Next Meeting - Tuesday, June 2 - Our speaker will be Deb Archer, President and CEO of the Greater Madison Visitors and Convention Bureau. Tourist income was never more important than now, and we will hear what is happening and what is planned for this activity. JIM BRADLEY is the Program Host.

What Else Is Coming Up - Tuesday, June 16, we are planning a picnic. Starting about 5:00 PM, it will take the place of our normal noon business meeting that day, and will be held at the new Ahuska Park in Monona. Sign up at the next meeting, or call, e-mail or smoke signal JODI if you are coming. Name, spouse or guest, and what you will bring. The Club will provide the meat, and those attending are asked to bring either dessert, salad or appetizer/munchies. Only formal program is the installation (re-installation, mostly) of the incoming Board of Directors. The Board will need help - we presently have 23 committees to do the work, or about one per active member, so we need everybody’s help. JODI has a list of the committees and a job description, so look it over and volunteer for at least two committees. There’s something for everybody on this list, and if everybody helps out, nobody has to do it all.

Do We Or Don’t We? - The indefatigable LINDA BERGREN is once again recruiting athletes, or at least participants, for the Service Club Summer Olympics. We’d like to be a little more visible at this event, but the entry fee is substantial, even for a club our size, so we need to have definite interest by at least ten people to do it. If you want to take part, let LINDA know, forthwith, or no later than fifthwith. It will be July 27-28, with most of the events, and the dinner, at the Keva Sports Center on Airport Rd.

Odds & Ends - Save Sight Night with the Mallards, sponsored by the Madison Evening Lions Club, on Thursday, June 11. Tickets, $6.00, from the MELC - JODI or JJ can tell you how to get them. The District Governor’s Welcome party will be at the Coachman’s, Edgerton, on Tuesday, Aug. 11. See PHIL INGWELL or JJ for that one. The Lions State Raffle for the Camp has been reconstituted, and the top 3 prizes are now $10K, $5K and $2.4K. Tickets are $50 each, and only 3000 will be sold. We presently have four tickets available - as usual, see JODI. Deadline for charge card sales from our Rose Sale is now past - cash only, please, and get it in pronto. Lions Camp could use some more volunteer nurses for this summer’s sessions. If you know one who might help, let them know they are needed.

Last Meeting - JODI presided, back from her knee repair, which turned out to be a bit more than she bargained for, LINDA BERGREN led the song, and ROSS ROYSTER gave what must have been a record even for him, a 6-word invocation. Appropriate, however. SAL AL-ASHKAR confirmed his retirement by showing up in a golf shirt, and DALE MUELLER brought wife GWEN as a guest, so we all could help celebrate their 53rd Wedding Anniversary. Congratulations!

JODI was interviewed on TV last week by Channel 15 anchor Carleen Wild, and told the world about MCLC and what we do. Carleen has offered the station’s help for our future activities, which could really assist us in this modern world. (If the technical difficulties can be overcome, we hope to have that interview posted on the web site.)

Past President SAL AL-ASHKAR and Vice President KAREN AL-ASHKAR confirmed, sadly, their intention to go hide from future winters by moving to Tucson, AZ, probably some time in July. It’s not widely known, but we collapsed the entire US real estate market in an effort to keep them from selling their house, but apparently we didn’t pull it off. So, they’re going, but as a parting gift they presented the MCLC Foundation with a check for $1000! They will be greatly missed, because no one did more to further the work of Lions Clubs in general and MCLC in particular than SAL and KAREN. Hopefully, some Lions Club in Arizona (the birthplace of Melvin Jones, incidentally) will benefit from their knowledge, enthusiasm and dedication. We wish them Godspeed.

We got some nice "Thank You" letters. JODI read one from Oakwood East for the flowers we gave them in honor of HAL and DALE; SCOTT GROVER read another from the recipient of one of our eyeglass grants; and BOB BOHN read one from the Salvation Army for whom we raised over $600 from our day on the "red kettle" thru our work as bell-ringers. We serve. Each Lion should take those letters personally.

MICHELLE VETTERKIND led Lion Birthdays. THEMIS FLORES RAMOS, 2 yrs, TOM STEVENS, 6 yrs, PHIL STOWITTS, 22 yrs; STEVE BRIGGS,28 yrs, JERRY MILLER, 29 yrs, BOB BOHN, 40 yrs, DAN STOUDT, 47 yrs: TERRY SCHAR, 50 yrs. Drawing winners, MELISSA ABBOTT, JERRY HODDINOTT., THEMIS, DALE MUELLER., J. JENSON, R. ROYSTER, P. STOWITTS.