Sunday Morning Presentations, 10:30 - 11:30

Featured Presentations Scheduled for Your Enjoyment in the LCS Gardens

Registration is strongly encouraged. CLICK HERE TO RESERVE MONDAY-SATURDAY



Richard DiehlOpen Circle Ajijic

February 5, 2023
Presentation by Richard Diehl: Win as Much as You Can
YouTube link: Coming Soon!

Today you will be playing a game with a team of about 5 people, trying to solve a puzzle of sorts.

The instructions will be intentionally ambiguous (a bit vague) although at the end all will be revealed.

It will require some standing up and small group discussion of your team’s strategy in order to solve this.

No personal information will be discussed or revealed during the game but you might end up discovering some new things about yourself at the end.

Please bring glasses if you need them (so you can read the instructions), and a pen or pencil.

If you wish to attend and observe, but not participate please consider sitting in the Gazebo.

Take a risk and have fun.

Richard Diehl Ph.D. M.Ed. L.Ac. has been faculty at State University of NY. He has taught Neurolinguistic Programming in 9 countries on 5 continents. He also had a successful practice as a Traditional Naturopath and Acupuncturist until he retired about 6 years ago. This is the third winter he and his partner Gayla have spent in Ajijic.
Luis Pacheco & Steve BalfourOpen Circle Ajijic

February 19, 2023
Presentation by Luis Pacheco & Steve Balfour: LCS AGM & Future Planning
YouTube link: Coming Soon!

As two of the leaders of LCS, we would like to offer you some insights of the upcoming Annual General Meeting and solicit your thoughts. The focus will be on where we are heading. This is your opportunity to offer your thoughts on anything Lake Chapala Society.

People may not be aware that over 1,000 people per week visit LCS, and there are approximately 100 activities that take place in and around LCS. Few could name them all. Steve is in his last year as President of the Board and this marks the 2 year anniversary since Luis started as the Executive Director.

At last year’s AGM Steve charged the Board of Directors and Senior Management with 5 priority goals. We knew at the time this would be a two year plan as there was a lot of ground work to be done. As we strive to remain accessible, transparent, and accountable, we are providing this update regarding our vital work and accomplishments. But more so, we are looking for your thoughts and recommendations on how we move forward on these 5 priorities:
Customer Service Focus
Upgraded Technology
Community Collaborations
Community Visibility
Taking Care of What We Have

The related Committees of the Board will have special presentations that will be part of this years' March 14 Annual General Meeting. In preparation for this AGM, we would like to solicit your input and involvement, and share where we are now and hear first-hand from our constituents on your thoughts for moving forward.
Dr. Marco Antonio Cortés Guardado and Dra. Cecilia Soraya Shibya SotoOpen Circle Ajijic

February 26, 2023
Presentation by Sandy Britton: Letting Mexico Mellow You Out
YouTube link: Coming Soon!

This conversation will deal with some of the results of the “Comparative Study of the International Communities in the areas of Ajijic and Puerto Vallarta” carried out by professors of the University of Guadalajara. Particularly the data obtained from the Survey applied to expats in these areas, during the years 2020 to 2021. Among the main findings is the verification that expats do not form an aggregate group because they share or keep a certain similarity in their sociodemographic features. We consider the existence of structural differences, which are reflected, for example, in their party and ideological preferences, among others. We also consider the time period in which they have immigrated and the places where they reside, issues that have already been studied. This also implies diverse patterns of behavior, in their form and scope of inclusion in the local communities and could become prototypes.

Dr. Marco Antonio Cortés is Professor-Researcher and Director of the IIIG of the University of Guadalajara, from his latest publications, "Social and political innovation in Jalisco Cases that inspire, transcend and innovate", "Parties without partisans", "The values of the people of Jalisco. Former general rector of the UdG and CUCSH, CUCOSTA.

Dra. Cecilia Soraya Shibya Soto is Professor-Researcher in the Department of Socio-urban Studies at the University of Guadalajara.


If You Missed an In-person Presentation, You Can Still Enjoy It On-line



Lila WellsOpen Circle Ajijic

January 8, 2023
Presentation by David Byrne: The Four Desires?
YouTube link: [a href="https://youtu.be/MPfB73LkVj0" target="_blank"]** CLICK HERE **[/a]

In his 1950 Nobel acceptance speech, philosopher Bertrand Russell claimed that — once survival needs have been met — all human behavior is motivated by acquisitiveness, rivalry, vanity, and love of power. In this presentation entitled "The Four Desires?", David Bryen will invite us to evaluate whether these motivators alone are sufficient to illuminate the yearning for fulfillment of our deepest human longings and lift the veil that shrouds our truest desires. David promises to provide no answers, but invites us to explore the hungry nature of the complex human soul, in the hope that this inquiry will encourage and equip us for dialogue with others and thereby heal rather than feed the divisions that increasingly separate us.

In his published books, his poetry, his love for wood, David has long been a voice working to awaken the sensations of the soul. He retired to Ajijic from his psychotherapy practice in 2012. He's raced sailboats, built his own house, been a lifetime motorcyclist, motorcycle safety instructor, master wood craftsman, and for 5 years served as the coordinator of Open Circle. This will be his 11th presentation at Open Circle.
Our First Steps in Mexican MusicOpen Circle Ajijic

December 18, 2022
Presentation by Steve Balfour: Looking Forward
YouTube link: [a href="https://youtu.be/jkwIuUyc7qY" target="_blank"]** CLICK HERE **[/a]

As I start my final year as President of The Lake Chapala Society, I would like to meet with our constituents in an open forum. The first part will be to share with you my background so you know what drives me. Then continuing on with what has been accomplished at LCS in recent years and why. Followed with an open discussion of - where to from here? A positive discussion on the realities of where we are - what got us here and solicit your input for an upcoming board retreat on what challenges and opportunities are out there for us as an organization. I'll be up front, this is not a complaint session, but an opportunity to present in a positive manner your thoughts and ideas for looking forward. Change has two realities - it is inevitable and human nature leans towards resistance.

Join us for at Open Circle's December 18 presentation from 10:30-11:30 am in the lovely gardens of The Lake Chapala Society
Lila WellsOpen Circle Ajijic

December 11, 2022
Presentation by Roland Palencia: “UNIDAD: Gay & Lesbian Latinos Unidos” documentary film screening
YouTube link: [a href="https://youtu.be/XADTbZtCP-o" target="_blank"]** CLICK HERE **[/a]

“UNIDAD: Gay & Lesbian Latinos Unidos” - Trailer (2022) [a href="https://vimeo.com/689009028" target="_blank"]can be seen here[/a]

The Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU) organization was founded in 1981, only a dozen years after the Stonewall rebellion, and a year before the HIV/AIDS pandemic began to ravage LGBTQ communities. GLLU was the greater Los Angeles area's first major Gay and Lesbian Latino organization, and the UNIDAD film chronicles events surrounding GLLU at a pivotal time in the history of the convergent equality, feminist, and civil rights movements that shaped the destinies of GLLU's multiple and overlapping communities for decades thereafter.

GLLU was revolutionary for its time as it affirmed the multiple identities of being LGBTQ+, Latino, immigrant and undocumented, political and economic refugees, class and color, Latin American and U.S. Chicano heritage, while becoming trailblazing pioneers who empowered the blossoming Latino and Queer movements. The 40 minute film seeks to recount and reclaim this history and stories.

Roland Palencia (he/him) is a Professor at California State University Northridge (CSUN)’s Tseng College in the Diverse Community Development Leadership Master of Arts program. He is the Executive Producer of two documentary films: “TransVisible: Bamby Salcedo’s Story,” a documentary depicting the life and activism of the nationally renowned Trans Latina activist Bamby Salcedo; and “UNIDAD: Gay &' Lesbian Latinos Unidos,” which chronicles the founding and legacy of the largest Queer Latine organization active in the 1980s.
Lila WellsOpen Circle Ajijic

November 27, 2022
Presentation by Lila Wells: Lila Reads Again
YouTube link: [a href="https://youtu.be/Ma8z1Z-hnok" target="_blank"]** CLICK HERE **[/a]

Lila Wells shares the story of The Snow Goose, by Paul Gallico, a parable on the regenerative power of friendship and love, set against a backdrop of the horror of World War II.

Critics called the book overly sentimental. Gallico made no apologies, saying “in the contest between sentiment and 'slime,' sentiment remains far out in front”.

In 1971, a performance of The Snow Goose was broadcast on BBC television, winning a Golden Globe and an Emmy. It was shown in the US on the Hallmark Hall of Fame.

Lila has acted in community theatre from age 16. Since coming to Lakeside in 2015 she has been involved in many aspects of the local theatre scene. Her goal with this reading to make you weep, so bring your hankies.
Randy Brutsche Open Circle Ajijic

November 20, 2022
Presentation by Randy Brutsche: An Illegal Gringo in Old Mexico
The story and the publication process
YouTube link: [a href="https://youtu.be/APbfaMsX-6U" target="_blank"]** CLICK HERE **[/a]

This is the true-life story of an American tourist seeking a retirement lifestyle as an Ex-Patriot in Mexico. While traveling via bus to see the countryside, Mr. Brutsche had seen many instances of immigration agents entering the bus to randomly check a few passengers for proper travel documents. When it finally happened to him, he quickly found out he did not have what was required. As an illegal alien without a visa or tourist visitation form, he was taken off the bus, his luggage pulled out, and the bus drove away. What followed was a hair-raising ordeal thrown at him in a language he did not speak that included being imprisoned for six days in an immigration detention facility in Acayucan, Veracruz, Mexico. It ended when he was accompanied by two Mexican immigration agents and deported to Houston, Texas.

Randy Brutsche was born and raised in a small, football crazy town in northwestern Illinois, was stationed in Germany from 1975 to 1978 in the US Army, then moved to Alaska in 1981 and lived in the Anchorage to Wasilla area for 35 years. His first book, his own true-life story, An Illegal Gringo in Old Mexico, is available on Amazon as an e-book with a paperback edition coming soon. He is currently wrapping up the editing of a fiction novel, A Man and the Way of the Bear.
Steve Taylor Open Circle Ajijic

November 13, 2022
Presentation by Steve Taylor: FoodBank: Grandmas, Children, the Disabled & More
Perilously Close to the Edge
YouTube link: [a href="https://youtu.be/rnJ-3AXbZXA" target="_blank"]** CLICK HERE **[/a]

By end of this year – within just weeks – FoodBank Lakeside could run out of money.

Hundreds of local families count on the organization's monthly food donations to not only feed themselves, but free up precious pesos to afford rent, electricity, cooking fuel, water, kids' clothes, and other items.

Losing this monthly help could lead to familial displacement, hunger, utility loss, or financial ruin.

Between now and Dec. 31, Lakeside ex-pats and others who are better off are being challenged to put FoodBank on sturdier financial footing. Increase the number of FoodBank supporters. Add those who auto-donate small sums a month for 12 months.

The One Million Peso Challenge seeks the public's help from new supporters and more help from current supporters – or from supporters' friends, neighbors, tourists, ex-pats or the public. The need is immediate. The crisis is critical. The Challenge is ours.

Our Presentation Archives:

To view additional presentations from Open Circle 2022, ** CLICK HERE **.
Archives of presentations from 2014 to the current year are also available for viewing under the “Videos” tab on the Open Circle menu above.