Happy New Year! Well, it looks like winter has finally arrived. At least the late arrival will mean that it won’t last as long(?), let’s hope.

At our January meeting, I would like us to have a conversation about membership. Our numbers are down almost back to where we were last time we talked about whether we were a viable group. While we’ve brought in some new members, we have also lost a number of members. So, I’d like us to brainstorm about ideas for identifying potential new members.

Also a reminder that our February meeting will be a joint meeting with the Minneapolis club. Our speaker that evening will be Karen Ruth, Pilot for Champion Airways. So, this will be another great opportunity to bring prospective members to meet us. Or a second opportunity for prospects to spend time with us.

I’m not sure how many of you received a holiday letter from Setsuko Maruyama, so I’ve included a copy of that letter with this newsletter. It’s always fun to keep in touch with our sister Zontians around the world.

See you on the 28^th of January.

It's time to start thinking about Service Funding initiatives for the next year. If you know of organizations that you think are deserving of Zonta support, please contact them now so they have time to prepare their application for submission by the end of February. Funding applications will be available at the January meeting and are due at the February meeting.

We received a note from Sandy Kleven on behalf of the residents of the Women and Children's Recovery Center thanking us for the donation of Holiday treat bags. Each of the 15 families received a bag filled with Holiday Goodies including cookies, hot chocolate, candy, nuts, fresh fruit and fruit drinks. The residents were so thrilled with their special arrival and wanted each of us to know how appreciative they are for our support. We do make a difference in the lives of others! Thanks for your generosity and also for your support of shopping, packing and delivering the items to WCRC.

Remember that our February meeting is a joint meeting with the women from the Minneapolis Club. Our focus will be on Amelia Earhart and the aviation field, so our speaker will be Karen Ruth, a pilot with Champion Airways. We will also have a couple of late arriving silent auction items to raffle off that evening.

Zonta International has created a new membership classification system. With 23 pages of employment classes, I think we should be able to find one that fits everyone (do you suppose they even have Executive Director of a gay men’s chorus?). Anyway, at our January meeting we will be reclassifying all of our members.

It’s not too early to begin planning to attend the Area 3 meeting scheduled for May 3 in Duluth. Or to put the District Meeting, October 10-12 in Kansas City, MO on your calendars.

We have $14,409.97 in our checking and savings accounts. Linder’s bill for the poinsettias will be $3,204.51 and there are approximately $700 of poinsettia sales receipts to be collected. This report includes the unpaid bill as well as the receipts to be collected. We had 13 members participate in the poinsettia sales project.

There are 5 months left in this fiscal year for those members who have not yet turned in their convention individual fund raising contribution. Our Club’s goal was for each member to raise $50 this year. So far for this year three members have met the goal. Although the convention is not until 2004, it will be here sooner than we think. We had wonderful success and participation with the individual fund raising projects and hope that 2002-03 will duplicate last year’s superb efforts by the members. Thank you to those members who have met their goal! – Peggy St. Germain

We just received word from the IRS that our application for 501c3 status as a non-profit organization has been approved. Our Zonta St. Paul Foundation is now official and able to begin accepting charitable contributions that are tax deductible. One area that this will be most helpful will be in the receipt of charitable bequests. I would encourage each of you to consider including Zonta Club of St. Paul in your estate plans, it’s really easy to do. You can either designate a specific amount to go to Zonta, or a percentage of your estate. It could be designated as an endowment gift which means that Zonta could only spend the interest from the money, the principal would remain in perpetuity. Or, just make an outright gift which could be designated for service or any other area of our budget. Your attorney will be able to advise you on the proper wording. We hope that you will consider this type of on-going contribution to Zonta.