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This weekend the San Francisco Basque Cultural Center will also be the site for two meetings.. On Friday, the mid-world congress regional meeting for North America, organized by the Basque Government,  attended by representatives of US clubs, as well as those in Canada, Mexico and Saint Pierre and Miquelon.  Gorka Alvarez Aranburu, Director of Basque Communities Abroad, will lead the meeting. On Saturday, NABO meeting, lead by NABO president Annie Gavica.

San Francisco, CA.   The first meeting will take place on Friday, called by the Basque Government, and will gather representatives of Basque clubs in the US, Canada, and Mexico as well as from Saint Pierre and Miquelon. This mid-term regional meeting, has been called in preparation for next year's World Congress of Basque Collectivities. The Basque clubs requested the Basque Government organize these regional meetings between World Congresses.  To this end, clubs around the world have been divided into three zones: Europe-Asia, North America and South America.

Last year, the European/Asian meeting took place in Paris. The North American one will be this weekend in San Francisco. And after that, the last regional meeting to take place in South America will coincide with the celebration of Semana Nacional Vasca in Argentina that will take place in November in Mar del Plata.

(The three main agenda items include: the future of organized Basque communities; How to perpetuate cultural heritage, intergenerational transmission of this heritage; and a catalogue of good practices, although other topics will surely arise.)

The second meeting this weekend in San Francisco will take place on Saturday morning with the annual winter NABO meeting, the first of this year, and one of the federation's three annual meetings.  Again delegates from Basque clubs in the US, Canada and Mexico will be in attendance.  This will be the first time that representatives from the Basque club in Saint Pierre and Miquelon will also be present, the archipelago that both administratively and politically is part of France, but geographically is situated in North America.  Despite the long career of its Basque club, it only requested official Basque Government recognition in 2017, and so this is why this weekend’s meetings mark their first participation after being officially included in the Basque Government’s registry of Basque clubs.