by Leena Desai with Alana Allekotte

Earlier this year when I hosted a Servas Board Retreat at my home, we decided to host a Meet and Greet dinner with NC Servas members. While organizing the event, some local members mentioned meeting Servas members from other countries, but never meeting any US members. It is equally important to build connections across cultures within our neighborhood and town as much as it is globally. Doing so fosters a sense of community and belonging within our membership.

The very first gathering of NC Members was planned with the help of Mary Behar as an October 24^th potluck at my house. We had twenty or so enthusiastic participants, a family with three young children, new members, some longtime members and some who were interested in learning more about Servas. We shared stories of our Servas experiences, gave some tips and pointers to one another, and built new friendships between attendees.

As a Board member, it gave me a chance to talk about the changes in Servas’ structure since we became an all-volunteer organization, the history of Servas, the importance of hosting, and members volunteering their time and expertise to Servas, what is happening now and where we are going as an organization, and about upcoming conferences in 2025, Pan American Conference in Costa Rica and SICOGA in France.

All in all, we enjoyed meeting and getting to know one another and decided to plan local gatherings periodically, maybe every other month or quarterly. Thank you all who found time in their busy life and came to this gathering.

Here are the words of Alana Allekotte. She grew up having Servas experiences and now wanting to do the same with her young family:

“This was the first time I've interacted with Servas members since our trip to Japan a few years back. We stayed with two Servas families on our trip, and it was my partner's first Servas travel experience. Those two Servas stays make up some of the most memorable moments from our three-week winter excursion through Japan, and we haven't interacted with any Servas members since then with the COVID pandemic and the birth of our three children."

"The only travel we've done since 2020 is to visit family in their various places around the US, and with three little kids it was definitely a choice to head to an adult centric potluck that was scheduled to end past bedtime on a Saturday evening. Had it not been for the promise of good conversation and good food we would certainly have declined the invitation, but I'm so glad we attended."

"The potluck was such a renewal of my faith in an organization that brings people together over their love of meeting new people and learning about one another. The host shared details about the worldly objects in her home, a member shared aqua kefir and aloe plant babies, a member told a story of just returning from a cycling trip in Europe, and all were very tolerant of our loud little ones jumping and screaming in the middle of our conversation circle."

"It was a pleasure to be in the company of people who value conversation, sharing, and learning. I'm looking forward to the next get-together and to the next opportunity to make new Servas friends.”