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The American Society, predecesor to La Assoacion Americana de Peru, La Asociación Americana y Canadiensa de Peru, and the present American and Canadian Association of Peru, was a very different entity in 1995 when I took over as President, never having even served on the Board of Directors before.

It's office was in the same place and Pat was a parttime secretary. The Board of Directors met once a month and we had a number of interesting activities: There were about 400 members and the Lima population was about half of what it is today- But the American ex-pats were very much more numerous than today as many American companies had fairly large operations here and they were led by Americans unlike today where few American companies remain and almost all are headed by non-Americans

. Visits to museums or interesting sites on a monthly basis . Restaurant Night(this actually started a year or so later) , The Newcomers evening . The Annual General Meeting (in April those days) . A monthly black and white newsletter , A Valentine's Day celebration

But the major events were the July 4th (later to become the July 1st and 4th) picnic and the Labor Day festivity. These were the big events: the former a family get together, generally at Roosevelt School, which broke even as to costs, and the July 4th festivity. Had to make a profit of $12,000 for the Society to survive.

The US embassy in those days was located on Avenida Arequipa(near the Ambassador's residence) and the consulate was in Moraflores. The embassy was not large enough to host events – indeed, there was little opportunity to hold large events as none of the major hotels today existed and those that did did not have the capacity to host such an event

The July 4th event was normally at Roosevelt Sschool but once once at the Cricket Club. Permission to use the Cricket Club for an Independence Day event was a little difficult to obtain but the heads of the club were desperately in need of money so they acquiesces. I did make a proviso, however, that their Ambassador had to greet the audience and break his sword (something somehow they failed to accomplish).

So Labor Day was held, generally at Roosevelt School somewhere close to Labor Day weekend and consisted of many exhibit booths, entertainment t(including the leading musical group in Lima and food catered by most of the fast food chains. It attracted maybe 1500 people but made its money through the concessions and various games and auctions. The 1995 event made a profit of $27,000 because 10 car companies were inveigled into showing cars; in 1996, the profit dropped to $17,000 as none of the car companies had anything resembling a customer looking at their wares.

Today´s club is far more professionally organized and works effectively through committees, something we did not have 15 years ago. But the spirit is the same and the club has adopted to modern times.