SSA Houston Chat Line January 2019

SSA Newsletter January 2019 Happy New Year!!

I hope you all have an amazing time with your families and friends.!!! It’s already 2019 and we recharge our energies for a fantastic year.

I would like to thank you all for coming to the Winter Social on December 2018 !!! What a great time we had, pictures, raffles and bingo!! But most important your smiles and company! Thank you so much for your patience, your time and enthusiasm. The toy drive was unbelievable; we had lots of toys and made a lot a kids happy this past Christmas. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Events like those ones reaffirm why SSA is for… help each other, work together, smile and always be there when someone needs us!!

Don’t forget this month’s activities, and coffees!! Let’s begin this year laughing and having fun! A complete calendar will be posted every month in this newsletter, Facebook and will be sent by email. If you know someone who would love to join us or have just arrived, let us know and we will help him/her to join us and start attending our events.

Charity, it’s on the loop too!! Check the calendar and keep eyes open for this month’s events!

I wish you all an amazing month and hope to see you soon!

With Love, Juliana Romero

OPEN BOARD POSITION Welcome coordinator and Database coordinator!

If you are interested please email ssahouston.chaptercoordinator@gmail.c om

DATES TO REMEMEBER 9th Photography club 14th Spanish class 16th Cooking club 17th Craft club 1 22nd English class 23rd Craft club 2 24th Newcomer’s welcome 28th Volunteer - Charity event and mommy &kids club 30th Sewing club (For detailed list of events, please check our calendar)

HSE EVENTS – DON’T MISS Feb 1st -- First Aid and CPR April 2nd -- Wildlife and self-defense

Page 3 – About SSA Page 4 – Newcomers of December Page 5, 6 – Stories among us Page 7,8 – Photos from our clubs Page 9 – Activity list Page 10 – HSE & Charity Page 11 – Winter Social Page 12 – Calendar Page 13 – Check deposit system Page 14 – SSA Resources Page 15 – Things happening around Houston Page 16 – Board contact list

Welcome to SSA Houston GET IN TOUCH, EMAIL US: ssahouston.welcomecoordinator@gmail.com If you know someone who is new to Houston, or haven’t joined us yet and would love to be part of this amazing chapter please contact our Welcome Coordinator. Once you get in touch with our Welcome coordinator we will make sure you receive all the information about our monthly activities and events.

About Schlumberger Spouse Association (SSA)

The Schlumberger Spouses Association (SSA) is a global, voluntary, social organization for all spouses and partners of Schlumberger employees. We aim to create a welcoming and supportive environment for all members and their families. The SSA fosters fellowship through ongoing social events and community involvement.

Although we receive funding from Schlumberger to subsidize some events for our members, SSA is run entirely by volunteers. The local Houston Chapter Board is elected once a year, usually at our Spring Social event and is accountable to the Global SSA Board.

Currently, SSA Houston has over 700 members! In addition to the regular activities featured in Chat Line each month, we also run a variety of social events and contribute to a number of community organizations throughout the year. We are always open to suggestions so if your interest or hobby is not represented and you would like to start a group, just contact someone on our Board! We also run four coffee mornings a year specifically for newcomers, around one per quarter. You do not need to attend to get involved but our newcomers’ ‘Meet and Greet’ is a great way to get introduced to all things SSA Houston and you do get a pretty awesome goody bag too!

To remain in membership, you must attend at least one SSA event a year, running between Spring Social to Spring Social. As part of our accountability to Schlumberger, we do keep a record of attendance for all our events and activity meetings.

If you have any questions about SSA Houston, contact our Chapter Coordinator at ssahouston.chaptercoordinator@gmail.com

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Welcome our new SSA Houston members for the month of December:

Monica Moscillo Yuko Uchida Farah Zafar Sonia Le Quilleuc-Perchat Lindsay Manson Sarah Wilburn Sandra De Happi Avi (Kushiti) Ojha

Photo credit: Carol Contreras (SSA photography club leader)

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Stories among us Moving forward our hope is to bring you an inspiring story from one of our SSA members.

It is reassuring to learn about the struggles and success of folks among us. This month we would like to share the story of Jiashan Lang. She is volunteering as the secretary of our current SSA Houston board.

If any of you know someone who would like to share their inspiring story with us, please contact Newsletter editor at ssahouston.newslettered@gmail.com . We would love to hear more of these!

Hi everyone, hope you all had a very merry holiday season! My name is Jiashan Lang, I’ve been living in Houston for three years. Last year I had the honor to join SSA Houston board, and served as your Event Coordinator. This year, I’m happily serving my second term on SSA Houston board as Secretary.

I’m originally from Beijing, China, where I worked for BMW after got my master degree from Peking University. But my true passion has always been creating dough figurines, which is one type of traditional Chinese sculpture made with sticky rice dough, and UNESCO recognized it as one of China’s National Intangible Cultural Heritage. So after moving to US with my husband, I started my own business here, to sell my artwork, and to promote Chinese intangible cultural heritage. Now, my work is a part of collections at various museums, galleries, and individual collectors around the world.

Apart from work, I’m a travel enthusiast and a true foodie. Every year my husband and I travel to a different country, visit their ruins, attractions and museums, learn about their history and culture, and most importantly, learn how to make their local cuisine!

Needless to say, International Day is my personal favorite SSA event, as it brings different cultures (and foods) to our doorstep, and gives us a perfect opportunity to expand our horizon.

At SSA Houston, we provide many opportunities just like the International Day. All members are working hard toward the common goal of making SSA better and more accessible, so that the families transferred into Houston could have a smooth transition, make friends, and get familiar with the city as soon as possible.

Hope everyone can join SSA activities of your choice for the New Year, and we hope to put together more new events! Looking forward all the great things in 2019!

Jiashan Lang SSA Houston Secretary

Photos from the clubs we offer at SSA. SSA Offers a variety of activities. If you wish to take part in them please let our amazing activity coordinator [Ingrid ssahouston.activities@gmail.com] know which one you would like to take part in. List of the activities to follow in the next few pages. Here are few captures from the clubs we offer, more to be found on our FB page.

Sewing club

Craft Club 1 and 2

Book club

morning e e f f o C SW

Memorial Coffee morni

ng

Mom amd kids club

Katy Coffee Morning

g offee mornin C s d n la d o o W

Activity list Please contact our activity coordinator Ingrid ssahouston.activities@gmail.com if you would like to be added in the mailing list for any of these activities.

Coffee or Club

Name

Craft Club 1

Ingrid Alvarez

Craft Club 2

Barbara Vandewalle

Cooking Club

Stacey Cartier

English

Adrienne Skyler

French 2

Thais Ide

Photography

Carola Contreras

Mommies & Kiddies

Cristian Castro

Sewing Class

Daniela Reyes

Spanish 1

Ingrid Alvarez

In the Loop Coffee

Adrienne Skyler

Katy Coffee

Lourdes Navas

Memorial Coffee

Fatma Outioua

Southwest Coffee

Geetha Sukumar

Woodlands Coffee

Humaira Mirza

HSE and Charity events For the month of December our HSE coordinator had organized IT security session where we learned smart ways to secure our home network. The session saw a good turn out. A detailed presentation of this session has been uploaded under files in our FB page.

As part of our Charity program, our Charity coordinator had organized for us to volunteer at the Fort Bend Rainbow Room. Our SSA Houston members gave their time generously in organizing the toys at the facility. It was a cheerful bunch of folks!

SSA Winter Social 2018 We ended 2018 with a beautiful celebration! December’s winter social was held in a picturesque setting at a Country club. We enjoyed a delicious entrÊe that was served, mingled with friends, clicked a few photos, had a merry time. Our members also brought in generous amount of unwrapped toys for donation towards Fort Bend Rainbow room.

This is a non-profit organization with a mission to provide emergency supplies for the children and adults in crisis. It was a perfect way of saying goodbye to 2018 and get recharged for 2019! For more photos of the event please check out our Facebook page.

For more pictures and videos please check our Facebook page.

SSA Activity Calendar January 2019 Sunday

6

Monday

7

Tuesday

14 Spanish Class

20

21

28

Friday

Saturday

2

3

4

5

8

9

10

11

12

18

19

15 SW Coffee

22 English Class

27

Thursday

1

Board Meeting

13

Wednesday

29

-Mommies and Kids club -Ballard House (Charity)

Photography Club

16 Cooking Club

23 Craft Club 2

30

Katy Coffee

17 Craft Club 1

24 Newcomers Coffee

Woodlands Coffee

25

26

Memorial coffee

31

-In the Loop Coffee - Sewing club

Notes:

To enroll for any of these clubs or to get invites for coffees please email our activity coordinator Ingrid @ -- ssahouston.activities@gmail.com

SSA Events Check Deposit System Help us spend o ur funding efficiently!

The two events that require our SSA members to send a deposit check are our Winter Social and AGM. In the past events we have had members sign up and later not show up. We understand situations that can arise which are at times out of our control. Nevertheless by sending out the deposit checks you help us plan well and mange our funds better. Lets work together on this.

ATTENDING AN EVENT? SEND A DEPOSIT CHECK TO THE VENUE BEFORE THE DEADLINE • If you want to attend an event, it is your responsibility to mail the check to the person whose name is indicated in the invitation.

• Once you attend the event, your check will be returned to you at the event.

HOW IT WORKS • For each event, you will receive an invite via Eventbrite. The invitation will clearly ask you to send a $xx.00 refundable check made out to the Venue that is hosting the event and NOT to the SSA Houston.

• Cash is acceptable if you don’t have a checkbook.

• If you do not send a check, you are not registered to the event even if you have registered yourself in Eventbrite. There will be no exception.

If you forget to mail your check on time, please contact the organizer (details in invitation).

She/he will advise you if it is still possible to come and inform you of a board member living in your area. Make contact and deliver your check and your registration will be complete.

WHY Why do we ask for refundable attendance checks for all our SSA Houston all chapter events?

• To confirm attendance number to the venue that host our event • To check that we have the requested minimum number for SLB to organize an event • To avoid spending our limited funds for no-shows • SO PLEASE HELP US SPEND OUR FUNDING EFFICIENTLY! NO SHOW AND CANCELLATION POLICY • Your check will be cashed by the venue if no-show.

It is your personal responsibility to make sure your checks are valid (date, name on the check, signature, amount written and numeric must match etc.)

• The deadline to cancel is always 48 hours before the event: If you cancel after that and the venue does not agree to change the numbers, your check will be cashed by the venue to cover your spot.

SSA Resources F

To join us on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/groups/ssahouston] please send a request to Lucia Campbell our Welcome Coordinator ssahouston.welcomecoordinator@gmail.com .

SSA Worldwide website For those who don’t know, SSA has a new website. The new website is hosted inside SLB’s domain, so there are a few steps you’ll need to follow to log in for the first time.

To start, please forward this link to your spouse (SLB employee) to request the creation of your account: https://slb001.sharepoint.com/…/PrimaryInfoCo…/NewForm.aspx…

They will only need to fill out your name and personal email address. After this is done, you will receive an email inviting you to the website. Because of the security measures put in place by SLB to make sure the new SSAfara is a safe space, you’ll need to follow a few steps to log-in for the first time. Please follow the instructions in the attached Log-In Guide.

After you’ve successfully logged-in for the first time, you’ll be asked to fill out a Membership Form and agree to the Terms and Conditions of the website. From then on, you’ll only need this link to access the website: slb001.sharepoint.com/sites/SSAfara.

(Note that you will only be able to use this link after you have successfully logged-in and agreed to the Terms and Conditions) If you have any issues logging in, please contact: * Erna Farizan, SSA Webmaster: ssa-webmaster@slb.com * Evelyn Bicelis, SSA Global Communications Coordinator: ssa-communications@slb.com * Elsa Scheffler, SSA Global Coordinator: ssa-global-coord@slb.com

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THINGS HAPPENING AROUND HOUSTON IN THE MONTH OF JANUARY -

NEWTON KNOW-HOW – recurring daily at The Children’s museum of Houston, a fun place to explore Newton’s laws of motion. Please find more on this here https://www.cmhouston.org

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PAPER ENGINEERING – shows visitors how a piece of paper can be transformed into something that flies, floats or tells a story -- open till Jan 22nd at The Children’s museum of Houston. Please visit https://www.cmhouston.org/paper-engineering for more info.

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LET’S ROAM – HOUSTON CITY SCAVENGER HUNT – recurring daily at Herman park. This is a great way to explore Museum district and the area around it.

Find more info at https://www.letsroam.com/scavenger_hunt/Museum_District_Houston_Scavenge r_Hunt

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OPEN HOUSE – local artists Dan Havel and Dan Ruck have transformed a previously abandoned house into an interactive public sculpture. Open through February. It is a unique work of art for any art enthusiasts to enjoy! Information at https://www.downtownhouston.org/guidedetail/art-blocks/open-house/

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ICE SKATING AT THE DISCOVERY GREEN – open till Jan 27th, more info at https://www.discoverygreen.com/ice

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CIRQUE DU SOLEIL – LUZIA – happening at Sam Houston race Park, shows run till Feb 24th. For more information on tickets please visit https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/usa/houston/luzia/buy-tickets#

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HOUSTON SYMPHONY – concerts run through out the year. For information on programs and tickets please visit https://www.houstonsymphony.org

Please head to visithoustontexas.com for more events and things to do around Houston. We hope

SSA Houston Board 2018 - 2019 POSITION

Chapter Coordinator Secretary Treasurer

Welcome Coordinator

NAME

PHONE NUMBER

Juliana Romero 8322726843

Jiashan Lang 2489165168 Betzabeth Gonzalez 1.Lucia Campbell

Social Media Coordinator

ssahouston.secretary @gmail.com ssahouston.treasurer @gmail.com

8322285692

ssahouston.welcomecoordinator @gmail.com

Activities Coordinator Ingrid Alvarez 8327165431

Database Coordinator

ssahouston.chaptercoordinator @gmail.com

9367180511

2. Vacant

Events Coordinator

EMAIL

Johanna Miller 9184083249

ssahouston.activities @gmail.com ssahouston.specialevents @gmail.com Ssahoustondatabase @gmail.com

Vacant Nanees Affify 8326060907

ssahouston.socialmedia @gmail.com

Newsletter Editor

Preethi Chandan

7134384457

ssahouston.newslettered @gmail.com

HSE Coordinator

Anastasia Pleshkova

8327093598

ssahouston.hse @gmail.com

Charity Coordinator

Jessica Snyder 3217457514

ssahouston.charity @gmail.com

Ex-Officio

Daniela Reyes 8325359970

ssahouston.exofficio @gmail.com

PLEASE NOTE THAT INFORMATION PUBLISHED IN SSA HOUSTON’S CHAT LINE IS INTENDED FOR ITS MEMBERS ONLY AND IS NOT INTENDED FOR WIDER DISTRIBUTION. PLEASE RESPECT THIS AND TREAT OTHER MEMBERS’ CONTACT INFORMATION WITH DISCRETION.