Our first IN Meeting of this new season was on Oct. 26 at our usual Meeting place, Die Alte Feuerwache. Appropriately, we had a prominent Sseaker, Helen Jones, Vice Consul at the British Consulate in Düsseldorf. The Consulate’s Primary concern is to help British people both living abroad and travelling in Europe, but even for non-Brits it was interesting to hear about the different ways people can be helped. And Ms. Jones included some human interest cases, which all of us could relate to. The Consulate is not responsible for renewing passports, as one might think, but there to provide emergency papers and guide people to the right offices if need be. One aspect that we were not aware of is how involved the consulate members are in Crisis Management. For example, they were asked to help after the German Wings catastrophe last spring. And Ms. Jones went to Brussels after the airport and metro bomb explosions this spring.
All in all, it was another interesting afternoon for the Cosmo ladies, completed with homemade cake and tea.