President's Notes:

I hope you have all survived the holidays. I know these are incredibly busy times for each of you so I'm thrilled that you're able to get to each of our meetings. The weather has also cooperated this winter, let's hope it continues so balmy.

I think that many of you received a holiday letter from Setsuko, but if you did not, here is a small excerpt from that letter (written by her husband) “Setsuko is back to Sendai I Zonta Club and tries to convey her precious experiences as a member at St. Paul Zonta Club for two years. She also leads Bona Por Sano (good for health in Esperanto), a women doctors chorus group she has been teaching for 20 years. Besides, she is enthusiastic with gardening as she was said to be “flower addicted” for her flower garden at Vernon Street, St. Paul. In spring, we modified our rock garden to a grass garden, and I made a flowerbed using bricks and concrete blocks by the parking space. She loves orchids most and has over hundred orchid pots around and in the house. Many of them are in full bloom in this season.” Perhaps we will have an opportunity to see Setsuko in Sweden at the International Convention.

Wasn't our holiday speaker/entertainment fun? She provided a nice break from the global news that surrounds us.

Because of a work commitment with the Chorus, I will not be at our January meeting, but our President Elect, Connie will do a fine job, I'm sure. I'll be in sunny Grand Rapids, MN working on the Chorus' tour this spring to Northern Minnesota.

Much of our January meeting time will be spent in a discussion about Service. How we define service and who our target audience will be. I'm sorry I will miss that discussion, but look forward to hearing your input on our service efforts. As a service organization it is important that we do more than just raise money in support of other organizations. In order to continue to recruit new members and retain the new members that have joined us, it is essential that we provide new hands-on service opportunities and adopt some of the many volunteer projects you are already involved with as our own.

We will also take a little time at this meeting to complete the historical questionnaire that our web-master has created for us, if you haven't done that already. We want to include some personal memories and endorsements for membership in Zonta on our web page, so take a few moments to think about your membership and answer these questions.

Remember that our February meeting is a joint meeting with our sister club in Minneapolis. Look for information on the meeting location and reservations in this newsletter. I hope that many of you will be able to attend.

Finally, we will need a new Secretary for our Club beginning in June. If you are interested in serving in this position, please let our nominating committee know. The nominating committee chair is Joyce Giedt.