Linda Beard, left and Mary Juby, right at the Sunshine Chapter’s January, 2006 meeting.

Mary Juby passed away on Sunday, April 30^th, 2006 from complications suffered after a recent fall. Mary had been a faithful member of the Sunshine Chapter since its beginning in 1999. We will miss her friendship and cheery personality. The following is the obituary notice from the Orlando Sentinel.

JUBY, MARY MAHANY, age 78, of Sanford, passed away April 30, 2006. Mrs. Juby was born March 11, 1928, the daughter of the late Robert and Mary (Altick) Ryan, in Savannah, GA. Mary was employed as a media specialist for the educational system. She was a member of All Souls Catholic Church, Central Florida African Violet Society, and Belleek Collector Society. Mrs. Juby was predeceased by her husbands, Walter H. Mahany in 1974, and William S. Juby in 1995, and a daughter, Margaret M. Mahany in 1960. She is survived by her children, Deborah (Loren) Mahany of Sanford, Michael (Debbie) Mahany of Sanford, Sean (Patricia) Mahany of Sanford, and Walter (Carrie Ann) Mahany of Merritt Island. Also surviving are four grandsons. A Memorial Mass will be held Thursday, May 4, 2006 at 9:30AM at All Souls Catholic Church, with Father Trout as celebrant. Interment will be held privately. In lieu of flowers the family is requesting memorial donations be made to Good Samaritan Home, 1704 W. 9th Street, Sanford, FL 32771, attn: Thelma Mike or the Cat Protection Society, PO Box #1078, Sorrento, FL 32776, attn: Lois Lanius, or to the charity of one's choice. Arrangements entrusted to the Collison Family Funeral Homes & Crematory Gramkow Chapel, 500 E. Airport Blvd., Sanford, FL. 407-322-3213.

Published in the Orlando Sentinel on 5/3/2006.

President’s Corner

Here it is that another quarter has passed. It is difficult to think that we are in our seventh year as a chapter. Looking back, it seems only yesterday that we were in Washington recruiting members. Many people have passed through our chapter, some attending only one meeting and falling away, and others, remaining for the entire period. We said farewell to one of our charter members recently, Mary Juby. I still remember my surprise when she said she had some 800 pieces in her collection. Mary lived here in Sanford, and Pat and I got to know her quite well. We’ll miss her.

It was a great pleasure to see Charlie and Ann Belmont again. Because of health concerns, they have not been able to meet with us as regularly as before.

Charlie and Ann Belmont with their Sunshine Chapter Outstanding Contribution Plate.

I had the opportunity to recognize their many contributions to our chapter with the Sunshine Chapter Outstanding Contribution Plate for 2006 at this meeting, and I hope that we will continue to see them from time to time.

Our delayed April meeting attendance was eighteen, about typical for the Spring get-together. We had originally thought to have a little Romance in our Spring, but the interest just wasn’t there this time. Instead, we met in our home here in Sanford. As most of you know, it can be somewhat cozy when we get that many people here. Imagine what it was like Christmas before last with seventeen people and a Christmas tree when Olga Clarke and her family from Ireland came for the day. What a treat for us!

We have a tentative schedule for the next three meetings. On July 22^nd, we go north to Palm Coast to meet with Mike and Lois Kane. In October, we return to O’Keefe’s In Tavares for our Annual Meeting and election of officers, and on January 6^th, 2007 we go south to Delray to the home of Harlan and Kula Wiss. This will be our Snowbird and annual auction meeting. This is in keeping with our desire to remain accessible to members in various parts of the state. Start saving up those items for auction, as the contribution bar was set high at our last meeting when Linda Beard joined us.

I hope that those of you who can are making plans to join us in Ireland. As always, the International Meetings are great fun, since we meet old friends and make new ones from other chapters. Hopefully, we will get to meet some of the members of the British chapter that we correspond with from time to time. The firm commitments that we know of now are Bob and Vicki Pearce, Dot and Paul Morin, Micki and Marti Kusel, and Pat and me. There are several possibles as well. I would hate for the convention to be too quiet because not enough Florida Sunshine made its way into Ireland.

Have a wonderful Spring. Hopefully, the smoke will clear away before our next meeting and we can get back to enjoying the good life.

John

Buffet luncheon at the Miller’s.

Changes. They are a-comin’

BCIS REINVENTS ITSELF FOR 2007!

The Belleek Collectors International Society has thrived since its founding in 1979 by Richard Degenhardt and is one of the oldest giftware collectibles society; congratulations to all our loyal members for making this happen!

But..."times - they are a changing"! Shifting demographic trends and universal access to the Internet have prompted a decline in membership and less interest in the annual Collector's pieces, In many ways the Collectors Society is arcane -it needs to reinvent itself. Our members tell us that they want more from the Society-more information, more promotions to reward loyalty and more interaction with the Pottery. We have responded to your demands.

Effective January 2007, BCIS will be completely Internet based.

Benefits to you will include:

* Ability to renew your membership online.

* Your membership number will become your pass word.

* Notification by email when Belleek Collector is available online.

* Option to print the magazine out or leave it online and access it at will.

* Back issues of the Belleek Collector will be scanned into an electronic library.

* You can access this electronic library at your convenience.

* Questions and comments can be posted on the site.

* Message board to allow members to buy /sell to other registered members.

* Any BCIS products available can be purchased at any time from the website.

* We will alert you to special promotions and auctions of Belleek world wide.

Please provide your email address by emailing us at info@belleek.com with your member number in the subject line.

- = * = -

Reprinted with permission from “The Belleek Collector” issue Number 1, 2006

Angela has very graciously given us permission to print and distribute The Belleek Collector to those members of the Sunshine Chapter that do not have internet access. Please let John or Vicki know if you will need us to do this for you.

E-MAIL Headings

As we get more and more into the internet we must be on our guard and know who we are dealing with when it comes to who really sent this E-mail. I found the following article in The Sheriff’s Star to be interesting and informative reading.

Who really Sent That E-mail?

Just when you were getting the hang of Internet banking, someone goes and steals your bank's identity and you end up the victim. Recently, banks in Florida - and elsewhere — have had portions of their Web sites counterfeited, and their identity hijacked, through a new type of computer crime called phishing.

Phishing scams involve the distribution of fake e-mail messages with return addresses, links and branding that appear to come from banks, insurance agencies, retailers, credit-card companies and other legitimate businesses.

These official-looking e-mails include highly convincing messages directing the reader to click on a Web page link for more information. Once there, they are tricked into disclosing personal information, including user names, passwords, credit-card numbers, Social Security numbers and home addresses.

The resulting identity theft can mean extensive financial losses and other fraudulent activity.

According to one news report, a 17-year-old recently sent out messages that appeared to be from America Online that said there had been a billing problem with recipients' AOL accounts. The fraudulent e-mail used AOL logos and contained legitimate links.

If recipients clicked on the "AOL Billing Center" link, however, they were taken to a "spoofed" AOL Web page that asked for personal information, including credit card numbers, I personal identification numbers (PINs), Social Security numbers, banking numbers and passwords. The scheme was so authentic looking that many AOL users fell for it and were victimized.

According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Web site, phishing is a variation on the word fishing: fishers (and phishers) set out hooks, knowing that although most of their prey won't take the bait, they just might entice some to bite.

Phishers send out mass e-mails that I may include anything from an offer to credit your account $20 for filling out an online survey to the suggestion that your online bank account might have been compromised. And people respond - to the phishers' delight.

New twist

As banks and other institutions scrambled to warn customers not to follow links from unsolicited e-mails, the computer criminals took the scheme to a new level. In Tallahassee recently, they hacked their way into the Internet Service Provider hosting three bank Websites and re-directed traffic. So, if a customer simply logged on to check their bank balance, they were actually directed to a fake site. Once there, they were asked to verify certain information, and within hours withdrawals were I being made from ATMs in California.

"We think the criminals were actually in Europe," says Bob Breeden, special agent supervisor for the computer crimes center at FDLE. So now law enforcement is warning people to be even more guarded. "If you get any request that's out of the ordinary, even when online banking, be suspicious," he says.

What you can do

To protect yourself, do not provide any of your personal information via the Internet. When you receive e-mail that looks suspicious, simply delete it. Don't even follow the links. If it seems to be from a company where you are a customer, call the company and ask if the offer is legitimate. If you suspect you have been phished, forward the e-mail to uce@ftc.gov or call the FTC help line, 1-877-FTC-HELP.

For more information on this crime, and to find archived phishing scams, go to www.antiphishing.org.

Re-printed with permission from the Florida Sheriffs Association The Sheriff’s Star magazine.