Next Meeting - Tuesday, April 21, the day after Rose Day. No doubt we will have some loose ends to tie up as part of our business meeting, and perhaps a preliminary report from Flower Guy JERRY HODDINOTT. Pres. JODI will as usual have some items of information for our attention.

The flower order is in. Get your sales forms to JERRY immediately, if you haven’t already. Don’t stop selling, but if you run into an order for more than one or two, best check with JERRY to be sure there will be enough to fill it. We have little or no flexibility this year, so we’ve ordered as close as we can to what we’ve sold. Delivery will be from the Edgewater entrance, starting at 7:30 AM on Monday. Delivery drivers are urgently needed, particularly in the morning. Even if you can only do a half dozen deliveries or so, you are needed, so hightail it to the Edgewater and do your part. JERRY needs routing help on Sunday, too - call him at 274-5628. ACHTUNG! SCHNELL!

Futures - Officer Training -for all Lions Club officers, particularly first-timers. It will be held Monday, April 27 from 6-9 PM at Rex’s Innkeeper in Waunakee. Valuable information, both specific to an office and general leadership and management subjects. If you are going to be an officer you should go. See JODI for info and signup.
    Service Club Olympics - LINDA BERGREN is our Club Chairperson for this event, and she’s bringing back volleyball! It will be held in July, and more info will be coming, but start getting in shape. We need to improve our participation, and if you can’t jump, you can deal - at cards, that is. A day to have fun with members of other service clubs.
    Program for May 5: Dr. Dan Albert, UW Eye Research Institute. This is what we’re all about.

Last meeting - VP KAREN AL-ASHKAR, newly returned from a sojourn in the Valley of the Sun, presided, LINDA BERGREN led the song, and DALE MUELLER gave the invocation. There was one item of formal business: a motion was made by TERRY SCHAR, seconded by SCOTT GROVER and passed with no dissent, "instructing the Secretary to cast a unanimous ballot for the slate of officers presented by the Nominating Committee." It was noted that there were no contested seats, and there was no further discussion. Our thanks to those Lions who have agreed to lead our Club through the next Lion year. JODI re-ups as President, PHIL INGWELL and JIM SCHUTZ will be Vice Presidents, JOHN JENSON, Secretary: MELISSA ABBOTT, Treasurer: CRAIG BUTLER, Membership Director/Chairman: TOM STEVENS, TailTwister: SCOTT GROVER, STEVE BRIGGS, JAN CICHOCKI, and THEMIS FLORES-RAMOS, Directors. Since JODI, good as she is, cannot be both Past and Present, DON NEVIASER will also continue as Past President.

SCOTT GROVER reported that there were 34 eye-transport missions in March, 16 of which were handled by MCLC Lions: KAREN AL-ASHKAR, LINDA BERGREN, JIM BRADLEY, CRAIG BUTLER, DON FENNO, JERRY HODDINOTT, PHIL INGWELL, JOHN JENSON, JERRY MILLER, SUE SABIN, DAN STOUDT, PHIL STOWITTS and MICHELLE VETTERKIND were the couriers. This is one of the highest levels of Lion service. "Because of what I do today, someone will see tomorrow."

JIM BRADLEY was the program host, and introduced our speaker, Vince Sweeney, Senior Associate Athletic Director for the University of Wisconsin. UW Athletics is a very big enterprise, with multi-million dollar budgets, huge and varied facilities, dozens of programs, hundreds of student athletes, and untold legions of alumni and fans, all with ideas on what should be done. Vince’s first comments were to acknowledge the assistance of two of our MCLC members in their activities - JIM BRADLEY has been active in managing, promoting and running in the CrazyLegs Run for28 years, and PHIL STOWITTS is an active member of the Basketball Boosters. He spoke briefly about the Big Ten TV Network, now carried by the big 3 cable systems, Comcast, Time-Warner and Charter as well as Dish and Direct TV satellites, noting that in addition to bringing in millions of $$, the network offers each school 60 hours each year to present programs about their school. It is owned 51% by the Big Ten and 49% by Fox, and keeps the focus on collegiate sports, since programming can’t be pre-empted by pro games or other special events. He noted that the UW is planning some new facilities, one for academic and weight training at Camp Randall and a hockey facility for women’s games and men’s and women’s practice near the Kohl. Presently, 4 teams in the Kohl crowds practice schedules. UW ranks 10th nationally out of 325 for successful teams, and the GPA for all athletes is 2.98, with 28 having a 4.0. Only 3 sports make a profit, and they provide the athletic opportunities for all programs and over 800 athletes. A good speaker and an interesting program.