Next Meeting - Tuesday, March 15. A bad day for Julius Caesar, but since they moved the tax deadline it should be a good day for the rest of us. PHIL INGWELL is the Program Host, and he will introduce Julie Hannifan, the Volunteer Coordinator from Meriter Hospital, where he spends all the free time he has after he's finished Lions. She will tell us how much volunteers do for Meriter, and how and where they could use more help, and also about the ongoing renovations and improvements at the hospital. Ever notice how many of our active Lions also volunteer a lot for other organizations? BOB FOX comes to mind, but there are a lot of them.

We will also celebrate the Lion Birthdays of SCOTT GROVER- 11 years, LINDA BERGREN-15, JODI BURMESTER-18, ROSS ROYSTER-30, JIM BRADLEY- 34, RICH MATZELLE- 40 (Aloha!), PHIL INGWELL- 44, and JIM RUNDELL- 49 years. That's a total of 241 years of Lion service, and a lot of people helped one way or another. "We Serve!"

Last time, Pres. JIM SCHUTZ opened the meeting, and led both the song and the Pledge of Allegiance. LINDA BERGREN gave the invocation, and we were happy to have her back, and hopefully on the mend. There was some confusion at the outset over who was going to do the invocation, but our three faithful readers knew ahead of time that it would be LINDA. Apparently the prez is not one of the three. Gwen Mueller was hubby DALE's guest.

PHIL INGWELL commented on the activities of some of the Lions Clubs he visited recently in the Southwest. One Arizona "Breakfastshare" Club had a student speakers contest, and apparently the Lions Pride program gets some airtime on a radio station in Nevada (Lions Pride Radio). (Also, St Judes Ranch.)

LINDA still has some Holiday Treats left - pralines, too late now for Mardi Gras but still in time for Easter baskets, and a couple kinds of chocolate covered whatzits. See her for a more accurate description.

Pres. JIM read a "Thank You" letter from the Salvation Army for our work on the kettle.

JERRY HODDINOTT needs your Commitment form for the Flower Sale at the next meeting. He has to order in a few days, and obviously needs to know how many to get. We don't want to run short, but we don't want to set up another ad hoc flower shop on State St. again either. Order blanks and advertising flyers are available NOW.

JOHN JENSON presented a check to the Club from our Gum Ball distributor in the amount of $2187.00. Our total income over the years is now $156,296.00!! This is a "passive fund raiser." All we have to do is find places for the gum machines and sit back and collect. Keep an eye out for possible locations, and if you see a machine somewhere with Lion identification on it, be sure to thank the establishment for having it. We've done a lot of service with that money.

Pres. JIM introduced our speaker, who needed no introduction, because it was Past President JIM KEMMETER. JIM's professional specialty is family law, and he gave us a lot of information on timely tax matters, such as the gift limitation which is now $13,000 per year for one donor/donee. A couple could thus give $26,000 tax free. He also touched on Powers of Attorney (Durable, to allow someone to conduct your necessary financial management for you even if you are disabled.. Health Care, which allows the appointed person to make health care decisions for you if you are incapacitated. It goes without saying that you should tell them ahead of time what you want and don't want.) He also commented on Marital Property Agreements; the classification of gifts and inheritances, which are not marital property unless they are mixed with marital property, such as in the same bank account; and Living Trusts, which can replace a Will and avoid probate. What was pretty obvious to the editor was that these things are extremely complicated. Don't try them at home - get the help of an attorney. We are fortunate to have one or two on hand at most of our meetings.