by Louis J. Spremulli

Sunday, March 22, 2015 Mayor Pasquale Ciruolo from Panni, Foggia, Italy and Mayor Joseph Polisena from the Town of Johnston communicated by Skype in regards to the Sister City Program they are working on through the Pannese Society of Providence. The Pannese Society had a special meeting set for this date. We had members attend from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The meeting was called to order at 1:30 pm by President Joseph Spremulli and one of their first speakers was Senator Frank Ciccone, who presented a $1,000.00 check to the Society to support various cultural programs. Mayor Joseph Polisena participated with a skype session to Panni, Foggia, Italy and the following points were discussed.

• Sister City documents were being prepared and will presented to Johnston by April 2015
• The Mayor from Panni, Foggia was invited to Johnston, RI for the official signing.
• Both towns will have committees in place to work on specific cultural ideas.
The meeting continued with regular business regarding their agenda with ideas of moving forward with two areas of using the wide world web. Two new interns were responsible for these programs, Steve Sheeky and Jerrimiah Rainille.

Facebook and Webinar Communication were introduced to help move forward with event planning and online meetings The fact remains that Facebook is the top area of social media and Webinar software is the best way to communicate with committees as a group anywhere on the web.

Currently the Pannese Society membership has increased to over 60 members from 30 last year and still climbing. We are a 501c3 non-profit with a focus on preserving Italian Heritage. We presently have 26 sponsors and working on special grants to benefit the community and our members.

Some of our planned functions are a trip to Ellis Island, Italian Classes, Children's Xmas Party, Mass and Dinner for Annual Feast. One thing to remember is that our society sponsors events for the public to participate as well, you do not have to be a member. We are always looking for new members and sponsors.

Louis J. Spremulli
Vice President