Membership

We need your help! Five years ago, when I joined Zonta, we were having difficulty attracting and retaining new members and our current members were aging.

We have worked hard over the last 5 years. We have successfully hosted 4 Global Events and the District Seminar. We have brought in a number of new members and many prospects have come to learn more about Zonta. Five years ago, we had 21 members, today we have 22. Obviously, we can’t do anything about deaths, or members who move away or for that matter, the simple fact that we’re all getting older and can’t do as much as we used to or would like to do. We continue to age and we continue to have difficulty attracting and retaining new members.

At our January meeting, we discussed a variety of ideas for recruiting new members for Zonta. Last week at our board meeting, we discussed these ideas and have determined to try three different approaches. We also agreed to ask the members to agree to allocate up to $1000 of our general fund balance to these recruitment efforts.

We would like to host a reception or receptions for 3 groups of women: women who are planning to graduate from graduate level classes from local colleges, women who are members of professional organizations and women who are small business owners.

Colleges –

Peggy is going to contact a number of colleges to get the appropriate contact names so that we can send information about Zonta and a reception invitation to them. The colleges include:

Macalester, St. Mary’s, St. Cate’s, St. Thomas, Augsburg, Hamline, William Mitchell, Bethel and Concordia.

Professional Organizations:

Again, we need to gather the names of organizations, a contact name and then, send information about Zonta and a reception invitation to them. These could include:

AAUW

National Association of Women Business Owners

Others?

Women’s Press Directory:

We would like to contact women who are listed in this directory who have both e-mail addresses and phone numbers. Then, we would like to send out to them an e-mail about Zonta and follow up with a phone call to see if they have any interest in attending a reception.

Here’s where we need your help. We need someone or a couple of people who are willing to work on identifying professional organizations and then contact them to get contact names and addresses. We need to explain to them what we are trying to do and get their advice on how best to proceed with getting them information about Zonta. Could we speak at one of their meetings? Could we include something in their newsletter? Will they let us include a brochure about Zonta and invitation in their mailings?

We also need someone who is willing to develop an e-mail list with addresses and phone numbers of women who are advertising or are listed in the Women’s Press Directory. And, then another group who is willing to make follow up phone calls.

Ladies, our situation is challenging. The most obvious challenge is for the upcoming board positions. We need to identify someone who is willing to serve as President-Elect, which means becoming President in 2 years. We need at least 1, perhaps 2 new board members. We need committee chairs. Some of our current chairs may continue, some may not. If you are willing to serve in one of these capacities, send me an e-mail or call.

This is the $64,000 question (I’m sure with inflation, it’s much more than that) – What are you willing to do to make Zonta successful? No one needs to do it all, but contributions from each of us make us successful. I will be asking for your help at our March meeting. Please come prepared to stand up and help.

And, don’t forget that we will have a speaker at our March meeting. (Unfortunately, I believe we must also do a little business.) So, this is a great opportunity to bring prospective members to dinner. Again, please let Dorothy know if you are not planning to attend, or if you are bringing guests so we have an accurate count for dinner.

I incorrectly mentioned in the February issue that you could still let Dorothy know on Monday morning. She needs to call the restaurant on Friday, so please let her know by Friday if you are NOT coming, or if you are bringing a guest.

On Friday, March 7^th on Channel 11’s morning show, they talked about Zonta. The Minneapolis club provided them with a Zonta mug and information about Zonta with web addresses for both Minneapolis and St. Paul. If any of you happened to watch this program and just happened to record it, would you let me know? Otherwise, we will get a copy of the program from Lynette Hoffman of Minneapolis.

We have purchased 50 Zonta mugs. They cost $5 each. I would encourage you to purchase 1 or more, give them away to prospects. I’ll bring some to our meeting in March.

Remember that at our March meeting we are going to gather items for the Neighborhood House Food Shelf.

They are looking for:

Cooking oil Diapers (size

three)

Sugar Toilet Paper

Tuna Shampoo

Canned Fruit Dish Soap

Canned Juice Bath Soap

Peanut Butter Tooth brushes

Rice Tooth Paste

Canned Meat Cleaning Products

Pinto beams Deodorant

Flour Sanitary products

Macaroni & Cheese Paper towels

Soup Shaving cream & Razors

Canned vegetables Laundry soap

Please bring some of these items to the March meeting.

I want to thank all of you for the gifts made to the Zonta service fund in memory of my mother. Thank you too for the cards, and phone calls, for the Zonta rose and, to those who came to the reviewal and funeral. It seems hardly possible that just hours after our last meeting, my mother died so unexpectedly. Thank you so much for your kindnesses and prayers. - Joann

Deborah Locke, award winning editorial writer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press will be our speaker at the March 25^th meeting. As an editorial writer and columnist her beats include K – 12 education, race and ethnicity, children’s issues, urban issues and popular culture. She will give us a glimpse into the "behind the scenes" repartee that produces the editorial pages. An interesting evening is promised for us.

The Zonta Club of Anchorage’s annual "The Accidental Gourmet" series is under way at 6 p.m. through March 13 at the Lucy Cuddy Center on the University of Alaska campus. Instructors from the Hotel Captain Cook present recipes from "Trip Across America" pairing food samples with wines. Cost is $75 per session.

HWAT is one of St. Paul Zonta’s service recipients this year. Their major project is to collect, print and share stories that will interest pre teens to develop positive life modeling roles. The target group is girls ages eight to twelve.

The group is a part of the Women’s Association of Hmong and Lao, Inc. and in 2002 lent support to the Elderly New Year Celebration; Minnesota Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Prevention and Parenting; HIW/AIDS: What’s It to Us?, ParenTEEN and Hmong Women Mental Health Services. WAHL’s mission is to advocate and create opportunities for Hmong women. Visit the website: www.wahlwomen.org to

learn more.

Be sure to bring your grocery coupons from the newspaper to assist the individuals still in their homes, but unable to go out for grocery shopping. In 2002, Store to Door (the service that delivers groceries to these physically or mentally disabled) has saved the participants $200,000 through this coupon program.

Not only is this a dollar savings for these individuals, but the St. Paul and Roseville schools are being assisted as well, as their senior Special Education students (physically or mentally disabled) are sorting and clipping these coupons before shopping. This is assisting the teachers of these special students to evaluate their coordination and sorting skills to help determine what kind of jobs these seniors could do.

This is one more opportunity to be of service to others, (although in a small way), but nonetheless helpful and a mission in its own right. The coupons are collected at our Zonta meetings each month. Thank you. – Lois Nyman, Coordinator

TITLE IX LAW (1972) EQUAL OPPORTUNITY IN EDUCATION AND ATHLETICS FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS

This landmark law has been under scrutiny by the U.S. Secretary’s Commission on Opportunity in Athletics. The Commission’s Report(2/26/03) has proposed some significant changes to Title IX. These include:

1. Allow schools to assume a 50-50 allocation of sports opportunities to both sexes plus a variance of 2 to 3 % either way.
2. Allow the Secretary of Education to authorize an additional "reasonable" percentage off the 50-50 allocation of sports offerings.
3. Allow schools not to count the "non-traditional" students including those above the 18-24 age range and students who are parents. Because most of the "non traditional" students are overwhelmingly women this would decrease the athletic opportunities for women.
4. Allow schools to count "ghost slots" whereby schools could count opportunities never actually provided. This is troubling since women receive only 32% of recruiting dollars at the college level.
5. Allow schools NOT to count "walk on" athletes who are mostly men, even though they receive the same benefits and opportunities.
6. Allow schools to use "interest surveys" to justify giving fewer athletic opportunities and scholarships to women. (The courts have rejected this use of surveys of interests because these usually measure what exists not what might exist.)

A Minority Report submitted called for new ways to interpret and explore the existing Title IX law and enforcements was not considered by the Commission. It further pointed out that the Commission’s Report as it stands would undercut opportunities and scholarships for women and girls.

Education Secretary Rod Paige has stated he would only consider the consensus Commission’s Majority Report to determine whether or not changes in the enforcement of Title IX in athletics would be made and if so, what any changes would entail.

Women and girls will best be served with NO changes in the Title IX law. For those who agree with this position you are urged to send an email to that effect by clicking on: Rod Paige