I hope that each of you has survived the holidays and are keeping warm during these cold days. I know I’m really looking forward to Spring already and for Minnesota, I know that Winter has only just begun.

It was good to see a few prospective members at our December meeting. I believe that we will have some others joining us at our January meeting. We really need to bring in some new members in the next couple of months to increase the number of hands we have working on our various projects.

Thank you Marj, for arranging our holiday presentation. It was fun listening to you all sing and joining with you in this holiday tradition. And, thank you to all of you who brought items for the gift bags for the families served by Club 100. I understand it was very much appreciated.

At our January meeting, I hope that we will have a report from our other service recipient, Neighborhood House. And, Judy Cognetta will be bringing copies of the Service applications. These are due in late February. So, start thinking about service groups that you think might be potential recipients.

It is time to start thinking about nominations for officers for FY05. I have served as President for an additional year because we were unable to find someone willing to serve as President-Elect when Connie Nyman would assume the Presidency. I fear that we may still have that problem. But, I will not continue as President for another year. So, in order for Connie to assume the Presidency, we will need someone willing to serve as President elect. This is not an onerous position, but does assume that in 2 years you will become President. Please think about your future roles with Zonta St. Paul and be prepared to discuss this issue at our meeting next week.

Last week Lucile Kircher, a former Zontian died. She dropped her membership several years ago, but in her obituary her membership in Zonta was mentioned. The service was on Tuesday at Presbyterian Homes. I’m sorry I didn’t get the word out earlier, but for some reason my e-mail at home wasn’t working over the weekend. Does anyone know if she has any family locally that we could send a card to?

The latest issue of the Zontian included the registration forms and information about the International Convention in New York this July. At our January meeting we should probably select our delegate for the Convention and discuss briefly whether we want to send anything to Convention with our delegate. At a later meeting we will review the items being presented so that our delegate knows what we would like to see happen.

Which reminds me. Our international travel fund does not have a lot of money in it and it was our intention to assist our delegate with registration and travel expenses. You very generously provided for my travel and registration to Sweden two years ago which made all the difference in my ability to attend. In order to build that fund, we had asked members to do some individual fund-raisers. Some of you have done that and many of you participated in the Linders’ gift certificate program to fund this line item. It’s time to renew this effort so that we have money for our delegate. Let’s talk about things we might do individually to build this fund.

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. The brag bag and tambourine were passed around.

Minutes from the December meeting were approved with changes made to clarify District Conference, Area Meeting and International Convention.

Marj let us know how Kathy and Mary Pulse are doing. And, she distributed a number of letters she received over the holidays from former Zonta members.

Usher reviewed the income and expenses report, noting that our International Fund is not sufficient to cover the costs of travel for our delegate to Convention.

It was VOTED: to select Romelle Vanek Helfmann as our delegate to Convention.

By consensus we agreed that we were interested in hosting the Global Event in 2004 in conjunction with a performance at the Great American History Theater again. Usher will relay this information to Romelle who will be in contact with the History Theater. Usher also noted that the building across the street and connected by skyway to the History Theater has a large lobby space which may be suitable for the dinner and auction.

Usher reminded the members that it will soon be time to set up a nominating committee for the selection of officers. She will not be continuing as President for another year, so we will need to find someone to serve as President Elect. We will also need to find someone to do the newsletter and to chair Membership. The Board will be discussing these issues at their next meeting.

Our speaker was Kia Moua from Neighborhood House.

Meeting adjourned at 8:00PM

Respectfully submitted,

Joann Usher

Secretary Protem