Congratulations!! What a wonderful weekend we organized for the District Seminar and the Global Event.

The speakers were absolutely fabulous, everyone agreed. The evaluations were glowing. Beth Gilleland was a spectacular speaker for our Global Event. Thanks to Erma, Marj and Romelle for arranging to have her speak on such short notice. No one wanted the presentations by Clareen Menzies or Kenton Spading to stop. I think Kenton has been invited to speak at a number of other club meetings. Senator Moua was dynamic and articulate, no wonder she won the election. And, Harriet Bishop seemed to follow us everywhere we went.

You all did incredible work, but I want to especially thank the committee and sub-committee chairs: Romelle Vanek Helfmann, Connie Nyman, Erma McGuire, Evelyn McDonald, Dorothy Swanson, Phyllis Acker, Marj Neihart, Judy Cognetta, Susan O’Neill, and Peggy St. Germain and of course, our honorary member: Lou St. Germain.

The check out for the silent auction has never gone so smoothly or quickly. Thanks Peg and Lou for making that happen.

Next October we will be the guests of the Kansas City I club in Kansas City, MO.

Final counts were 70 attending the District Seminar and 134 attending the Global Event. I know that this seemed to be a very difficult year to sell tickets to the Global Event. As we plan for next year we will be discussing why we think that was the case. If you have any insights based on the responses you got from your guests or from the people who usually attend who didn’t come this year, please let Romelle, Connie or I know.

We should come out okay financially on the seminar, except for the Riverboat. We didn’t meet the minimum number of guests for that, so the District will be picking up the difference – probably around $500-$600.

We raised approximately $3600 from the silent auction at the Global Event. This is less than we have previously raised, most likely because of the low attendance, but also because we didn’t have as many auction items as usual. Once all of the expenses for the event are submitted to Peggy, I’m sure she will have a report for us on the money raised at this event. Depending upon the poinsettia sales this year, we may need to consider another way to raise the money we have committed to our service groups.

Again, this was a really wonderful weekend. We can be exceedingly proud of our accomplishments. Thank you for all that you do for Zonta and the women of the world.

Joann Usher, President

Dear Zonta Club of the United States,

The International Status of Women Service Legislative Awareness and Advocacy Sub-Committee and the United Nations Committee have collaborated on an advocacy effort that would link our focus on trafficking of women and girls to the upcoming US Congressional elections.

Attached is a sample letter that your club might send to candidates for Congress in your State to heighten their awareness of trafficking in the USA and to solicit their support for increased funding for victims of trafficking. (Please note that you will need to get approval of a majority of club members to take this action in your club name).

Please send copies of any letters your club sends, as well as any responses from candidates, to Maureen Powers at Zonta International, 557 West Randolph St., Chicago, IL 60661. We need to know about all advocacy activities of clubs for reports in The Zontian magazine and also for our reports to ZI Board Meetings, so we encourage you to send us information on a regular basis.

Yours in Zonta,

Denise Conroy, Coordinator, LAA Sub-Committee, Status of Women Service Committee

Jackie Shapiro, Chairman, United Nations Committee

I hope that by the time we meet in October – next week, we will have a chair or co-chairs for the poinsettia sales this year. So, start lining up your sales. And, if would be great if we could identify another bank or two that would let us sell poinsettias in their lobby. If you have any connections, would you be willing to check those out? The sales at the one bank (Liberty State Bank – I think) are always so great and so easy.

Member News:

Judy Cognetta’s mother-in-law died this weekend. Phil’s mom was almost 91 years old and had a heart attack on Friday morning.

Remember that our October meeting will be a great opportunity to bring prospective members. Our speaker will be Marge Christiansen, President of Score and woman business owner. So, invite everyone you know to join us and be sure to let Dorothy know if they are going to be joining us to reserve dinner.

I know that many of you attend the Minneapolis Holiday event each year. This year that event is scheduled for Sunday, November 10^th. Hopefully I will have copies of the brochure for that event for our meeting. Otherwise you can contact a member of the Minneapolis club for information. The President of the Minneapolis Club is Lynette Hoffman and her e-mail address is lynettelsmith@aol.com.

Some of you may not be aware that for many years we have collected coupons for an agency called Store to Door. This agency takes these coupons shopping for groceries which are then delivered to people who are unable to get out of their homes to do their own shopping. You don’t have to clip coupons. Just pull the coupon sections from your paper, especially the Sunday paper and bring them to our meeting each month and give them to Lois Nyman. She delivers them to Store to Door.

Thanks!

Status of the 501(c)(3) application for the charitable foundation:  The IRS agent assigned to our application October 10, 2002 has been called and we have requested a status update.  Nothing new to report at this time.

The finance committee would like to encourage everyone who has not done their individual fund raising event for the convention fund to start planning their special event or to donate $50.00 cash for this fiscal year.  We have had several members host events and we need everyone to participate in order to be able to fund our delegates to the 2004 convention in New York.   Thank you to the members who have already given their convention contribution.

In Minnesota

Women comprise 51% of Minnesota’s voting age population.

Of the 1.9 million women age 18 and over, 70% voted in 2000.

Women hold 1 of 10 seats in Congress representing Minnesota.

Women constitute 29% (59 of 201) of Minnesota State Legislators.

Women are 13% (59 of 447) of County Commissioners.

Women comprise 25% (72 of 288) judges.

Women are 15% (126 of 854) of mayors.

Women hold 27% (954 of 3,583) of City Council positions.

(Updated August, 2002.