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Current treasury balance is $5547.07. Charity portion is $4332.50 and club portion is $1214.57.
Cost for Club Pins was $718, we have currently sold $535 worth (107 pins).
Our annual picnic will be held on August 10^th at Cynthia’s house.
Rich Wyllie previously sent out an email about grass seed being available for our club to use at the Ronald McDonald House. Because of the chance that the grass seed may contain mice, we are cancelling this event.
The Club voted on creating a train layout for Ronald McDonald House. It was unanimous that we will do it. At the Gathering, Dave Cardiff spoke about train layouts and incorporating them into villages. We are hoping to have him assist us in our layout. Plans are for a Thanksgiving completion date. Tom Gelz is donating a O-27 Lionel Train. Carol Cavanaugh is donating two additional Department 56 cars. Currently, we have $4,332.50 in our treasury, $1,332.50 will be set aside for the cost of constructing the layout. The layout will be 4' x 10 or 12' and it will be behind plexiglass. We are planning on doing the train with Snow Village buildings, one reason because the buildings are recognizable, i.e., Krispy Kreme, etc. Wendi Clark will work on donations from other stores towards the layout.
The club was invited by Andi from the Ronald McDonald House to their annual Christmas party. It is held the 2^nd Sunday in December. It will give our members a chance to meet families who have benefitted from Ronald McDonald house.

JUST DUCKY NEWS:

Mid-Year Introductions 2004 are ready for ordering at Just Ducky. The list of new product is now on the Dept 56 website. Go to New Intros and then either Villages or Year Round.

DEPARTMENT 56 NEWS:

Dept. 56 Reception Monday, May 17^th at Water Tower Place, 835 N. Michigan Ave., 6:30-8:30 p.m., select Mid-Year pieces will be on display.
D56 has two introductions each year, they are the Annual and the Mid-Year. The Annual Introduction is usually the first part of December and the Mid-Year is the first part of May. The Annual is much larger in volume than the Mid-Year. An idea was to move the meeting date to another Tuesday during those two months only. Moving those dates would allow Scott and Dawn Campbell to attend our meetings. No decision yet but good ideas came out.

2004 CHICAGO GATHERING UPDATE:

The Gathering collected $17,000 for Juvenile Diabetes. Department 56 donated $1,200 from the sale of their scarves. There will be another Gathering in 2006!!

Ronald McDonald House Tour:
Conducted by Andi.

Raffle Winners:

Tom & Terri Gelz and Ron Blazek - Each received a $25 Gift Certificate to Just Ducky.

2. Carol & Gene, Jerry & Dee, John & Michelle - Woodland Scenics - 3 step process

6. Rich - Crazy glue from California - lasts two years - Glue comes in two weights - heavy duty and light duty.

7. How a building is made, Power Point Presentation, Scott Campbell is currently trying to obtain program.