by Ramona Haller

On March 29, thirteen California Servas members and friends met at the home of Francene and Jim Rizza to celebrate Daryl and Phyllis Chinn and wish them well in their new lives on the East Coast. They shared a wonderful potluck dinner that included savory kabobs. Attendees shared stories and memories of their meaningful friendships with Phyllis and Daryl over the years. Ramona read a note written by Mary Jane Mikuriya acknowledging many of the contributions the Chinn’s made to Servas and their community (see Video).

Daryl and Phyllis joined SERVAS in 1996 and by 1999 were interviewers and Servas organizers in the Humboldt network. Phyllis was a math professor at Humboldt State University while Daryl was a poet and poetry teacher, volunteer community mediator, on the Grand Jury and actively supporting a monument acknowledging the Chinese expulsion from Eureka.

On September 11, 2001, the Twin Towers in New York were blown up - just a few blocks from the US Servas office. United States SERVAS had to move its headquarters, but to where? After many dead-end possibilities, it was clear that after thirty-five years, US Servas had to move out of New York City. Phyllis suggested moving the office to Arcata, California where there was the possibility of support from her employer, Humboldt State University. With no other possibilities, the Board agreed to the move to Arcata. Daryl went to NYC, cleaned out and closed the NYC Servas office, and found and opened the office in Arcata. Of course, this meant that Phyllis and Daryl became more active in local, national and international Servas activities and events.

They both became US office supervisors and over time Board members, and chairpersons, but never at the same time. Daryl did a lot of work overseeing the banking of money that came into the office and became an active member of both the US Servas Finance Committee and the US Servas Complaint Committee. Phyllis became the institutional memory and lead organizer of how to hold and manage a US Servas National Conference. Phyllis took it upon herself to write a thank you note to each donor. Even after the office closed. Phyllis was and still is the person who writes thank you notes to each donor to United States Servas.

When they attended Servas International conferences in their role as “national secretaries of US Servas“ became voting members at those conferences. In addition, Daryl was elected by the Servas International conferees to the Servas International Conflict Resolution Committee and Phyllis was elected to the Servas International Internal Audit Committee.

On one occasion US Servas members were instructed to bring the US Servas annual fee in cash to the international conference in Argentina. Daryl had to arrange for several of United States conference goers to carry $8,000 cash each on their bodies to enable Servas International to avoid paying the high Argentine money transfer fees and still reimburse designated attendees their conference travel expenses. Much has changed in the administration of US Servas since Covid.

US Servas no longer has a physical office. Now like all other national Servas groups, we are an all-volunteer organization. All of us here in California, and nationally, thank Daryl and Phyllis for their many years of work, friendship and leadership in Servas. We wish them the best in their new life in NY with many years of good health.

Attendees: Daryl Chinn, Phyllis Chinn, Deirdre Araujo, Jim Rizza, Francene Rizza, Tracy Jordan French, Xandi Zub Meyer, Thomas Turner Meyer, Kathy Sattler, Judi Scharnberg, Maras Billings, Tawny Foskett, Ramona Haller