.:: Report 2008 :: Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland in San Francisco ::.

Report of Honorary Consul for San Francisco for 2008

Below is a report of my activities as Honorary Consul in San Francisco for 2008.

In the beginning is a synopsis of some of the major objectives and projects of my position and a short statement of the progress achieved. Following this, is a month-by-month report on my most important activities as Honorary Consul.

Overview:

Our Consular offices occupy the 15th floor and 16th floors of the historic Humboldt Bank Building in downtown San Francisco. We have full office facilities with conference room and adequate space for small receptions and events.

Our office has a staff of 12 full and part-time persons, several of whom speak Polish. Several serve as my consular assistants.

This year we have had two graduate interns from Poland, Ewa Szafranska and Magdalena Zimka. We have had five other graduate interns in the past: Maria Mirek, Lukasz Wojtowicz, Szymon Ociepka, Tomasz Snazyk and Bartosz Kozlowski. Most of these are law graduates from Poland.

Specific Projects and Objectives in 2008:

1. Relations with Polish government officials and Welcoming VIPs from Poland.

Our office has continued to serve as a representative of the Polish government in San Francisco and we have worked to welcome visiting Polish leaders of government, commerce and culture. I also have traveled to Warsaw and to Los Angeles to participate in conferences regarding my duties as an Honorary Consul, and we have maintained close ties to the Consulate in LA, the Embassy in Washington D.C. and MSZ.

In October, I took part in the first International Convention of Honorary Consuls in Warsaw. During this conference, I participated in meetings with many officials of the Polish Foreign Ministry (MSW), as well as Ministries of Economy, Finance, Culture and many others. During this convention, I met with many prominent Polish leaders, past and present, including: President Lech Walesa and Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, Vice Premier Pawlak, Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, and Pawel Wojciechowicz, President of Polish Information & Foreign Investment Agency.

During the year, I also participated in meetings and negotiations regarding the proposed Sister City agreement between the officials of the City of Krakow and the Mayor's office of San Francisco. Met with Filip Berkowicz, Pelnomocnik Prezydenta ds. Kulturalny; Grazyna Leja, Pelnomocnik Prezydenta ds. Turystyki; Krzysztof Gruner, Director, International Cooperation Bureau; Agata Mierzynska, International Cooperation Bureau in Krakow. Reported the result of these meetings with the City of San Francisco. Throughout the year, our office hosted various delegations and VIPs from Poland, often holding receptions at my office in their honor.

In April, I and members of my staff participated in three days of meetings and receptions for Vice Premier and Economic Minister Waldemar Pawlak and his delegation. I greeted them at the airport and provided them a personal tour of San Francisco. The delegation included: Waldemar Pawlak, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Dariusz Bogdan, Podsekretarz Stanu w MG, Zofia Schnitzer, Glowny Specialista w. MG, P.Pplk. Krzysztof Kowalczyk, Zestepca Szefa, BOR.

We also welcomed President Lech Walesa to San Francisco on two occasions. In February and again in June, we met President Walesa at the airport during visits here and assisted with his visit to the area.

In August, our office held a reception for Wanda Koscia, filmmaker and wife of the Polish Finance Minister. The reception included a showing of Mrs. Koscia's film on the subject of the Warsaw Uprising. It was attended by many leaders of the Polonia Community, including President of Polish Arts and Culture Foundation, US-Polish Trade Council, other Polonia groups, business leaders, and several Consul Generals and other dignitaries in San Francisco.

In September, we held a reception for Piotr Uszok, Mayor of Katowice, and a delegation of others including members of the Sejm, in our office. Ewa Szafranska of our office acted as an interpreter during the visit of the Mayor's delegation to Silicon Valley.

We frequently hosted meetings with various Polish visitors, including several delegations of Polish business leaders, Polish law graduates and students and several scholarship recipients studying her from Poland.

Throughout the year, I had various meetings with the Consul General, Hon. Paulina Kapuscinska, of the Polish Consulate in Los Angeles and her staff, including a full-day conference in February for all the Honorary Consuls taking place at the Consulate.

2. Relations with the Consular Corps and U.S. government officials.

The most significant aspect of our relations with American government officials is the establishment of a sister-city relationship with San Francisco and Krakow. In October, I went to Poland to meet with city officials in Krakow to confirm the establishment of the sister city agreement between that city and San Francisco. We are planning to sign a formal agreement in Krakow in the summer of 2009. See discussion below.

In addition, we have also worked closely with the U.S. Embassy staff in Poland for many years and this continued throughout 2008. We also worked closely throughout the year with the U.S. Commerce Department office in San Francisco and the State Department Office of Foreign Missions. There were several conferences with the staff of the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I and members of my staff attended various events of the Mayor's office, including holding a celebration of Polish Constitution Day in May, in which I and the Mayor presided over the raising of the Polish flag at City Hall in San Francisco.

I have been an active member of the Consular Corps, attending most of its meetings as well as its annual Christmas events. We also organized several receptions in our office for visiting Polish dignitaries and members of the Consular Corps, described in more detail above. I had personal lunches and meetings with over 10 other Consul Generals during this year, some taking place in my office and some taking place in other Consulates.

In December, we organized a Christmas Party at our offices for Consul Generals from Latin America attended by various consuls and many other dignitaries in San Francisco.

I also attended the Mayor's Christmas Party and I used the occasion to speak with the Mayor about a potential visit to Poland in 2009 for the signing of the Sister City Agreement with Krakow.

3. Promote trade with Poland.

One of my biggest priorities was to promote trade with Poland and we devoted much of our resources to this end..

In this effort, during this year, we have been communicating with many representatives of many Silicon Valley companies, including Google, IBM, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Cisco, KLA Tencor, among others. I continued my work with George Slawek of the US-Polish Trade Council and Roger Merckling, on a project to promote IT outsourcing to Poland.

Specifically, I spent many hours to promote the work of Market Street Associates (MSA), a young and creative company that is developing a technology to connect Polish technology companies design centers, research centers, ISVs and others in the Polish IT industry to markets and companies in Silicon Valley . The platform is under development in Poland and here in the US with the target release date of V 1.0 being May 2009. MSA is planning to open an office in Warsaw in 2009.

We continued to share our power point presentation on the subject of Poland as an investment partner. This power point presentation was prepared by George Slawek of the US-Polish Trade Council in conjunction with our office to promote Poland as a location for investment and outsourcing.

We also held a reception for with representatives of the Mayor's office in Katowice, including the Mayor of Katowice, and participated in his delegation's visit to the Bay Area.

In April 2009, we are planning to organize a second major conference on doing business in Poland, taking place at Stanford University. The first one in November 2007 "Poland as the Ideal Business Partner", was on the subject of outsourcing and offshoring to Poland. I served as Master of Ceremonies at that event.

The conference is being organized by our office and Minister Zbigniew Kubacki of The Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington D.C. and Honorary Consul Tad Taube. We also hope to get assistance from the San Francisco Global Trade Council, US-Polish Trade Council, and the Polish American Engineers Club.

The last event was attended by more than 100 people including many representatives of Silicon Valley firms.

We began the planning for next spring's conference and in October, I visited officials of the City of Krakow who will co-sponsor the event. In Krakow, in October, I had a meeting with Grazyna Leja, Pelnomocnik Prezydenta ds. Turystyki, to discuss the initial planning for the Conference.

In addition, I met with several Polish officials in Warsaw, Poland in October on the subject of promoting trade with Poland, including Pawel Wojciechowicz, President of Polish Information & Foreign Investment Agency (PAiiZ).

Throughout 2008, I have also worked closely with the Minister Kubacki and Consul Sadzik of the Commercial section of the Embassy in Washington DC. I worked closely with Minister Kubacki on the Business conference described above and the visits to key Silicon Valley companies.

I have also worked with outside organizations, such as the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the San Francisco Economic Forum, and the San Francisco Global Trade Council, all of which are involved in promoting trade with Europe. I also had several meetings with other local Chambers of Commerce including the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco, San Jose and San Mateo.

4. Create a Sister City Relationship between San Francisco and Krakow.

This year we have been able to realize a long-term goal: to create a sister-city relationship between San Francisco and Krakow. I have been working for some time to create interest with both city governments in a sister city relationship. During the spring, with the help of fellow Honorary Consul Tade Taube, we obtained the agreement of both the President of Krakow and the mayor of San Francisco to establish the sister-city relationship between the two cities. Throughout the summer, we communicated with both mayors' offices to advance the agreement. In October, I went to Poland to meet with city officials in Krakow to discuss the establishment of the sister city agreement. Later, the formal sister city agreement was composed and is under consideration by both City administrations.

We are planning a signing ceremony in Krakow in the summer. We have invited SF Mayor Newsom to come to Poland for the event and hope to have his participation. Tad Taube, Shana Penn and I have worked diligently to obtain the support of the San Francisco City government to this idea. In December, I spoke with the Mayor personally about this trip in December and he told me that he would like to come.

5. Work for a better visa policy toward Poles and for Immigration Reform.

As an immigration lawyer here for 25 years, I have a lot of experience in helping Polish citizens obtain visas to the United States, and I have repeatedly experienced the frustration with U.S. visa policy toward Poles, personally witnessing the denial of visas to countless Poles who simply wanted to come to the U.S. to visit family, tour this country or even attend weddings or funerals of family members.

Therefore, I am particularly qualified to endeavor to do my part to change U.S. visa policy toward Polish citizens. I have continued to work very actively on promoting the proposal for the inclusion of Poland in the visa waiver program applicable to some 26 countries and most members of the EU, as well as passing immigration reform which would help the thousands of undocumented Poles presently in the United States.

Previously, I have modified and circulated a proposed lobbying plan which I sent to the other Honorary Consuls and the Embassy. This summer, I re-circulated this plan and "talking points" and draft letters to Congressmen for use by Polonia in this effort.

I wrote several articles on the subject published in local newspapers urging community members to actively support Poland's inclusion in the visa waiver and passage of Immigration Reform.

During the year, I met with and later corresponded with Professor Michael McFaul of Stanford University. Professor McFaul is one of President elect Barack Obama's key advisors on foreign affairs, especially on subjects of Central and Eastern Europe. I met Prof. McFaul at the dinner for Premier Pawlak in April. At his request, I provided talking points to Professor McFaul on the subject of Poland's suitability for the visa waiver. I followed up with Professor McFaul on this subject and hope to maintain an active correspondence with him during the coming four years of this Presidential administration.

6. Enhance Jewish-Polish relations.

For the past five years, I have worked hard to maintain and improve relations with the various Jewish groups in the Bay Area and the Jewish community as a whole. This has included work on an ongoing basis with the American Jewish Committee ("AJC"), the Taube Foundation and Tad Taube; and the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.

Most notably, I am a member of the Advisory Board of the Taube Foundation, one of the most prominent Jewish organizations in the San Francisco area. I took part in their annual Board meeting in November and severa of their events during the year.

I also attended several functions of the American Jewish Committee including the organization's annual dinner in November in honor of my friend and colleague, Ernest Weiner.

I have maintained in contact with Rabbi Schudrich of Warsaw, and several members of the committee raising funds for the Museum on the History of Polish Jews to be built in Warsaw.

I am joining a delegation to visit Poland in July 2009 to participate in the tour of Jewish communities and historical sites in Poland, at the invitation of the Taube Foundation.

7. Promote Polish Culture in the Bay Area.

We held various events throughout the year to promote Polish culture in San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area.

As I have on an annual basis, I attended the Friends of John Paul II Foundation Ball, Marriott Hotel, Monterey, California, at which I was the Guest of Honor and made a speech honoring the late Pope John Paul II.

Once again, our office organized a Polish exhibit at the Festival of Cultures at the University of California, Berkeley in April. We organized and attended three tables exhibiting Polish culture and food at the International House annual Festival of Cultures at the University in Berkeley. We also hosted the Polish Dance group, Lowiczanie, which performed at this important local cultural event.

Also, as we did in the past, our office was a financial sponsor and supporter of the annual Christmas Carol concert by Polish chorus, Lowiczanie. I attended this wonderful concert held in Berkeley, California in December.

Throughout the year, my staff and I took part and supported the events of the Polish Arts and Culture Foundation of San Francisco and its dynamic leader, Caria Tomczykowska.

I also introduced Polish Chopin Award winner Rafal Blechacz at his concert at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco in May 2008. For the entire prior year, I was part of an effort to promote the visit and concert of Mr. Blechacz. I met several times with a local benefactor from the Polish American community, Arlene Sullivan, who has agreed to sponsor Mr. Blechacz' visit.

Finally, I represented the Consulate at the Tall Ships Festival in San Francisco in summer. I was the guest of the Tall Ships Committee on the tall ship The Linx during the Opening Ceremony in San Francisco Harbor.

8. Recognizing the sacrifices and contributions of Polish veterans.

During 2008, I attended and spoke at various events honoring the work of Polish veterans and I worked closely with the Veterans organization.

Ewa Szafranska of my staff and I worked with the Veterans Department in Warsaw and the local Veterans group to try to obtain medals and distribute medals to members of the Polish community who were to be honored in the 2007 ceremony, but had not yet received their medals.

In August, I participated at the award ceremony where various Veterans of the Warsaw Uprising were honored with medals by the Polish government in Walnut Creek, California. Consul Wojciech Bergier also attended this event.

On the issue of Polish deportees to Siberia, I also had meetings and corresponded with Stefan Wisniowski, President of Kresy-Siberiacki Group and George Slawek, a member of the Kresy-Siberacki Board, regarding efforts to set up a cyber museum for family members of victims of deportation from the Kresy region of Poland, to Siberia. In December, I met with Mr. Wisniowski was visiting from Australia where he serves as President of the Group. We also discussed the efforts to obtain compensation for such victims and their families.

I continued my correspondence and discussions with Allen Paul, an author of a book on Katyn. Mr. Paul and I had several conference calls during which he interviewed me about my lawsuit against the Soviet Union in 1991 representing widows and children of officers killed in the Katyn massacres.

We have also continued our arrangement with the Bay Area Holocaust Oral History project to produce filmed interviews with Polish veterans (many of them participants in the Warsaw Uprising. These interviews have been ongoing since the summer of 2005.

9. Services to Polish citizens in need.

Throughout the year, our office provided continuous advice on numerous subjects for the benefit of Polish citizens in San Francisco. This included advice on Polish passports and visas, Polish citizenship, return of human remains to Poland, certification of legal documents and many other subjects.

We also provided assistance to many Polish citizens facing deportation and interacted with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency on this subject. In December, I had a lengthy meeting with Vice Director P. Kaiser, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the vice director of local office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at our offices in San Francisco, regarding the case of a Polish citizen facing deportation, as well as the deportation process and intervention on behalf of Polish citizens generally. Our office also made successful efforts to obtain the approval of both the state of California and the U.S. Department of Justice to allow the prison transfer of a Polish citizen, imprisoned in state prison in California, back to his native Poland. I worked on this case at the request of the family.

I also had many personal conferences with individuals interested in Polish citizenship and the process of obtaining it in the United States. In addition, we met with numerous Polish citizens needing a "No Objection" waiver from Polish government to stay in the United States following a stay in the U.S. on a J-1 visa. Likewise, we met with and counseled many Polish students here in the U.S. on work and travel visas, internship J-1 visas, and F-1 student visas.

We also advised many Polish citizens seeking to stay in the U.S. through family or work sponsorship.

I have written, published and distributed a lengthy "Guide to Immigration in the United States", in the English and Polish languages. This is available on my website.

We have also continued publishing a monthly column in News of Polonia, a Polish and English bilingual newspaper published in Los Angeles. The column appears in both the English and Polish languages. I also publish columns on legal subjects for the White Eagle, another Polish /English newspaper published on the West Coast of the United States.

Ewa Szafranska and Magdalena Zimka of my consular staff assist me with these publications.

10. Community Building.

I have had various meetings in my offices and elsewhere to try to enhance the Polonia community, many of which are described below in more detail.

During this year, we have attended multiple events in the local Polonia community, including the annual Polish Constitution Day celebration, the Polonia Ball of the John Paul II Foundation, the Polish Festival, the Ball of the Polish Arts and Culture Foundation, many functions of the Polski Dom and many other community events described below.

Also, in October, there was a Polish Heritage Day celebration in San Francisco Golden Gate Park including Polish music, food and culture. The Polish group, Lowiczanie, performed.

There was also a Polish Festival in Roseville, near Sacramento on September 13, and a Polish Festival in San Jose on September 21st. Both featured Polish music, food and dance, as well as exhibits on Polish culture.

We also organized a celebration of Polish Constitution Day at City Hall on May 3rd. At this event attended by many from the Polonia community, my co-consul Tad Taube and I presided over the raising of the Polish flag at City Hall in San Francisco.

My staff and I have tried to mobilize the resources of successful and talented Poles and Polish-Americans living in the Bay Area. We have established a mailing list of approximately 5000 names of Poles and Polish-Americans living in California.

I am truly grateful and proud to have been given this position as Honorary Consul. I hope to serve the Polish government and people for many years to come.

Calendar of Events 2008