2006 Zonta International Convention will be held in Melbourne, Australia June 24th to June 29th. For more great information check out the Call to Convention on Zonta International's Web Site.

• Membership - Co-Chairs: Romelle Vanek and Carole Snyder
• Service/Status of Women - Co-Chairs: Judy Cognetta, Evelyn McDonald and Janet Shannon
• Jane Klausman - Chair: Marj Neihart
• Young Women in Public Affairs - Chair: Lollie Coleman
• United Nations & Programs - Chair: Marj Neihart
• Global Event - Chair: Lois Nyman
• Reservations & Hospitality - Chair: Dorothy Swans; Virginia Krahmer
• Poinsettia Sales - Chair: Shirley Nice
• Zonta Paul - Chair: Peggy St. Germain
• Public Relations/Communications - Open
• Sunshine & Birthday - Chair: Lauraine Torgerson; Lucille Peterson

Our Global Event will be Friday, January 20th 2006 at the Great American History Theatre. Tickets are $35 and include the performance and dinner. Dinner will once again be catered by Kane's Catering, Inc. and is planned to be served at 6:15 p.m. Ticket sales deadline is December 22nd, at which time we will give the History Theatre a ticket count. While we can sell tickets until January 9th, the Theatre will not guarantee seating after the December 22nd deadline. Set up for the event will be Friday, January 20th at 1 p.m. Please bring your ticket sales and money to the November meeting.

Just a reminder to continue to get silent auction items. You can bring them to the December meeting. After the December meeting, call Peggy or Carole to let them know what items you have obtained so we can start getting them listed on the silent auction information sheets.

Poinsettia Trivia - Poinsettias were attached to Christmas starting in 1828.

In warm climates, the poinsettia grows outdoors as a winter-flowering leggy shrub about 10 feet high; as a potted plant in northern areas it rarely grows beyond 3 feet. What appear to be petals are actually colored leaflike bracts that surround a central cluster of tiny yellow flowers. A milky latex in the stems and leaves can be irritating to persons or animals sensitive to it, but the claim that poinsettias are deadly poisonous is greatly exaggerated.

Blanket Making
Our blankets are on their way to the Katrina evacuees. Peggy delivered them to Sharon Doffing, New Brighton council member who is going on a work team in December to help.

Holiday Bags
We plan to put together Holiday Bags on Saturday, December 10th at 3 p.m. at Peggy’s. Thank you to all the members who brought goodies or gave cash contributions for the bags. Judy will be getting more items prior to the bag assembly and will be delivering them to Club 100, Minnesota Visiting Nurse Agency. Susan Anderson will ensure that they are distributed to their clients. These bags have meant a lot to the recipients, many of whom would have no extras during this time of the year. Thank you all for your generous support of this project.

How many of us have accumulated books, books and more books? Have you ever tried to give those books away? Generally, no one wants to buy them at a garage sale or take for free. Here is an organization that might be able to use those books. I found this information on their web site.

Since 1994, the Women’s Prison Book Project (WPBP) has provided women and transgender –identified persons in prison with free reading materials covering a wide range of topics from law and education (dictionaries, GED, etc.) to fiction, politics, history, and women’s health.

The WPBP is an all volunteer, grassroots organization who seeks to build connections with those behind the walls, and to educate those of us on the outside about the realities of prison and the justice system.

Of the more than two million people confined in U.S. prisons and jails, over 150,000 are women. Eighty percent of these women are there for nonviolent crimes, such as shoplifting, prostitution, drug related convictions, and fraud. Of the women convicted of violent crimes, the vast majority were convicted for defending themselves or their children from abuse. More than 1/2 of all women in prison are women of color, and two–thirds of women in prison have at least one child under eighteen. Most of these mothers had primary custody of their children before going to prison.

These facts mean that women in prison have specific needs for particular kinds of information: material on families, children, women's self–help, women's health, and legal aid pertaining to women who fight back against their abusers. There are also many lesbian, bisexual, and transgender prisoners who often have trouble obtaining information that is relevant to their lives. As new prisons are built to warehouse the growing number of incarcerated people in the U.S., the meager resources previously available to prisoners are being cut or limited to only a few.

WPBP is one place where women/transgender persons in prison can get information that is often unavailable from any other source. WPBP works to support prisoners; and through that solidarity work to empower prisoners themselves and build connections through prison walls.

Our project depends on donated books to survive. We receive donations from publishers, bookstores and individuals. We will gladly accept new or used paperback books only. We do not accept hardcover or spiral–bound books because most prisons do not allow them. The most requested topics include drug and alcohol recovery issues, English and Spanish language dictionaries, fiction and non–fiction by people of color, queer fiction and non–fiction, abuse issues, health, arts and crafts and mystery/horror novels.

• 1 12-oz package chocolate chips
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1-1/2 cups chopped walnuts
• 1 tsp. Vanilla