Next Meeting - Aug. 7, First Tuesday. At noon. At the Edgewater. The old order is still in force. SCOTT GROVER is the Program Host, and he will introduce us to the new District Governor, DARYL PORTER. A veteran Lion from Beloit, he will bring us the best and latest from Lions International, and also from our Wisconsin Council of Governors.

At our last meeting, some roles were reversed. New President LINDA BERGREN opened the meeting, and Past President JIM SCHUTZ led the song, from the back of the room instead of the front. Didn't seem to affect the results much. “Padre” ROSS ROYSTER gave one of his typical brief and to-the-point invocations.

Birthday Chairperson MICHELLE VETTERKIND launched the celebration for those Lions who have service anniversaries in May, June and July. Lions present to celebrate and be honored were: GAIL STIRR, 3 years; MICHELLE VETTERKIND, 20 years; JIM SCHUTZ, 31 years; and DAN STOUDT, 50 years! The usual drawing followed, and gift winners were TERRY SCHAR, ROSS ROYSTER, WALT PRIDHAM and JIM SCHUTZ. Your editor won GAIL's gift, which was mostly nuts, appropriate for (and appreciated by) the editor. Pres. LINDA got her baton back, leading a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday.” At least we knew the words, but the editor may be mistaken in believing that there is no such thing as a monotone part in music. Of course, if there were, he couldn't hear it anyway.

As part of the proposed new meeting schedule, the first Tuesday meeting of the month would be at 7:00 AM, and would not have a presented program. The focus would be on projects, hopefully a “project of the month” for each one. With that in mind, Pres. LINDA and the Club members present recalled some of the things we have done in the past - the Christmas Party for visually handicapped students, tree planting, eye tissue transport, bellringers for the Salvation Army, signs and trail building in the Arboretum, collection and sorting of used eyeglasses, trips to Lions Camp. These are the sort of things that might be done under the new system, using the breakfast meeting to organize them. Specific events would be featured in the Tale, in hopes of spurring the members on to new successes.

If you have ideas for future projects, get them to the officers, or go to a Board meeting and bring them up. We need all the ideas we can get. We keep hearing that there are people out there who would like to be Lions, and they want to work “hands on” on projects, preferably on a more or less “one-shot” basis. The first step, then, is to find the projects.

Further elements of the proposed new schedule would include a noon meeting on the Third Tuesday of each month. There would also be a late-afternoon (5:30 PM, 1730 hours) Social Gathering on one Thursday each quarter, probably in place of the noon meeting that day. There will also have to be some adjustments in billing and maybe in membership classes. The editor will probably need a new computer in order to keep all this straight - calendars were never his strong point. But, if you like variety, you will love MCLC!

If you have strong opinions about the proposed changes to our meeting structure (for, against, alternate suggestions), make your voice heard. Send feedback to LINDA or SCOTT.

What follows is a blatantly political statement:

Vote for Romney. If he wins, we will get the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the Inauguration, and for the first time in years it will be worth listening to!

Editor Terry