Thank you for attending the annual meeting!

Dozens of members and friends of Minnesota-Uruguay Partners braved the cold weather to attend Monday night's annual meeting.

It was wonderful to see past presidents like David Pace and Erik Brand there, with long-time members like Ted Bowman, Sue von Bank and Patrick and Matt Moore, all mixing with new-member recruits like Natalia Dorf-Biderman, Ross Knutsen, Deb Meagher and Juan Ghiringhelli (with his beautiful family!) among others.

The food, catered by Cafe 421, the wines from Uruguay, and not least the three presentations by Mark Knierim, Lyndel King and Pankaj Gupta about their trips to Uruguay this year, truly set a high mark for future events and presentations.

The evening also provided an opportunity to remember those we have lost this year. We believe it was the first annual meeting in 8 years that Bruce McManus, who passed away in August, wasn't attending. His big smile, firm handshake and polite prodding to "get this thing moving" were sorely missed.

Bruce's work through the social justice committee continues under Connie's attentive eye. The prison reform program was represented at the event by Ron and Reena Solheid.

Dr. Gupta laid out concrete next steps with the health collaboration that offers both high ambition and realistic resultsfor both Uruguay and Minnesota.

Lyndel King described 20 years of art and museum exchanges that are building to a new high point in 2014.

The annual meeting provided an opportunity to look back with pride and see ahead with enthusiasm to the important work that Minnesota-Uruguay Partners is undertaking.