Next meeting — Tuesday, Feb. 20 — You ought to get a charge out of this one. There have been a lot of powerful arguments, but few shocking facts, about whether or not the lights will go out in Dane County the next time we have a hot spell ( I know — “Bring it on!!”) and someone from the American Trans- mission Company will try to shed some light on the situation. JODI BURMESTER is Program Host.

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$1,013

At our last meeting, Pres. SAL opened the meeting, JIM SCHUTZ led the song, and TERRY SCHAR gave the invocation. David Butters, Director of the Lions Eye Bank of Wisconsin, and Lions PDG JERRY RABACH from the Eye Bank and DENNIS URECHE from McFarland were guests/visitors. BOB BOHN, in his capacity as bell captain, read a “Thank You” from the Salvation Army for our assistance in ringing the kettle bell at West Towne this year.

PID PHIL INGWELL was called upon to induct FOUR new members, our largest class in years. We welcomed SANDY SOBECK LESLIE and WENDY WRIGHT, sponsored by JODI BURMESTER, and JAN CICHOCKI and SUSAN SABIN, sponsored by Pres. SAL AL-ASHKAR. SANDY, WENDY and SUSAN are all from the Lions Eye Bank of Wisconsin, and JAN is with the Gannett Group. They all told us a little about themselves, no big secrets, and one thing is sure — SANDY is a tough act to follow! While placing the pin on one of her new members, JODI dropped that miserable little backing clasp, and they did the “contact lens shuffle” trying to find it. Succeeded, we think.

For those still keeping paper directories:
    JAN CICHOCKI — Home # (608) 222-3215 Office # (608) 241-5400
    SANDY LESLIE — Home # (608) 669-0198 Office # (608) 233-2354
    SUSAN SABIN — Home # (608) 244-9015 Office # (608) 233-2354
    WENDY WRIGHT — Home # (608) 837-5597 Office # (608) 233-2354

Notes from the Board minutes: SCOTT GROVER has been elected to serve as a Director for the remainder of this Lion year, replacing SPARKY WATTS. The Edgewater’s meal charge has gone up, but the Board decided to hold the line on dues for the rest of this year. Appointed to the Nominating Committee for next year’s Board are: DON NEVIASER, Chairman, JOHN JENSON, ROSS ROY- STER and JIM KEMMETER. If you’d like to serve, or have someone to nominate, see one of them. [Members: see all the Board minutes online.]

We lost our oldest member when ART SCHROEDER (1933) passed away about 10 days ago. Our sympathy goes out to the family. ART was always present, as long as his health allowed.

JOHN JENSON circulated lists for those Lions who want to go to the District Convention (Beloit, March 9-10) and State Convention (Oconomowoc) May 18-19). The Club will pay your registration and lunch, and you should go, especially if you haven’t been to one before. It broadens your vision and deepens your understanding of Lion service. See or call JOHN to get on the list(s). Pres. SAL was at the Lions Camp recently, and reports that the new Health Lodge is going up, and they hope to have it ready for use in July.

We all applauded the announcement that MICHELLE VETTERKIND has now been elected President (which in this case means head honcho) of the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association. She’s their first woman President — they got the idea from us, because we too know talent when we see it. Again, congratulations, MICHELLE!!

MICHELLE introduced our speaker, Malcolm Brett, from Wisconsin Public Broadcasting, who told us about big technical changes taking place in the broadcasting field, as both radio and TV move from the present “analog” technology to digital broadcasting. The advantage to the broadcaster and the listener/viewer is that the new signals will be clearer and less subject to interference. Digital signals also use much less spectrum width than the old ones, meaning that channels can be closer together, and stations can actually broadcast more than one program at once. It also means that TV signals may be viewable on computers, turning the computer into a TV set and/or a recorder. But, at bottom “it’s all about the money” — once the changeover is complete (for TV, in Feb. 2009, supposedly) the government will be able to sell off the old frequencies for a lot of money. Public financial support will be needed -the new transmitters will cost Public Broadcasting a lot of money, which they hope to raise in part through their usual fund drives.