The Joint Baltic American National Committee, Inc. (JBANC) is continuing a campaign to organize support for NATO enlargement to include Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. After holding a series of 18 meetings through the Midwest and East Coast centers in 2000, new meetings are scheduled in six Western cities from July 8-16. The meetings will be held in Denver (July 8), Phoenix (July 9), Los Angeles (July 11), San Francisco (July 13), Portland (July 15) and Seattle (July 16). The joint effort involves national, state and local Baltic committees and organizations.

Presenters during the meetings will be Jânis Kukainis, President of the American Latvian Association and member of the JBANC Board of Directors; Karl Altau, Managing Director of JBANC, and Jânis Eichmanis, Counselor of the Embassy of Latvia.

All are welcome to attend and participate! For more information on the meetings, please contact the JBANC office.

Meetings will be held in the following locations:

Denver:  Sunday, July 8, 2001, 2:00 p.m. Colorado Latvian Cultural Center 10705 West Virginia Ave. Lakewood, CO 80226 Contact: Peteris D’Carlo dcarlo@us.ibm.com tel. 303-321-9035   Phoenix:  Monday, July 9, 2001, 7:00 p.m. Holiday Inn, 3401 E. University Phoenix, AZ Contact: Ivars Reimanis  ireimanis@aol.com tel. 602-840-0107   Los Angeles: Wednesday, July 11, 2001, 7:30 p.m. Latvian Cultural Center 1955 Riverside Dr. Los Angeles, CA 90039 Contact: Ivars Miculis   ivars11@aol.com tel. 310-416-9615

San Francisco:  Friday, July 13, 2001, 7:30 p.m. Latvian Lutheran Church 425 Hoffman Ave. San Franciso, CA 94114 Contact:  Aldis Simsons  Simsons_a@bls.gov tel. 510-655-1419   Portland:  Sunday, July 15, 2001, 2:00 p.m. Oregon Latvian Center 5500 SW Dosch Rd. Portland, OR 97229 Contact:  Biruta Zommers  JZBZ@seasurf.net tel. 503-436-1708   Seattle:  Monday, July 16, 2001, 7:30 p.m. Latvian Cultural Center 11710 Third Ave. NE Seattle, WA 98125 Contact:  Janis Kramens  kramensjk@halcyon.com

Handbooks on activities in support of the Baltic countries entry into NATO have been updated and are available from JBANC at: 400 Hurley Avenue, Rockville, MD 20850 (tel. 301-340-1954; fax 301-309-1406; e-mail: jbanc@jbanc.org). The NATO e-book is also available for download on JBANC’s webpage at: http://jbanc.org.