The current balance for our treasury is $4612.  The charity portion is approximately $3500.

Our club pins are in!!  They were available at tonight’s meeting and available again at the April meeting.

Friday, March 12^th, will be the 4^th Annual Introduction Party at Just Ducky, Darien.  We will be raffling off three (3) Limited Edition buildings worth $200.

Scott and Dawn Campbell, the Just Ducky Department 56 Representatives were present to give us information on the new buildings being introduced on Friday.  A few points of interest were:  First week of May some of the new buildings should be arriving at Just Ducky.  The “Tower Bridge of London” does not light up.  All new buildings and accessories with sound, now have a volume control and an on/off switch.  The “Vineyard Estates Winery” can be personalized.  There will be a platform with “city sounds” available that would work well with the Chicago Water Tower.  The Dept. 56 Comiskey Park is brown because Comiskey Park was originally brown until 1949, when it was painted white.

We collected $110 in our Ronald McDonald House Raffle.

Raffle winners:
$25 gift certificates - Michelle Heatherly & Carol Cavanaugh
Department 56 Merchandise Book - Dee Kaczorowski
Department 56 Apron - Terri Gelz

Updates on Chicago 2004: 

There will be 34 seminars.

Neilan Lund, founder of Dicken's Village and Chief Designer, will be at the Gathering on Saturday to sign pieces and/or your Special Edition of the "Celebrations" magazine that you will receive at the Gathering.

Although Judith Price has retired, she will attend the Gathering.  It will be her last public appearance.

There will be four buildings per seminar for Door Prizes.

Hospitality Room will have 100 prizes per day.

Volunteers still needed for seminars.  Two members per seminar are needed.  The sign up sheet will be available again at our April 13^th meeting.

Monday, March 15^th is the registration deadline for Chicago 2004 to be able to receive “Goody Bags” which will be given to the first 500 registrants.