien in Panama. He was far too busy doing unspeakable things to the Aztecs in Mexico. Keats probably got him confused with Balboa, and got Panama confused with Mexico. He wouldn’t have cut it in the TCC. Travel makes us wise(r) and young(er), and in that spirit, I look forward to seeing many of you, dear Fellow Travelers, at our next meeting, on March 8, in Orange County.

It is not necessary to notify TCC headquarters in Santa Monica each time you visit another country after you become a member at 100. However, when you have achieved a new level – 150 (Silver Membership), 200 (Gold Membership), 250 (an Award), 300 (a Special Award), or the total of 317 – you simply check off the countries visited (including your initial 100) on the TCC Approved List of Countries and send the updated list to TCC Headquarters. Write your name and date on the cover, keep the original, and mail the copy. A revised brochure with the List of Countries was included with the September, 2007, Centurian, but the list is also on the TCC website. You should keep a copy of the checked list so that you can easily update it when you reach the next level. It’s easiest if you keep your original list updated as you continue to travel.

As you noted from your 2008 Dues Invoice, the annual dues for USA members increased $10, from $40 to $50, per Board action at its December meeting. Dues for spouses of members remains at $40. If you have not already paid your dues, please do so by return mail. If you wish, you may prepay your dues for any number of years but you will still receive an invoice for roster verification.

New Travelers' Century Club Members:

Archer, Mr. Barry
Bahal, Mr. Arvinder S.
Benedict, Mr. Dan
Bergqvist, Mr. Lars H.
Carpenter, Mrs. Barbara
Curran, Mr. Lion
Douglas, Mrs. Marjorie J.
Duque, Ms. Carleen Louise
Erdelyi, Mr. Peter
Fournier, Mr. Reuben
Gonsalves, Mr. Coen
Haartz, Mr. David W.
Haggerty, Mr. James T.
H Verdugo, Mr. Ernesto
Joines, Mr. Tom
Kaminsky, Dr. –Ing Horst.
Kendall, Mrs. Virginia M.
Kumpf, Mr. & Mrs. Don
Larsson, Mans Ola
McLaren, Ms. Margaret I.
Mitchell, Mr. William J.
Morelli, Mrs. Joanne “Jody”
Mumzhiu, Mr. Alex
Nebenzhal, Ms. Irena
Orozco, Mr. Ernesto Verdugo
Redisch, Ms. Anne-Sophie
Restarick, Mr. Henry
Ritchie, Mr. Tom
Rogers, Mr. Bruce
Rolles, Ms. Jean E.
Rush, Mr. Benjamin
Swanberg, Mr. Scott
Sweeney II, Mr. Jerome V.
Weigner, Mr. Brent

# 530 Norway: Journey to the Land of the Midnight, Marion Rafferty
# 531 Baffin Island and West Greenland, Dr. Kenyon B. De Greene
# 532 Bulgaria, Erika Fernbach
# 533 Nakhichevan or Naxcivan, Mr. Kurt Shafer
# 534 Georgia, Mr. James A. Smith
# 535 Tahiti & Her Islands, Mr. Brian Ferraz

Note: The opinions expressed are those of the writers and not the Travelers’ Century Club.

A hearty thanks to all of you club members for sending in Info Files for our Centurian. They are enjoyed by all, so please send in your items of interest. Don't forget that these must be typewritten, single spaced and not to exceed two pages due to cost of postage. Those of you who have sent in your Info Files that have not yet been published, please be patient as they will be used in the future. Note: We do not edit or correct misspellings, since we cannot match your type. You can also send your info files to our e-mail address: tccclub3@gte.net.

Please note that when you request back issues of Info Files, there is a $1.00 cost per Info File. Click here for details.

The Centurian welcomes letters to the editor. Please mail to TCC. P.O. Box 7050, Santa Monica, CA 90406, or e-mail to tccclub3@gte.net. Submission of a letter to the editor constitutes permission to publish the letter in the Centurian and on our website.

We have a new permanent name tags with the TCC Logo and your name engraved. Cost $7.50 including shipping. If you wish to order, send us your check and you will receive your tag in six weeks. Magnetic backing available, add $4.00.

Club Lapel Pin – $10
Silver 150 Countries – $8
Gold 200 Countries – $8
250 Countries – $8

All pins are available with pin or tie-tack.
backing. Available only to regular members of the Travelers' Century Club.

Travelers' Century Club
P.O. Box 7050
Santa Monica, CA 90406-7050
Tel: 310-458-3454
Fax: 310-395-9511
E-mail: tccclub3@gte.net

Officers
Klaus Billep, Chairman
Christopher Hudson, President
Ronald L. Enderman, Vice-President
Sanford K. Smith, Secretary
Pamela Barrus, Treasurer

Executive Board Members
Floyd D. Baker, David J. Barry, Tim Carlson, Kevin Hughes, Diane M. Jarrett, Kenneth Ziegler

TCC Editor: Klaus Billep
Contributing Editor: Lorelli Embry