Next Meeting - Tuesday, June 16. Our annual Summer Picnic, held for the first time at the new Ahuska Park in Monona. It’s on the south side of E. Broadway, between Stoughton Rd. and Monona Dr. but closer to Monona Dr. Big sign, shelter house, sports fields, can’t miss it. Starting time is 5:30 PM - bring your contribution to the food, your spouse/significant other/family, guest, whoever. Just be sure to sign up with Jodi so she knows how many are coming. Club supplies the entree’, members bring appetizer, salad or dessert. It would be nice to have everybody there. We will have the District Governor guarantee good weather, and he’ll lose his job in two weeks if it isn’t, so we should be all set.

We Serve - A couple more Vision Screening training sessions coming up - August 18, evening, in Monona. And August 19, 1:00 PM, somewhere on the west side of Madison, place to be determined. This is a chance to learn what you need to know to be part of the screening team, which is one of our “hands on” service activities. If we find one kid with a condition that can be fixed, it’s all worth it. See JODI or JIM SCHUTZ to take part.

Our Club’s Committee Sign-Up - Was supposed to be finished yesterday. We need all the help we can get, so if you haven’t volunteered for at least one committee, let JODI know, by e-mail, voice, or online signup. This is how we get things done.

Youth Exchange - There is an opportunity to host an exchange student from a foreign country for two weeks in August. A wonderful chance to show a teenager what the U.S. is all about. Especially good if you have someone in that age group in your own family. See PHIL INGWELL.

Last Time - JODI presided, LINDA BERGREN led the song, and ROSS ROYSTER gave the invocation. If you blinked, you missed it. We had one guest - Gail Stirr, Asst. Administrative Director of the new UW Eye Research Institute. She came to last month’s meeting with Dr. Albert when he told us about the new Institute, and came back again to learn more about Lions, perhaps to consider joining us. We also got a nice “thank you” letter from Hospice Care - JERRY HODDINOTT took them a couple of our flower bouquets.

Don’t Forget - The Service Club Summer Olympics July 27-28, for which LINDA BERGREN is our chairperson and also an event chairperson for badminton. If you can play it, find a partner and sign up, and maybe LINDA can rig the draw. There are all kinds of events, from distance runs, volleyball and badminton for the athletically determined (note that we didn’t say gifted) to card and board games for the cerebral athletes. We’d like to have ten Lions involved - talk to LINDA.

“Just Ask” - That’s what a veteran Lion told your editor some years back, when asked what he had done to get the new members to qualify for the awards that were on his Lion vest. (Yes, vest! It was during lunch at Lions Day at Lions Camp, at Rosholt, but that’s another story.) In spite of what you hear, there are plenty of people out there who would like to serve their community, and our Club offers lots of ways to do that. Bring them to a meeting to find out about us. Just Ask!

Our Speaker - was Deb Archer, head of the Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau, introduced by JIM BRADLEY, who, it turns out, is on the Board of Directors for the organization. She told us about their efforts to bring activities, which bring people, who bring (and spend) money to our city. They also have to work hard to help get the facilities built, and arrange the services, that bring those people. Their surveys tell them that visitors want access to the lakes, more hotels, better signage, and lots of ways to find out what’s going on, and where. “Customer Service” to them means getting visitors the information they need in order to do things and visit places that interest them.

People come here for activities at the University, sports and others, events at Monona Terrace or the Alliant Center, to confer with or try to influence government, on private corporate business, for medical treatment, for festivals, and other athletic events like the Ironman and the Madison Marathon. They spend money shopping, dining, on recreation and housing. The Bureau strives to help them do these things, and also tries to convey to the Madison community and City Hall what it is that these visitors want. To that end, they try to promote the use of Dane County Airport for local residents’ travel, because keeping the traffic volume up helps get more flights to more cities and better access to Madison in return. There’s a lot of effort going on to keep Madison prospering, especially now.