WHAT'S NEXT - "Business Meeting" Tuesday, Oct 21. We will have committee and officer reports, and discussion of the Club's operation, projects and finance. These meetings are intended to make all Club members better informed on Lionism in general and our Club in particular. Members will be able to ask questions, suggest opportunities for service, and volunteer for club projects and committees. We need active participation from everyone to be most effective, so come, participate, find out what we do and how we do it, and do your part to help.

AFTER THAT - We have our Awards Night and Social at the Edgewater on Oct. 28. Starts at 5:30, hors d'oeuvres, cash bar, small talk and fun. There will also be presentation of awards, some serious and some not so serious If you didn't sign up at the last meeting, there'll be a signup sheet at the next one, or let LINDA BERGREN know you're coming. Spice (plural of spouse), significant others, prospective members - all welcome. The more the merrier! The Board is supposed to meet that day, too, time and place to be determined.

AND THEN - our speaker for the Nov. 4 meeting (at the Edgewater as usual) will be UW former chancellor John Wiley. He is now the new Director of the Discovery Center that's being built at Randall and University Aves., and he'll tell us what this new building will house and what the goals for the operation are. In this modern high-tech society, discoveries and innovation will be what makes things work, and this is where they will start. We need a good crowd for this one - be there, and bring a friend or prospect if you can. STEVE BRIGGS is the Program Host.

The All-City Service Club luncheon will be at the Alliant Center on Nov. 19. Madison Chief of Police Noble Wray will be the speaker. See JODI - if she doesn't have the tickets she knows who does.

Our Holiday Treat Sale is in full swing. The usual assortment of nuts, snacks and the ever-popular Benson's Fruit Cakes. LINDA BERGREN needs your orders right away so hopefully they can be distributed no later than Nov. 18. Don't have a paper order form? Not to worry, you can find it online.

DALE ST. JOHN reports that HAL OTTERBACK is back home, having escaped the rehab facility. He's happier now that he's someplace where he knows the cook, and would be glad to have phone calls (244-7905) and visits. Might be a while before he makes it back to a meeting, so the rest of us have to keep the Eyeglass Recycling going.

Although we've received great and sufficient response for the Camp Randall concession stand, we still need help for the Kohl Center stand. This is a chance to be able to work with Lions (and Lioness) from other clubs. Easy four step process, starting at the Game Schedule. Of course you can volunteer online!

At the last meeting, Pres. JODI presided, LINDA BERGREN led the song, and DALE MUELLER gave the invocation. MICHELLE VETTERKIND led our Lion Birthday celebration, recognizing the service of: MELISSA ABBOTT (5 yrs.), WALT PRIDHAM (27 yrs), HAL OTTERBACK (39 yrs., present by proxy), DALE ST. JOHN (39 yrs.), DALE MUELLER (43 yrs., two clubs) and our Senior Member, Past Secretary and Bulletin Editor ED NEESE, (53 years!) Drawing winners of the gifts were DON NEVIASER, STEVE BRIGGS, MELISSA ABBOTT, JOHN JENSON, MICHELLE VETTERKIND and THEMIS FLORES RAMOS.

MICHELLE then changed hats, and introduced our speaker, Leonard Charles, Engineer of WISC-TV, Channel 3, who told us about the upcoming switch to digital TV next Feb. 19. At the end of that day, all regular TV stations must stop broadcasting the present analog signal and switch to digital. If you have cable or satellite TV, nothing will change (at least for 3 yrs.) except that the picture may be better. If you're getting the picture off the air with an antenna, you will either need a converter box or a TV with a digital tuner. It's very complicated and expensive for the TV people, costing $ 6 to $10 million per station. Digital TV has a better picture, and allows the still-better High Definition broadcasts for which you need a new High-Def. TV. All of this makes for a bewildering set of choices, but he cleared up a lot of the confusion and answered the questions many of us had. Madison stations are already broadcasting digital signals, and have been for a couple of years, so if you will need a converter you can get it now, and even get more channels. He cleared up the picture even without a TV.