Last year Overview 

Friday night, don't miss the square dancing after dinner!  Be sure to bring your dancing shoes, as we all learn to do-si-do.  Then we have Cowboy Hay getting us in the spirit for an old-fashioned sing-along at a campfire by the lake, led by Steve and Tressa Reisetter.

 Saturday and Sunday, we offer four workshop times for you to attend your choice of five workshops.  These are not Ruhi courses, but rather advanced workshops in how to use what we learned in Ruhi to teach children's classes, host devotional gatherings, animate junior youth, and tutor study circles.  The core workshop focuses on the role of the believer in systematic teaching.  Like last year, youth and adults attend these workshops together.

 Saturday, the fun continues with a picnic lunch, a special workshop on using music to celebrate the Faith, and a delicious Persian dinner.  In the evening, we are treated to a concert by the Washington DC Bahá'í Chorale, followed by the open mike coffee house with local musician talent.

We stay full steam ahead on Sunday, with the last workshop session, a question-and-answer panel discussion, a special Youth break-out session, and a group photo after lunch, before being treated to a farewell song by the children in our closing session.

 The only thing needed this weekend is you!

We hope to see you at Massanetta Springs!

Profiles of our Presenters

  Anita Williams

member of the Auxiliary Board for Propagation for Washington DC, Virginia and West Virginia

********

James Sturdivant

 member of the Regional Bahá'í Council of the Southeastern States

In 1966, Mr. Sturdivant embraced the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh in Washington, DC, where he was born and raised.  Shortly after his entry to the Local Bahá’í community he was elected to serve as member of the Washington, DC, Spiritual Assembly. In 1968, he moved to Takoma Park, Maryland to assist in establishing a Local Spiritual Assembly in that city.

During 1973 and 1974 he lived in the South Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea where he served as a member of the Goroka Local Spiritual assembly, the Eastern Highlands Regional Teaching Committee and the National Spiritual Assembly.  Upon returning to the United States, he became a member of the newly formed Spiritual Assembly Greenbelt, Maryland.  Later, he served as an assistant to the Auxiliary Board member.

In 1988, he was appointed to serve as Auxiliary Board member for Protection in some 13 northeast and southern states and the District of Columbia.  This service lasted into 1996.  When the Regional Councils were first elected in 1997, he was elected to serve as a member of the Council for the Southern States. In 2008 he was elected to serve as a member of the Regional Bahá’í Council of the Southeastern States.

He is married to Firoozeh Sturdivant who was born to a Bahá’í family in Iran. They have adult children Neysan and Nooshin, both who are active servants of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.  Mr. Sturdivant is by profession an accountant. He retired from work in the Federal Government and now works for a company that contracts with the government.

********

DR. Fariba Aghdasi

 member of the Regional Bahá'í Council of the Southwestern States

Dr. Fariba Aghdasi has served as the Deputy Secretary of the Regional Bahá'í Council of the Southwestern States since the formation of that institution. She is also the Director of the Regional Teaching Office, an office of the Regional Bahá'í Council serving the advancement of the clusters in the region. She has been a long term pioneer to South Africa and to Zimbabwe and has served on its National Spiritual Assembly. She has also served as the Regional Coordinator for the Regional Training Institute in the Western States in its formative years. She is a professional engineer holding a doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering and was previously professor and head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in Zimbabwe. She is married with two children and currently lives in Central California.

Entertainments:

METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON BAHÁ’Í CHORALE

 
First organized in 1974, the Metropolitan Washington Bahá'í Chorale is known  throughout the area, the nation and internationally for its performance of music based on  Bahá'í Scriptures.  In addition to its own busy performance schedule, it participates in annual performances sponsored by the Washington Interfaith Council, as well as several Martin Luther King Day annual events.  In 2003 many members of the Chorale toured with the Bahá'í Gospel Choir in a successful European tour, performing in cathedrals and performance halls in London, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Stuttgart, and Frankfurt, as well as the Bahá'í House of Worship in Langenhain, Germany.  The Chorale last performed at the Shenandoah Bahá'í  School in 2008. 

 Dorie Arbach is its current director, having succeeded Van Gilmer, now Musical Director of the Bahá'í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois.  For the past two years, the Chorale has traveled to Wilmette to join choirs from the United States and Canada in the annual Bahá'í Choral Music Festival.

   

Tressa Ralya Reisetter is a composer, arranger, and performer of pop music and popular and religious choral works.  She has also written two musical theater productions and has published two Baha’i-related books as a novelist. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Wartburg College, a Bachelor of Music from Iowa State University, and a PhD in School Psychology from Ball State University.  She has taught piano, voice, dance, mathematics, science, band, and classroom music in public and private settings in schools in Louisiana, Iowa, Virginia, and Indiana.  She is currently a Licensed Psychologist in private practice in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.

 Steve Reisetter is a music educator, performer, and arranger of pieces for his ensembles.  He holds a Bachelor of Music from Iowa State University and a Master of Music from Ball State University. He has taught band, elementary classroom music, and choir in grades K-12 in Louisiana, Iowa, Virginia, Indiana, and Minnesota.  He currently teaches junior high choir, band, and classroom music in Brooklyn Park MN.

 Steve and Tressa met while on tour in Haiti with a choir from Wartburg College.  They were married in 1977 and since have regularly performed together in choirs, in dance bands, and as a quartet with their children, Angie (now 30) and Aubrey (27).  They have performed at or taught/led music at Baha’i feasts, firesides, conventions, conferences, concerts, choirs, Sunday schools, and summer schools in Iowa, Virginia, Maryland, Indiana, and Minnesota.  They were members of the 400-voice choir at the 1992 Baha’i World Congress in New York, and have sung with the Voices of Baha and similar groups since.

********

Irwin Anolik 

********

Boston based artist Robert Gillies has been making steady waves since his arrival from Scotland in May of last year. His songs, with their rich blend of pop and jazz influences, are written and performed to be listened to just as easily by the casual listener, as those looking for something deeper beneath the surface.

********

Born in Massine, New York near the Canadian border, Kimmon Waldruff now lives in Winchester, Virginia.  Influenced by Pete Townsend and Steven Stills, Kimmon has worked with numerous musicians in many venues and has performed solo in Canada and the States.  He composes and plays instrumental as well as vocal and lyrical acoustic guitar and has recorded two CD’s and has been a guest on numerous National Public Radio Stations. He currently is finalizing his third CD.