Service: Joan U. distributed on behalf of this committee the responses to the survey on involvement in volunteer service activities. A presentation will be made at the January meeting along with a discussion to clarify our focus as it pertains to women or women and girls or women and children. Members are asked to bring a donation of fresh fruit for the children at WCRC.

75th Anniversary: Each member received a candy bar with a commemorative wrapper noting our anniversary this month. The Zonta St. Paul brick denoting 75 years existence has been placed in the Harriet Island Regional Park downtown. The committee will continue to meet Evelyn McD. indicated.

Hmong Womens Action Team Mid Year Report: Pa Der Vang, chair of HWAT, presented the report as outlined in the grant award. She has been on the board for one and one half years and is employed by the Wilder Foundation.
HWAT is a local organization with about 15 members which is gaining national recognition through their leadership awards. The fiscal agent is the Women of the Hmong and Lao Organization.
The group has started four major projects. 1. The “New Day” newsletter where women share their stories and problems. 2. TIPS- a series of business size cards with messages to victims of domestic abuse aimed at teenagers, young women and older women.3. An oral history project which collected the stories of 18 Hmong women who suffered the war and the Lao government.
These soon will be at an opening at the Minnesota Historical Society.
4. A speakers bureau of HWAT women to promote community dialogue on issues facing Hmong women.
Other activities are the annual HWAT Leaders Banquet which recognizes Hmong women across the nation. Flyers were produced to portray these women for their leadership and courage to make a difference. Underway is a billboard campaign to raise awareness on the issue of violence and abuse and the “Day One” call hot line. The message is violence and abuse are not normalized behavior. Members are also interested in authoring childrens books for Hmong girls which stress self esteem and positive role models.
Pa Der was thanked for her informative report.

Women and Childrens Recovery Center Mid Year Report will be rescheduled.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:10 PM

December -- 7-- Newsletter Deadline
December-- 18-- Holiday Meeting
January -- 5 -- Board Meeting Site TBD
January -- 22 -- January Meeting
February -- 28 -- Joint Meeting With Minneapolis (tentative)

This year's Holiday Service Project will be the delivery of Holiday Treat Bags for the residents of the Women and Children's Recovery Community. We'll be collecting fruit at our December meeting to include in the bags and each member is reminded to bring fruit items such as apples, oranges, grapefruit, pears, etc. We'll add other treats to the bags such as cookies, candy, hot chocolate mix, cider, nuts, etc., along with a greeting card signed by the members and arrange for delivery to the families during the holiday season.

If you want to wrap your fruit items beforehand, that's great. If not, simply bring it to the meeting and volunteers will wrap it in cellophane when we assemble all of the other items. We'll be providing treats for a total of 11 families.

Thank you in advance for your generosity of helping to make the Holiday Season a little brighter for others.