After networking and renewing friendships, we enjoyed a great dinner buffet provided by Lechuga’s – spaghetti, meatballs and sausage, sausage cannoli, salad – and wonderful pizzelles for dessert.

President Janet Lombardi opened the meeting thanking Lechuga’s and Father Hugh of Mt Carmel for allowing us to meet here. And since the church usually charges for the hall, she and Gina will be making donations to the church and encouraged anyone to do the same.

Since we have a guest speaker, we dispensed with member introductions. Janet introduced the board. We have $3855 in the bank –21 business members and 47 individual members. Gina Hallisey (VP) talked about upcoming meetings and sponsorship opportunities…those would help offset the cost of meetings and give members a chance to spotlight their businesses. Sponsorships would also be available for events (Italian Festival, Automezzi, Christmas party). Contact Gina for any information!

Janet and Simona have worked hard on the website – so be sure to check for updates, minutes, calendar and more.

We are moving forward with taking out regular ads in Andiamo and suggested that members might share the cost by having their business listed in it.   People seemed to like this idea. She also mentioned that we could get decals printed…if anyone was really interested. She said that someone has organized a “new” club with the initials IABC….and has reached out to our members. Please know that we are in good shape, and if you hear from that group it is NOT our IABA,

Gina first thanked Silvia Comuzzi-Sexton for graciously delaying her talk until next month so that our speakers tonight, traveling in the country and here only for a short time, could talk about their company. She then introduced our speakers – Allesandro Bovino and Justin Salvadore who have a company called Bella Italia that assists in genealogical research in Italy. They did a slide show presentation and talked about the history of keeping records in Italy and how challenging it is to find accurate information using birth, marriage and death records that are found in city halls and churches.  But they have many contacts and are enthusiastic and willing to help anyone find their ancestors. They also do special trips to discover your roots in Italy and offered the possibility of obtaining an Italian passport for dual citizenship.