So you want to be an American...

Ostentatious Italians in Austin Texas
Refer to:
Contact Bob Calvisi at membership@AustinItalians.org for more information retrieved today at http://www.austinitalians.org/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=2&MMN_position=4:4

Dear Mr. Calvisi:
Good Morning. What do I need to do to Charter the Bryan/College Station Italian Cultural Association? Will you help me?

Though I am as Texan as it gets my wife Marinell A. Ruggiero Darnell is the first in her family to come to the USA. She is from Foggia, Italia, and we go there to reunite the family every two or three years. Your published reasons to join are exactly why I am writing you this morning.

Reasons You Should Participate in the ICA
1. To meet and be with other Italian Americans to share old country and family traditions.

2. To participate in ongoing social and cultural activities in and around Austin.

3. To share and learn information about "things" Italian.

4. To receive an informative newsletter to let you know about ICA members and planned activities.

5. To participate in the Italian Festival – enjoy great food, great friendship and meet the families of other members.

6. To share the joy of Christmas with other ICA members at the dinner and dance party
We are looking forward to your response. Hopefully, you can guide us in our task.
With warmest regards,
Patrick Darnell
>>MooPigWisdom.blogspot.com
Italianwomanintexas.blogspot.com
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Patrick:

I just recently received your email so please use this email to respond: rjcaustin@aol.com

This is going to be short story, but hopefully you will find it informative and useful.

Our group is relatively small (about 80 active members) and we are very independent. There are supposedly about 5,000 Italian-Americans living in the tri-county area, but the most we've ever had in membership is about 135 about 5 years ago, economy slowed down lot of transfers out of state and the membership has never grown. Our by-laws restrict members to a 50-mile area surrounding Austin, otherwise there is little participation.

Here is how our group started in the mid-80s. There were six gentlemen that worked at IBM - all from the NY area - and like many others who transferred to Austin from IBM they were Italian. The gathered on occasion at a local Italian restaurant, owned by an NY Italian, and decided one year to have a weekend get together inviting anyone Italian that they worked with or knew from the restaurant. Everyone contributed food and wine and they had a great time. They did it a second year and it was a great success again. One of the members had been involved with the Sons of Italy Italian Organization in NY, but this organization kept the women separate and with no voting privileges -- that wasn't going to happen in Austin -- so they decided to just start a social group with members paying $8.00 per month into a checking account. The asked all of the people who attended the two Family Festa's to join and they got a total of 14 members (7 couples) our of about 50-60 who had attended the event.

My wife and I were invited to join the ICA in 1986. It was by coincidence that our oldest daughter's best friend in high school was the daughter of one of the original members. We became friends with the restaurant owner and his wife separately, and met some other Italians at the restaurant. To our amazement when these acquaintances attended our daughter's graduation open house they all knew each other, but we were not aware of the ICA connection. So they asked us to join.

Over the next 6 - 7 years we social things together and every October we would have a Family Festa with all the members providing they food and beverages. Our children would attend, parents, close friends -- but they all had to be Italian. We used our dues money to reimburse ourselves for the Family Festa expenses.

We would meet 9 - 10 times per year at someone's house and have a meeting. I thing we debated expanding the club for three years before we took a vote. Once we approved potential expansion of the ICA we decided we needed By-laws so we got a copy from some other organization and created our own - it was still a social club and at lease one member of a couple had to have an Italian blood-line of some sort to become a member. We of course took someone's word they were Italian because we had no way to prove a blood line other than a good family heritage story.

In about 1993, most of the original members began to retire from IBM and they developed other priorities. My wife and I, as the youngest members and the only ones not from NY, decided we loved out Italian friends and if we didn't expand the ICA it would fade away because interest was declining -- the friendships were very strong, but everyone but us working folk were traveling and it was difficult to get events planned.

Much to our surprise in the summer of 1994, there was an article in the local paper about someone trying to get Italians together, then there we a few that started to meet at our friend's restaurant so we visited with both groups in the fall of 1994 and found a lot of common interest. In December 1994 we hosted an open house and invited every Italian we knew or had met. The result, we ended up with about 50 people who all brought food and drink and it was a wonderful atmosphere and we met some new friends with Italian background.

In 1995, after a few more gallons of wine and conversation, it was decided that these new Italians would be invited to join the ICA since we already had an infrastructure. Over the next 3 -4 years we went from 16 members to about 70 members - there is a definite learning curve on how to get members involved and how to find places to meet without a facility. We even developed a Strategic Planning Committee that made suggestions for growth and the needs we would require. That was a great experience to participate an overall other than not finding a way to get "our own ICA home" much of what we planned has been accomplished.

In 2001, we held a widely promoted Festa Italiana! Of which we had about 2,500 attendees. It was a great event, but a lot of hard work and great financial exposure if it was rained out. In 2002, we expanded the Festa to two-day event - partial rain - lots of work and expenses, and we broke even financially at best.

In 2003 we decided to become a non-profit 501 (c) (3) charitable organization in order to expand the club, concentrate on developing some charitable ties, moving more towards a cultural organization, and making it easier to have sponsors deduct any contributions they made to the ICA. We had to change the by-laws, open membership to anyone who wanted to join and reshuffled dues so not all events (social or cultural) were fully funded by the ICA.

In 2004, we did another Festa Italiana! (One day at a new location in downtown Austin. Great location, great entertainment, great food from local Italian restaurants, and lots of beer and wine; but lots of set-up expenses since stages, tents, lighting all needed to be rented. Not promoted heavy enough and with less than 2,000 attendees we lost $2,500. The members eventually decided the financial exposure, the long hours of volunteer work, and the inability of the contracted promoters to deliver what they promised was not worth the effort so we went back to having family gatherings every August.

What we found out about these public Festa's was people who came loved them; it attracted new members, but the members typically didn't attend anything else, never volunteered, and basically were gone in about 9 months when their dues lapsed.

Over the last 3 years the executive boards, of which I have been involved in as an officer or a committee chairperson for 16 years, along with concurrence of the membership has focused a cultural/social, calendar that is comprised of:
(1) a few major events for the members and friend such as Carnivale Dinner Dance, Family Festa, and a Christmas Dinner Dance;
(2) Two Spaghetti Night events when the ICA men cook and serve an extensive buffet dinner
(3) two to three Italian Classic Movie nights - these are movies in Italian language with English subtitles for those of us who were never taught Italian by our parents.
(4) three to four wine tasting events at a restaurant or a member's home
(5) cultural day trips - Olive Oil tasting, Italian artist visit etc.
(6) Italian card games, Bocce Ball competition, and other social events
All of these events are member paid and some are subsidized by the ICA.

The average age of members is probably 60 - 62. Less than 20% of our members are under 40. Our children, most in their late 30s to early 40s have way too much on their plate with work and family to be active. They attend events and know the other member's children, but they have no desire to take an active role.

My recommendation before you move forward with trying to create your own Italian group would be to first check out some of the other Italian groups in Texas such as
(1) The Italian Federation of Houston -- there are a number of chapters that reach out beyond Houston proper - http://www.houstonitaliancenter.com/
(2) There is also The Italian Club of Dallas - www.itcd.org
(3) Check out the National Italian American Foundation - there is a local Vice President in Houston http://www.niaf.org/
(4) Check out the Son's of Italy - http://www.osia.org/
(5) There is another Italian group in Austin called "A Taste of Italy" - it is operated by a single person who sponsors cooking, language classes, and other events for a fee. This is her business.

I have included a membership packet as an example of how we have members join.

Patrick, I hope this helps you. Should you have any specific questions email me or you can reach me on my cell phone.

Bob Calvisi
ICA Cultural/Membership Committee
email: rjcaustin@aol.com
http://www.austinitalians.org/
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Dear Bob:
We are digesting all you have written. We admire your tenacity, and want to duplicate it. I promise to get back to you soon with a plan for the "Lost Italians of Brazos Valley." We will definitely base it on your successes. Dozens of ideas are bubbling up even at this very moment.

Yours, with warmest regards,
Pat Darnell, the other half of Marinella

ps. Can't thank you enough for your heartfelt response.