2024 International Greeter Association conference
I went to the International Greeter Association (IGA) conference in Bonn, Germany. Here’s how that happened.
My friend Karine Tosch is a Greeter in Mulhouse, France, located in Alsace just 40 minutes’ drive from Basel, Switzerland. We first met early in the pandemic when the IGA offered to pair Greeters around the world for language practice.
Karine speaks very good English, but she was home during the pandemic and had nobody with whom she could keep up her skills. I volunteered for the initiative, and we were matched. From that time forward we met on Zoom for 30 minutes every Thursday at 10:00 AM in New York and 4:00 PM in Mulhouse. We became very well acquainted. I learned to pronounce Mulhouse (muh-looz). We walked around with our phones to show each other our homes and our neighborhoods, our husbands made periodic appearances as they walked by during our Zooms, we learned about each other’s families, and we talked politics!
We became friends, of course, and wished very much to meet in person. As the pandemic proceeded and then gradually receded we both began to travel again and hoped that on one trip or another we might be able to be in the same place.
But schedules being what they are, it never worked out. Until last spring when Karine told me that she planned to attend the International Greeter Association biannual conference in Bonn from September 26–29.
What is that and can I go?
I asked Gail Morse, Big Apple Greeter’s director of programs & volunteers, if the organization was sending anybody. She said no but asked me if I wanted to go. Yes! So, applications were filed and plans were made. My husband was all in to attend and so we went together.
We traveled first to Dusseldorf, which is about an hour from Bonn, and spent a few days in that lovely city. We even had a Greet with Dusseldorf Greeter Claudia Banos. It was so fun to meet another Greeter before we even arrived at the conference. And then, we were off by train to Bonn to begin the conference.
There were 32 Greeters from all over the world in attendance, including, of course, many from Germany, but also from Italy, Belgium, France, Japan, Taiwan, Burkina Faso, the UK, Australia, Madagascar, and Austria. It was fantastic to get a chance to meet so many Greeters from so many different places. But especially it was fantastic for me and Karine to finally be together in person.
Bonn as it turns out is a small and lovely city, population about 300,000, and we held all our meetings at Bonn University just a short walk from our hotel. On arrival we were offered a Greet with a Bonn Greeter that very afternoon and had our first view of the host city, and then we enjoyed the first evening dinner at a local Irish Pub and had a chance to get acquainted with the other participants. In the morning the mayor of Bonn welcomed us to the conference opening, and we had the official welcome from Dino Ferrari, Greeter and IGA Board chair, before we began our first morning session.
The manager meetings for the entire conference featured presentations and break-out groups for discussion on a variety of topics of importance to Greeters everywhere. These included recruitment, retention, local communities, Google grants, insurance, mission statements, and official general assembly business. Most interesting were the break-out groups where we shared our different experiences, problems, and solutions and got to know each other. For example, in New York we have more requests from visitors than our Greeters can support, but in many cities the opposite is true; there are not enough visitors to keep all Greeters as active as they would like. Every place is different.
Each evening we had dinner together, but the second night was certainly the highlight since on this night we were invited to dinner in the homes of Bonn Greeters. My husband and I, Karine, and a Greeter from Bremen, Germany, were invited to the home of a Greeter and his wife. They made a wonderful German meal, served lots of German wine, and we shared information about Greeting in each of our hometowns. I hope that sometime soon the IGA conference might be in New York City and that we could host Greeters in our homes.
On the last day of the conference, we held a Zoom session to bestow the Lynn Brooks Award on our own Arnold Strauch, an original Big Apple Greeter from our founding in 1992 who just celebrated his 99th birthday and is still Greeting. Technology was a bit of a problem and Arnold almost didn’t make it to the presentation, but in the end all was well. Have a look and you will see what transpired.
On the final afternoon after completion of all meetings, we were treated to a lovely Rhine River cruise complete with tea and cake. And that evening we had an amazing dinner at Hotel Collegium Leoninum, which was founded in 1903 as a Catholic Seminary, but which has been beautifully restored as a hotel and a fabulous event space.
On Sunday, the day after the official conference closed, those of us who were still in Bonn had the option to go on a Greet or to sightsee on our own. My husband and I decided to pass up the Greet, traveled the short distance to Cologne, and visited the very famous Cologne Cathedral, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And then Monday morning, very, very early, we traveled back to Dusseldorf Airport to begin our trip home.
I am grateful to everyone at IGA and Bonn Greeters who organized the conference, and to Gail and Big Apple Greeter Executive Director Alicia Pierro for giving me the opportunity to attend. It was useful and also fun.