NEXT MEETING - March 18. At the Edgewater at noon, as usual. Program yet to be announced. Lion Birthdays will be celebrated for SANDY LESLIE, SUSAN SABIN, WENDY WRIGHT, JOE FULLER, MICHELLE LONERGAN, LOUISE FRITZ, SCOTT GROVER, LINDA BERGREN, JODI BURMESTER, ROSS ROYSTER, JIM BRADLEY, RICH MATZELLE, PHIL INGWELL, and JIM RUNDELL, led by MICHELLE VETTERKIND, Birthday Chairperson.. That's a big list! In the old days, your editor used to run comments about JABO, his crew, and Russian icebreakers about this time of year. We need the icebreakers more than ever. Our speaker will be Dr. Brian Kilpatrick, talking about genetics. Maybe he can explain the TailTwister.

At the March 4 meeting, Pres. DON opened the meeting, LINDA BERGREN led the song, with the usual averaging process for the pitch, and TERRY SCHAR volunteered to give the invocation.

Sec. JOHN JENSON read a letter from International, awarding SAL AL-ASHKAR a pin in recognition of his sponsorship of a new member. Again. JOHN then presented the Membership Advancement Key to our VP JODI BURMESTER, recognizing her sponsorship of five new members. JODI and SAL are showing us how it can be done - “just ask!”

JODI, standing in for SANDY LESLIE, who arrived a bit late, reminded us of Rose Day coming up. SANDY needs Commitment Forms from each Lion, estimating their sales, so as to order the right numbers of flowers for the sale. That information is due at the next meeting. You should be prospecting and taking orders right now! MELISSA NOVINSKI, who is event Treasurer for Rose Day, issued the annual plea to fill out the order blank completely and correctly. When a credit card is used for payment, name and billing address of purchaser, card number, and the three-digit security code from the back of the card are needed. Please, also a readable address for delivery, with instructions on how to get there, the more detailed the better!

JODI and SANDY also need help for our Walk For Sight at East Towne Mall on March 29, starting about 7:30 and continuing to about 11-11:30. Lions are needed to process registrations, hand out T-shirts, manage crowds, etc. etc. See either JODI or SANDY to help out. This can be our next major fundraiser - help start it off well! Note that in consideration of the Wisconsin Winter, this event is being held INDOORS! No ice, no snow, no bad footing -warm!

JODI will take orders for the new Lion polo shirts for our Club members for one more week.

LINDA BERGREN happily reported that our Holiday Treat Sale had been concluded. All the product has been sold and the money is in. Actual figures to follow.

THAYER BURNHAM was hospitalized recently. He's recovering slowly at Knapp Haven, Room 417B, 725 Knapp St., Chetek, WI 54728. Cards and letters would be welcome.

Nominations for our Board for the next Lion year were presented by the Committee: President, JODI BURMESTER; 1st VP SANDY SOBEK LESLIE; 2nd VP KAREN AL-ASHKAR; Sec. JOHN JENSON; Treas. MELISSA ABBOTT; TailTwister TOM STEVENS; Membership Dir. CRAIG BUTLER; and Directors JAN CICHOCKI and THEMIS FLORES. SCOTT GROVER and STEVE BRIGGS continue as Directors, and DON NEVIASER succeeds SAL AL-ASHKAR as Past President.

Our speaker was James Jenson, Community Education Mgr. of MG&E, and he told us about their “Green Power” program. He noted that electric power is vital to our society, and protection of the environment is very important. They have expanded their wind-generated power program by almost a factor of ten in the past year or so, particularly through participation in a big new wind farm in Iowa, and MG&E customers can support this environmentally friendly program by signing up for units of wind-generated electric power, at a slight additional cost related to the higher production cost for this source of power. Northern Iowa apparently is a very windy place, and a lot of research goes into the placement of wind generators to obtain the maximum breezes for them. MG&E estimates that they can obtain 10% of needed power from renewable (mostly) win sources by year 2015. Right now, coal provides about 60%, purchased power 27%, gas-powered small local generators 11% and wind 2%. MG&E is working on expanded wind generation, cleaner coal plants, and user conservation in order to meet expanding future needs. SAL AL-ASHKAR was the Program Host.

Read more about Green Power in this MG&E PDF. Also a PDF FAQ.