Engaging speaker; great content; learned a lot; much enjoyed. Acoustics much improved- thank you.

Great talk. In depth discussion of the reality of Cuban American relations. Very good review of US policy and history over the past 120 years. Very balanced an nuanced. Apolitical.

Need more speakers like this.

Thank you Dr. Fineberg for meeting in advance with the students. Your background information was extremely helpful. The pertinent comments in the main speech were most informative, as was your delivery. Your engaging remarks were greatly appreciated.

As you say, Jean, an enjoyable evening and an engaging speaker are our objectives with every program.

The intent here was to provide the audience with a current “state of Cuba” without a Castro family member as head of government. On balance, Dr. Feinberg's overview proved to be informative but wanting for lack of some specific detail that would have provided us with insights into just “how” Cuba was managing a rather fragile socio-economic balance. In our view, this would have transformed a "very good" presentation into an "outstanding one".

For example, current, major exports/imports; balance of trade situation; size of foreign reserves; estimated annual volume of foreign currency remittances into the country from the Cuban “diaspora”; current life expectancies; development and composition of an alleged covid vaccine independent of Russia, China and US; nature of the “reform process” put into place by the then Castro government coincident with the US/Cuba détente period; examples of just how the Cuban education system has deteriorated; etc.

Discussion of the US Guantanamo Military Base was not fully vetted (e.g., The US has a long-term lease on the land and employs a number of Cuban nationals as “local workers” on the base – all providing a needed source of foreign capital).

The November IWCC issues were nicely mitigated. More tables and room to converse during the reception period; HVAC temp was fine; the meat and fish entree choices were fine (at least at our table); acoustics were quite good; dessert was pre-positioned on our tables; there was a coffee service. Out sincere thanks to WACD officers and IWCC management to make it right!

And a final question for our WACD officers. Why is there such an iron-clad emphasis on the 8 pm closing? Is this a contractual stipulation with the facility provider or with the speaker? Can't we be more flexible to extend these sessions by 10-20 minutes to allow for a robust Q&A session, during which time (from past experiences) many otherwise missed insights are gained. Just looking for an extra margin of "value added" to these very well planned events with world affairs topics of great interest to the membership.

Allen and Marilyn,
We will take a look at extending the Q&A period. Thanks for the feedback.