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Rye Newcomers and Neighbors Club

The Year In Review  2017-2018

The Rye Newcomers and Neighbors Club celebrated the close of another great year on Friday, June 15 with an delightful luncheon at Whitby Castle, which for the first time featured a celebrity guest: Rye’s own author and columnist Annabel Monaghan. Annabel shared her observations about the highlights of living in Rye with warmth, wit and wisdom. It was a busy year!

In addition to our regular events—the monthly Ladies’ Book Club, frequent Lunch Bunch gatherings and a few Happy Hours—we launched a new format for Coffee Mornings that made them kid-friendly for the first time. We partnered with Soul Ryeders for an evening of crafts and cooking to support local families living with serious illness in their homes. Our annual holiday lunch at La Panatiere was as elegant as ever.

RNNC’s energetic board members hosted family events at Rye Beach as well as holiday parties in December and February, and a visit to the Duck Pond in June. Finally, we celebrated Cinco de Mayo a day early with fabulous Mexican food and a mariachi band.

We had some notable leadership changes. Ulli Buchelt, RNNC’s first webmistress, resigned in April in anticipation of her move back to Vienna. New member Mireille Ferrier assumed responsibilities for our website and has launched a redesign project that will be completed this summer. We expect our new design to add better functionality for data and payments, as well as a sleek modern format.

Silvat Malik, our dedicated Co-President for the last two years, stepped down in March, and Sharon Mantel, who previously organized our Girls’ Nights Out, was elected as our new Co-President. Sharon’s contributions have been massive. With the skills of a seasoned marketing professional, she has rescued our Facebook page from oblivion and has plans to make it an active element of membership communications. In addition, she led our effort to commission a fabulous new logo (see above) that celebrates the equal importance of “newcomers” and “neighbors” and features one of Rye’s most famous landmarks.

Finally, we initiated a new membership development program with the help of Fiona Dogan, one of Rye’s top realtors. Neighborhood “ambassadors” will reach out to new homeowners and renters with information about our group and initial invitations to RNNC events. We currently have four “ambassadors” but there’s lots of territory to cover and we could easily employ four more. Please let us know if you’re willing to be the first contact your new neighbor has with the Rye Newcomers and Neighbors Club.