The Mardi Gras Ball is finally wrapped up and what a successful event it was.  Many, many thanks to Chairman David Klein and his fantastic committee.  David succeeded in getting the largest attendance (348) and the most profit of any Mardi Gras Ball to date.  Our net return was over $67,000.  Lois Curran-Klein lost sleep because she was so dedicated to putting together all the auction items and the best auction book possible.  Many thanks also to June Glasmeier, Barbara Spear, George Hutchison, and Jean Fitzpatrick - all great committee leaders who did their jobs so well.  We were also blessed with a group of volunteers who gave many hours to make this year's ball so successful.  Most of the funds from the ball were used to help reduce our mortgage loan on our building and the balance will be used to operate our office.

Last November we provided a Thanksgiving luncheon to all the volunteers at our Under One Roof Human Services Center.  This luncheon was in appreciation for all the hard work these wonderful people have given to help those less fortunate in our community.  Another luncheon is planned for this November.

Our beautiful glass conference table was damaged and had to be destroyed for safety reasons and we are in the process of locating a replacement.  If anyone knows of a corporation that has surplus office furniture or any other source that would provide us with a cost effective means of replacing this table please call us.  The conference room is used by all the non-profit organizations in the building so it has heavy usage.

We had two Trustees, Dr. Joseph Staines and Dr. Fred Hauter, resign due to health and business reasons, we thank them for their time and contribution to Community Conscience.  We will miss them and wish them good health and success in their future.  We have some new Trustees who will be introduced.

In the coming months we will be looking at new ways to increase our membership, other fund raising means and always new ways to support all our wonderful non-profits in this building.

We need a Mardi Gras Chairman for 2004.  This is a plea for anyone out there who will volunteer or has a recommendation to call us.  David Klein has provided a very thorough book for the next Chairman and Lois Curran-Klein has also provided a complete book on procedures for the next auction chairman.  These two people have given us all the resources necessary to make these two jobs so much easier for the next chairmen.  It is an honor and a privilege to be associated with Community Conscience.  When you see all the needs that are being fulfilled and the good works that are helping those who truly need help, it is extremely rewarding and I encourage all of you out there to become involved in some way - large or small - to helping others less fortunate.  The rewards are immeasurable.

Many thanks to Al and Rose Jeffrey for donating a desk, two file cabinets, a phone, fax machine, printer and scanner to us.  It is people like you who enable us to use our money for supporting "Under One Roof" Human Services Center projects.

Cindy Brand joined us in September 2002 as our office manager.  Her enthusiasm and dedication has proven to be a great asset to our organization.  Cindy returned to the Conejo Valley after living in Northern California for 13 years.  She is very happy with her job at Community Conscience and enjoys working with the organizations in this building.  Cindy is on the Board of Soroptimist International of the Conejo.