Club Elected Officers

Do you want to reduce your printing cost? 

Do you want to to reduce printing documents and paper?

1. Use an ink-saving font like : Century Gothic, Calibri, Cambria instead of Arial or Times New Roman 
2. Print in "draft mode" if you can.
3. Use both sides of a page.
4. Always do a print preview first to make sure you're not printing pages with useless text. 
5. Review your text and eliminate bla-bla-bla 
6. Print in two columns which facilitates reading and reduces empty space on a page
7. Re-use the other side of a used page for drafting your text.
8. Reduce paragraphing in your text
9. If you want to print out information from a website, look for a Print option as this will usually contain only text and neither images nor advertisements.
10. And the greenest way to save on ink is not to print at all. 

Do let me know if you have some other tips to be added.  Have a great day

Cory 
Cory Croymans-Plaghki
President S.I. Chiang Mai
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Here is the full text of the article which can be found at the following page: Here's a legal way to print money: change the font

By DINESH RAMDE, Associated Press Writer Dinesh Ramde, Associated Press Writer – Tue Apr 6 2010
MILWAUKEE – Here's a way you might save $20 this year:

Change the font in the documents you print. Because different fonts require different amounts of ink to print, you could be buying new printer cartridges less often if you wrote in, say, Century Gothic rather than Arial. Schools and businesses could save thousands of dollars with font changes. Data on the subject from Printer.com, a Dutch company that evaluates printer attributes, persuaded the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay to make a switch. Diane Blohowiak, coordinator of information-technology user support, has asked faculty and staff to use Century Gothic for all printed documents. The school also plans to change its e-mail system so it uses Century Gothic.

"The feedback we've gotten so far has been positive," she said. "Century Gothic is very readable."

The school of 6,500 students spends about $100,000 per year on ink and toner cartridges. Although students and staff can change the default font to something more ink-intensive, Blohowiak said the university expects to save $5,000 to $10,000 per year with the font switch. When Printer.com tested popular fonts for their ink-friendly ways, Century Gothic and Times New Roman topped the list. Calibri, Verdana, Arial and Sans Serif were next, followed by Trebuchet, Tahoma and Franklin Gothic Medium.

Century Gothic uses about 30 percent less ink than Arial. The amount of ink a font drains is mainly driven by the thickness of its lines. A font with "narrow" or "light" in its name is usually better than its "bold" or "black" counterpart, said Thom Brown, an ink researcher at Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's top maker of printers. Also, serif fonts — those with short horizontal lines at the top and bottom of characters — tend to use thinner lines and thus less ink than a "sans serif" counterpart. But while using less ink at home can help you buy roughly one fewer printer cartridge each year, it's not necessarily better for the environment.That's because some fonts use less ink, including Century Gothic, but they are wider.  A document that's one page in Arial could extend to a second page if printed in Century Gothic. Blohowiak said her research suggests that ink comprises the main cost of a printout, but the environmental costs of paper are probably higher.

"Maybe the individual characters use less ink, but if you're using more paper, that's not so green, is it?" said Allan Haley, director of "words and letters" at Monotype Imaging Inc. in Woburn, Mass., which developed Century Gothic.

Also, Century Gothic was designed for limited blocks of text such as titles and headlines, not for full documents, said Haley, who describes fonts as his "children." Despite Printer.com's research and UW-Green Bay's experience, Haley said he still recommends Times New Roman or Arial for their readability.The standard advice for trimming printing expenses still applies:

1. Print in "draft mode" if you can.
2. Use both sides of a page and do a print preview to make sure you're not printing pages with useless text such as a copyright line. 
3. Using an ink-saving font is just one more technique to consider. 
4. And the greenest way to save on ink is not to print at all. 

That's the philosophy Microsoft Corp. said it uses in deciding which fonts to include in its Outlook and Word applications.

The more pleasing a font looks on the screen, the less tempted someone will be to print, said Simon Daniels, a program manager for Microsoft's typography group. That's why the company changed its defaults in Office 2007 from Arial and Times New Roman to Calibri and Cambria, he said."We're trying to move the threshold of when people hit the print button," he said.

On 2 June 2008, Cory and Club Secretary Donna met the visiting S.I. members from Joondalup in Australia and took them over to the Doi Saket Vocational school. 

We were welcomed by Miss Ksekaew Packdi (Assistant Director), Miss Yaowapa Kankanwee (Counsellor and Health Teacher) and Mrs Prapakorn Wongnag (Toi) who is the English teacher who translated very eloquently in English and Thai.

Then we met both scholarship recipients : one sponsored by SICM and one by Joondalup.

Piyawahn (nickname Pee), 16 years old, no sports, because after school she  looks after her grandparents (80+81years old). 

Ornkuma (nickname Ying) 16 years old (1 brother of 13), plays badminton, wants to be come a police woman.

The girls were well prepared to talk about themselves in English which must have been a mjor effort for them! 

Cory received their grade reports for the SICM records and was happy to note that their grades were truly excellent. 

Bobbi, the Joondalup President-Elect, told the girls a bit about themselves and gave the girls little kangaroo key chains as gifts together with the scholarship donations. 

Miss Ksekaew Packdi, the Assistant Director of the school introduced us to another needy student called SANGDUEN, a 16-year-old orphan.  Cory gave her an application form to fill out so that SICM can consider her as well.  Her parents died of AIDS--she does not remember them. 

She is a delightful, small-sized girl who is presently living with Miss Keskaew Packdi, the Assiant School Director. 

Her grades were average, but she had a great desire to persevere and would love to study nursing at Payap after she graduates. That would cost 20,000 THB per year (only tuition fees)

After our nice visit, we proceeded to Cafe Pandau where S.I. member Noriko and her staff provided a most delectable meal.  The ladies could not stop complimenting the food and the ambiance of Noriko's place.  They loved the explanation of what great, healthy things we were eating.  The dessert was a mango mousse that was to die for! 

Friendship Link: after dinner, Jenny from Joondalup helped us to fill out the Friendship Link form. So we are now officially "friends" with the ladies of Joondalup, which means that we can share information, maybe support each other's projects and have an experienced contact who can answer questions which arise as we are so recently chartered. 

Before arriving in Thailand, the Joondalup ladies visited one of their projects in East Timor, a chicken farming project for women. 

They gave us one of their colorful club pins and a kangaroo key chain too. 

We should make some too as soon as we have finalised our logo.

VDO : then we treated the ladies to a look at our Single Mothers video.  They loved it and gave us a spontaneous  donation of 3,500 baht right then and there.  It was so generous of them, and they congratulated us on our project and video and Fashion Show fundraiser.  A very nice, feel-good evening, I must say.......and a delightful bunch of Soroptimist sisters!

Do you want to have a look at our VDO as well?

Please go to You Tube by clicking on these links:
part 1:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PGjEd7KboM
part 2:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8TsYfFxKN0

In January 2010, the SICM Scholarship Program is serving 8 students (6 female + 2 male). 

Why mostly girls?  We believe that when you educate a girl, you will change a family and you can change a community.

Our scholarship students are :

   - 3 children from Single Mother Bubu Lashi’s (primary school).  5000 Baht for each.

        1)  Piyawan - funded by Jerome Chimielak for 2 years (GPA 3.87), and SICM for 1

             (last) year;           

        2) On-kouma funded by SI Joondalup (GPA 3.47); (2 years)

        3) Sangdao funded by Donna and Lina for 1 year (GPA2.97),

                           and by Terry Dauenhauer (1 year).

In February 2010, we learned that Piyawan

has been accepted by the Nursing Faculty of Chiangmai

University and requested that we continue to support her financially,

at least for the same amount (10,000 Bht per year).

Her total annual tuition fees would be 40,000 Bht per year. Where will we find the money?

- Primary school student Kathy Sarita Sriboonluang in Sanpathong, funded by Jan Croymans-Plaghki from Belgium for 6 years with a donation of 30,000 Bht.

First disbursement of 5000 Baht on 6 June 2009. Another 5 years to go (= 25,000 Bht).

Outstanding disbursements : 5 x 5000 Bht = 25,000 Bt. She will come to meet us in March.

- Primary school student Nong Bui or Nutchari Gantayuang of Bandoi De Nong project in Maesai, Nong Bui is taying at a Home for HIV children, 30,000 Bht donated by Jan Croymans-Plaghki . First disbursement : 8^th Nov.2009.

Outstanding disbursements : 5 x 5000 Bht = 25,000 Bt. She will come to meet us in March.

A foundation in Chiang Mai is rebuilding the lives of traumatised single mothers

When asked who the father of her baby is, Dao (not her real name), who is eight weeks pregnant, sadly named four men.

"It was a group," recalled Dao of those who gang-raped her while she was on her way to her boyfriend's place one night. "They were 16, 18, 19 and 20 years old. One of them was my boyfriend."

Her family reacted severely to the news. "My dad and my sister poisoned me so that I miscarried. My brother was so angry that he wanted to kill me. I cried a lot after I knew I had become pregnant because I didn't want to have a baby."

This is just one of the stories of the women at the Wildflower Home Foundation which was founded in June 2008. According to Elizabeth Lachoswky Thaibinh, director of the foundation, "The women need education for their own welfare"

The foundation aims to provide not just a refuge for unwed mothers and abused women but also enable them to rebuild their lives on the back of their trauma."Our primary goal is to help single mothers through their crises by providing encouragement and training to help improve their chance of self-sustainability," the director remarked.

Ruengrong Pongpraipoom, assistant director of Wildflower Home, said that a key aim of the foundation is to instil in its women strength, confidence and independence. A mother of two, Ruengrong came to the foundation almost three years ago as a victim of domestic abuse.          Once she was beaten by her husband so cruelly she had to be hospitalised.

"The worst thing was that my husband used violence against me in the presence of my children.

I was worried it would permanently bruise their hearts," she said.  

Thus, to Ruengrong, strength, courage and self-reliance are weapons that could help her as well as other women fight for a better life, not just for themselves but also for their kids. And when women learn to become unafraid, they will have more confidence to look for job opportunities despite their traumatic experiences.

"Apart from providing a sanctuary for unwed mothers and their children, Wildflower Home offers educational and emotional support. Mothers who stay here also receive vocational training to ready them for steady employment when they leave.

"Besides counselling and personal empowerment, the foundation offers Thai and English lessons and computer classes provided by Thai and foreign volunteers. Our volunteers also conduct different activities to ensure that the mothers and children feel they are at home. There is also a nursery with volunteers to take care of children whose mothers have to work or attend to matters elsewhere," noted Ruengrong.

 To promote health awareness, nurses and health care volunteers are on hand at the foundation to provide the women with knowledge on a wide variety of topics such as birth control, sexually transmitted diseases, maintaining physical and mental well-being and so forth. These topics are taught on a regular basis.  (The above is an Extract from an article published in the Bangkok Post on 16 Feb 2010) 

This project inspired us 3 years ago to start our own Soroptimist Single Mothers project.  We wanted to be complementory to what the Wild Flower Home already offered during the first year and assist those Single Mothers with :

- a longer-term support base                                                    - reimbursements of medical costs for themselves and their children, 
- with micro-loans if necessary, and                                            - with long-term scholarship donations of 5000 Bht per year for a minimum period of 6 years, when needed.  

In 2008, shortly after our club was chartered, and despite our very limited funds, , we adopted Bubu and her 3 children at the Wild Flower Home as our first Single Mother by reimbursing their medical expenses. In 2009, we supported Bubu further by donating 3 long term scholarships to her kids (one girl and two boys).                                                                   In the meantime, we have further expanded our program to 20 Single Mothers in Maewang.     On Sunday, 21 February 2010, we wentl again to Maewang with 3 hairdressers to give them all a free haricut and lunch and 4 of them (only) received a 5000 Bht donation for their kids scholarship. But instead of 20 women, we were welcomed by 100 who were all entertained with lunch and a haircut, which made them feel greatttt!  Unfortunately, we do not yet have sufficient funds to support them all financially but we hope that our Home and Garden Tour of 23 October 2010 will change that problem. 

The emphasis of our Single Mothers project is to support those single mothers who are trying to keep their families together as they balance the challenges of their work place and homes. 

Objectives of the S.I. Chiang Mai Single Mothers project

·         To support single mothers and their children in the harsh realities of independent living.

·         To assist single mothers with medical support/expenses for themselves and their children and scholarship donations if needed.

·         To liaise with employers who support single mothers, encourage single mothers to remain with their employers and empower them to self-sufficiency.

·         To provide basic “business ethics” training to help the mothers fit-in a business environment.

 Our mission of lightening the stress of single mothers aims to provide:

        a better future for them and for their children.

We have a big list of women in dire need and we appreciate your help to make a difference in their lives… 

For more information, please have a look at the 10 minute video of the SIngle Mothers from Maewang, which we are showing on YouTube  

part 1:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PGjEd7KboM
part 2:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8TsYfFxKN0 

Contact details for donations : Bangkok Bank , ThailandChiangmai Kadsuankaew branch

Please do not send any cheques because the bank charges a 25% commission and it takes around two months to collect your donation. 

We thank you for your kind consideration.

Have a great day,

      Cory

Cory Croymans-Plaghki, President

Soroptimist International Chiangmai

Chiangmai University, P.O. Box 188

50202 Chiangmai , Thailand