Next Time - Tuesday, October 4 - SCOTT GROVER is the Program Host, and the speaker will be Lion BEN AUGUST. He will tell us about the Youth Exchange Program. This is one element of Lion service we don't always hear much about, but it is interesting and important. It is also a possible opportunity for your kids and grandkids to see the world, or at least a different part of it from the one they live in.

Last Time - VP LINDA BERGREN opened the meeting and led the song, and SCOTT GROVER gave a ten-word invocation. (Just think what our Club would be like if we had about 30 clones of each of them at every function! We could move mountains with teaspoons!)

LINDA said there was consideration of moving our Christmas party from the noon meeting to a 5:30 PM gathering in the Rigadoon Room, not unlike our recent Pier Picnic. Sounds like a good thought. We had two guests, LINDA's mom Lois, and DALE MUELLER's wife Gwen.

Apparently we are still trying to legalize a new fund-raiser, without any help from the authorities who are supposed to rule on this stuff. Current thought is that we will get details at the next meeting. It apparently involves football and $10.00 bills.

LINDA BERGREN says we will be ordering for the Holiday Treat Sale by about Nov. 1. Here come the malted milk balls. But we will, of course, have the ever-popular Benson's Fruit Cake, plus nuts, trail mix, and other assorted goodies. Delivery will be for Christmas, though - NOT before Thanksgiving. (See par. 2, above.)

SCOTT GROVER received another New Member Key, for five new members this time, to go with the 2-member one he got just recently. Relates directly to our new East Madison Lions, currently a branch of our Club until they recruit a few more members to reach the 20 necessary for a Club of their own. SCOTT also displayed the grey T-shirts with Lion logos that he still has available for purchase. Editor's ears didn't pick up the price [a virtual steal at $20], but talk to SCOTT. He might be dealing. He also reminded us that we will be staffing a concession stand at the Kohl Center for UW Men's Basketball this season as a fundraiser. The more Central Lions we have working, the more $$$ we raise for our Service Fund. (See par. 2, above.)

JIM KEMMETER reported two Eye Bank missions the day before, one to Beaver Dam and one to Johnson Creek. “Because of what we do today, someone will see tomorrow.” Lion service at its best. Talk to SCOTT if you want to be one of this essential group of transporters.

William Graczyk and Linda Vincent, from Wis. Talking Book and Braille Library were our speakers, and they told us how much their organization still does for all kinds of people. First point - they serve anyone who cannot read print by themselves, which includes not only vision-impaired but also severely physically disabled clients. Technology has taken the original LP record service to amazing new capabilities, including their very own device which looks a little like a child's plastic toy but is actually a sophisticated player that uses a specific type of cartridge that can hold many books and be operated by almost anyone with even a severe disability. It is part of a national free service, based on the Library of Congress, circulating 320,000 books a year. They send out several mail tubs each day. A client can keep the player and exchange cartridges, or download new material to the cartridge from the internet. Recordings are made by paid readers with experience, such as former actors. The digital equipment allows indexing far beyond what was previously possible. The player is battery operated, with specific recordings not playable on anything else. Their recordings are exempt from copyright limitations, and work sort of like Blockbuster - get and read a book or books, return them and get new ones. In addition to the recorded material they have a telephone service which reads current content from several newspapers. Your editor concludes that technology never stops improving. Or, to quote the (supposedly) old Chinese saying, “person who say it cannot be done is apt to be interrupted by somebody doing it.”