Join Gateway NAMA on September 15 as we take on the St. Louis Cardinals, or at least cheer them on as they battle arch rivals, the Chicago Cubs!

To kick off a new program year with a bang Gateway NAMA purchased 25 seats in Section 511 and are offering them to members at a discounted rate of $20 a ticket. To sweeten the deal the first round is on us!

We’ll be meeting in front of Gate 6 from 6:45 to 7 p.m. to hand out tickets and collect either cash or check to cover the $20 members are responsible for.

Tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis so RSVP early to secure your seat. We will send out a follow up message when the tickets are gone.

RSVP to Gateway NAMA at gatewaynama@yahoo.com.

In support of World Food Day the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is hosting a community awareness program that will not only help educate St. Lousians on the importance of the world hunger issue, but also provide food packets, assembled by the volunteers, for those in need.

The event will be held Friday and Saturday October 15-16. Gateway NAMA has volunteered our services on Saturday, Oct. 16 at 9 a.m. for a one hour food packaging session. In order to fully meet our service promise for the day we need a team of 10-12 volunteers.

To help offset the costs of the food packages each volunteer has a $20 registration fee. Gateway NAMA will cover the registration fee for all members who choose to participate with the group in this volunteer service.

Following the food packaging session volunteers can tour the Center’s labs and greenhouses and speak with members of the international team on these issues.

If you are interested in joining Gateway NAMA in giving back to those in need and taking a stab at world hunger, please RSVP to gatewaynama@yahoo.com by Sept. 6. We would love to have a full team to represent our organization at this event.

Thank you,

Gateway NAMA Leadership Team

The Gateway NAMA board met on Thursday, April 10, to discuss future activities, strategy and the objective of the Gateway Chapter.

Based on our meeting, a couple of new things are going to happen in the near term.

• Our joint meeting relationship with St. Louis Agribusiness Club is going to be put on hold. We want to build Gateway NAMA’s “brand identity” separately for a while. Gateway NAMA has valued the relationship and we hope opportunities to continue to collaborate will still be available, but for now we want to try to re-establish our group.
• Member survey. Look for a Gateway NAMA e-mail survey in late April following the NAMA Conference. We want to get a better idea of what members want out of their Gateway Chapter experience. The board is striving to provide a better value to members.
• Networking Happy Hour – Thursday, May 29, from 5:3-7:30 p.m. Location is TBD, but it will probably be somewhere in the central corridor. Members are free and can bring a non-member guest for $5. Drinks on the house for the first hour. We will talk briefly about the member survey result, but mostly this is just for fun.
• Cardinals Game – We’re also looking into a party box for a July Cardinals game. A limited number of Gateway Chapter-subsidized tickets will be available. We hope to get a representative from the Cardinal’s marketing department to talk to the group before the game.

So we’re doing some new things to get members involved and rev up the opportunities for learning, networking and fun. I hope you will join us.

We’re in the process of creating a new website for the Gateway Chapter. Stay tuned for updates.