Saturday, April 19, Kate Adie, formerly the Chief Correspondent for the B.B.C gave us a sparkling talk about her life as a journalist on all kinds of assignments, whether it was in Bagdad, Sarejevo, Paris, Turkistan, China, or other exotic places. Kate has lived an incredible life and survived to tell the tale, although her hearing was badly damaged when a rocket fired land-mine exploded only 20 feet away. The members and guests who were with us for this exciting event were spellbound. Kate said that worthwhile journalists learn how to reach people where they are. "There are four little steps to be taken, you need to get to the heart of the action, it's no use sitting on a bar stool waiting for the action to come to you, you have to get there however you can, and beg, steal or borrow whatever transportation there is. People are often angry or bereaved, you can't act like a vulture coming in to feed on people's misery, but you often have to rely on the "Kindness of Strangers." That's the title of one of her four books. Once you've got the facts, she said, you have to verify them and, finally, you have to tell the story as fast as possible. It's no use being second.

Kate was possibly one of the very best, if not the best speaker we've ever had. But if you missed it, we have a wonderful speaker coming to us on May 6th in the form of Merrick Baker Bates, a former very well liked and popular British Consul General. This will be a luncheon at Lawry's Prime Rib Restaurant on La Cienega Blvd in Los Angeles.

Please also save the date of June 21. We will be holding our summer garden party that day at the beautiful home of Janice Sharp and her husband Dane Hoiberg in Pasadena. This will be a party to raise funds for our new educational programs. You will be enticed by lots of incredible prizes and raffles for all kinds of goodies and will have a chance to meet the winner of our Shakespeare High School competition who will tell us about competing with fifty five other finalists in New York.

Our regional conference will be held May 16-18 in Denver. This is an opportunity for all the western branches to get together and discuss problems and opportunities. If you have ideas and thoughts you'd like to express please send us an e-mail or letter.

Meanwhile thank you for being members of the wonderful Los Angeles Branch of the ESU.