Dear Mr. Brent Beemer,

We, the group of Russian entrepreneurs from the Kemerovo region, Russia, would like to express our sincere appreciation of the warm welcome we received in Louisville, Kentucky, in June, 2001 and the efforts made by the Louisville International Cultural Center (LICC) to make us feel at home.

The program we came to the USA on was called "Business for Russia / Community Connections". To begin with, our visit was thoroughly planned from the very beginning. Tom Dumstorf of LICC personally established rapport with each member of the group via e-mail to ensure their preparedness for the program prior to their leaving for the USA. The Russian entrepreneurs also received sufficient information via telephone, booklets and mail.

Our stay in Louisville, Kentucky, was very useful in terms of getting to know the way business is done in the US. Each member was able to visit businesses related to his/her area of interest, "shadow" executives in order to get some hands-on managerial experience and get all the information facilitating his/her future professional and business growth. Coordinating the mutual work of this great number of people was no easy task. Thanks to LICC staff: Paul Thistleton, Marcia Osborne, Sandy Emly and especially Tom Dumstorf, the person whom we stayed in constant contact with, the business part of the program was successfully completed.

Our visit would not have been so complete if we had not had any chance to get to know America in terms of culture and everyday life. LICC had planned a very interesting cultural program which we thoroughly enjoyed while staying in Louisville, Kentucky. Again, Tom Dumstorf was always there to facilitate all the cultural events, trips and outings. He was always eager to deal with whatever problem arose, be it transportation or setting up a meeting. His cooperation and involvement made this part of the program very enjoyable.

We hope that our feedback on our visit will help you in getting a better idea of how programs like this work and performed in different parts of the USA.

Participants of the "Business for Russia / Community Connections" program,
June 2001, Louisville, KY, USA