Join Us for an Exciting Lecture Season!
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Naples United Church of Christ
5200 Crayton Road, Naples
3:45 and 7:30 pm
In person and livestreamed Our Enduring Global Crises
November 3, 2025: Distinguished Fellow Barbara Slavin of the Stimson Center in Washington, “Conflict: Iran.”
November 17, 2025: Edward Luce, National Editor of the Financial Times, Author of "ZBIG", a Cold War biography of Zbigniew Brzezinski.
December 8, 2025: Ambassador William Taylor [US Ambassador ret. Ukraine]: Distinguished Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. "Russia's War on Ukraine: an Update"
January 12, 2026: Mona Yacoubian, Senior Advisor and Director, Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and international Studies. "The Middle East at a Hinge Moment" January 26, 2026: Daniel Alpert, The International Club of Business Economics: “Impacting the Global Economy”
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February 9, 2026: Michael E. O’Hanlon, Brookings Institution, “To Dare Mighty Things: U.S. Defense Strategies Since the Revolution, and Lessons for Today”.
February 23, 2026: Tim Ditter, Senior Research Scientist, U.S. Center for Naval Analyses. “Advances in Chinese Military and Uncrewed Technology”.
March 9, 2026: Prof. Paul Webster Hare, Master Lecturer, Boston University. “Diplomacy and Negotiation: Cuba and Latin America”.
March 23, 2026: Louis Mead Treadwell, 11th Lieutenant Governor of Alaska and Former Chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. "High Latitudes and High Stakes: Economics, Environment and Security in an Accessible Arctic."
April 7, 2026, TUESDAY: Ambassador Douglas Lute, [usa ret.] Former assistant to President Bush and National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan. “A Global National Security Conversation.”
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Accepting Nominations for Board of Directors Applications for positions on our Board of Directors are being accepted through November 15. The Nominating Committee will make recommendations at the annual meeting in the spring, and those elected by the members will assume their positions in April. If you are interested, please realize our Board is not simply advisory, but is a hands-on working Board without a paid staff. There is much opportunity for fulfilling personal contributions, but it does require some commitment of time, depending on the role of the Board member. Please click here for more information and a description of how to apply. If you know of someone whom you believe would be a good Board member, feel free to encourage them to check it out. For questions, contact Gunther Winkler, Nominating Committee chair, at Winkler.gunther@gmail.com.
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Membership Cards Are Arriving in the Mail
Membership cards are arriving, so be sure to check your snail mail. They were originally scheduled to be mailed the last week of September, but complications at the printer delayed the mailing. If your card doesn't arrive at your summer address before you leave for Naples, it will be returned to us and you can pick it up at the welcome desk for any lecture at Naples United Church of Christ. If it is lost, we will be glad to issue you a replacement at the desk. Please note that one card will be issued for Family memberships in the name of the member who paid dues, but it is good for admission of two persons. We look forward to seeing you when programs resume very soon.
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Officers Leading Our Board for the Season
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Mark Schwab, President
Gunther Winkler, President-Elect
NCWA Book Club Meeting Dates November 4
December 2
January 6
February 4 (Wednesday)
March 3
April 7
The club meets via Zoom from 12:00 to 1:30 pm usually on first Tuesdays of the month for six sessions during the season. The reading list and Zoom link will be announced soon.
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New members of the Board of Directors and new officers for the 2025-26 season were elected last spring. Mark Schwab will continue one more year as president. President-Elect is Gunther Winkler, who is returning to the Board after time away when he was president of Greater Naples Leadership. Francisco Figueroa will be the new Board Secretary. Continuing in their former positions will be Mimi Gregory, Vice President for Programs; Carol Green, Vice President of Operations and Communications, and Robert Roussel, Treasurer. Other Board members are: Judi Lipnick, Membership Chair; Judy Baker, School Outreach Co-Chair; Alan Van Egmond, Model UN Chair; Dave Brown, Great Decisions Chair; Terry Nauck, Great Decisions Co-Chair; Also, Martha Williams, North American Scholarships Chair and Communications Chair for Model UN and School Programs; Mark Schneider, Webmaster/ Technology Chair; Jean Foster, Hospitality Chair and Fundraising Co-Chair; Also, Susan McManus, Fundraising Co-Chair and FGCU Liaison; and Michael Finkel, Academic WorldQuest Chair. To read their biographies, click here.
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Model UN Competitors Are Winners!
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Gus Lessinger, Cypress Lake High School sophomore, was interviewed on WGCU radio.
Photo by Mike Kiniry, WGCU
Don't rule out practical solutions to big problems suggested by high school students!
A special competition of the 32nd Annual Southwest Florida Model United Nations conference at Florida Gulf Coast University in March challenged high school teams to
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offer solutions to the pollution of land-plastics and the micro and nano plastics that increasingly harm our Southwest Florida water.
Cypress Lake High School’s team took top honors and a $1,000 prize for their presentation proposing a creative, actionable and ambitious plan to address plastic pollution along Southwest Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Their plan identified the primary sources and kinds of plastic pollutants found on local shorelines and proposed a multifaceted strategy to reduce them. Team members were Mya Jenkinson, Gus Lessinger, Valeska Perez, Penelope Lesage and Stella Busby.
They presented their winning proposal to members of the Naples Council on World Affairs, which sponsored the Model UN competition (click here). In addition, Gus was interviewed by Mike Kiniry for his Gulf Coast Life program on WGCU (listen here).
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 Applications are open for summer scholarships to prestigious summer study programs in July 2026 for area high school students. Go to our scholarship pages for more information (click here for domestic scholarships and here for international scholarships) or click here to apply.
Mo Winograd, Dedicated NCWA Leader, Passes Away 
Mo Winograd, former NCWA Board member and a dedicated leader in the Great Decisions and Southwest Florida Model UN programs, died September 5 in a hospital in New York City after a long struggle with cancer. To access our page in memory of Mo's contributions to NCWA, the many ways she impacted lives, as well as for instructions on how to donate to a scholarship fund in her name, please click here.
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Survey: High Satisfaction,
Suggests More Improvements
NCWA's recent member survey showed it is healthy and stable two years after the end of the pandemic. Member satisfaction remains very high, although improvements can be made in programs and in staying relevant in rapidly changing times. The Board of Directors has begun to use this information in plans for the coming season and beyond.
Attendance at lectures continues to be high, as it was two years ago. Live-streaming of lectures is popular. Ratings for the quality of lectures were 88% and quality of topics 87%, compared to an overall 88% two years ago. The lecture program was considered highly timely and relevant. Members found the lecture venue to be convenient and comfortable.
Great Decisions participants thought the material in the briefing books and supplemental reading supplied by NCWA was improved but there was need for more improvement.
The program for bringing guests to lectures and Great Decisions meetings was used by 31% of the respondents this season and 92% are willing to bring guests next season.
More members preferred using the updated website than the call center because of wait times to reach the call center, although many said they like to use both.
28% of respondents were highly likely to donate some amount to NCWA student programs, such as summer scholarships, Model UN or Academic WorldQuest. An additional 19% were somewhat willing to donate. To read members' written comments, click here.
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Did You Miss a Lecture? The lecture archive is available for members. To access the archive, first sign in.
Then, click this link
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