Next Meeting - Aug. 21, Third Tuesday, at the Edgewater, noon. Have to start being specific, considering the changes that are coming. JODI BURMESTER is the Program Host for that day. There are some things in life we prefer to leave to others, but sometimes it is good to inquire about what they're doing. The speaker will be a rep from the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District, and will tell us about their construction and future plans. An old Air Force saying comes to mind “get the scoop from Group.” That's the printable version.

At our last meeting, Pres. LINDA opened the meeting with a disclaimer about the bottle on the podium, and then led the song and the Pledge of Allegiance. SCOTT GROVER gave the invocation, possibly his longest on record. Guests were Debbie Mahaffey of the Wis. Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Gwen Mueller with DALE (they also brought Megan, but the editor was too far away to hear who, why, and where from) , Lions Mike Knowlton from the East Club and George Woodbridge from Oregon, and Lioness Mary Porter from Beloit, accompanying her husband DARYL, our new District Governor. Total present - 15. Eight members and seven guests.

The bottle turned out to be STEVE BRIGGS' belated birthday gift, celebrating his 31 years of Lion service. The winner of the drawing turned out to be the District Governor, who was thus rewarded for making the trip to our meeting. It will be interesting to see if he comes back for our next birthday party.

We have been told that the Edgewater will close early in November, so as of now our meeting on the third Tuesday in October (16th) will probably be the last one in the friendly confines of Neptune's Hall. Of course, we'll let you know what the exact plans will be, but stay tuned. Presumably the first meeting in November will be one of the 7:00 AM dawn patrols, but the location's not set yet, so we'll see.

SCOTT and LINDA have been out searching for possible meeting locations. If you have any suggestions on that score, please let them know.

Speaking of food, the Oregon/Brooklyn Lions are having a Barbeque Pork Rib Fest on next Saturday, August 25, 2012. It will be at Kiser Park in Oregon, from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Cost, $10.00 per ticket (purchased in advance). Beverage stand opens at 11:00 am.

District Governor DARYL PORTER was our speaker, making his first official visit as DG to our Club. He only has 56 more clubs to visit, and less than 11 months to do it. He has 39 years of Lion service, and among his many responsibilities along the way was District Pin Chairman, in which capacity your Editor first worked with him about 19 years ago, designing our last MCLC club pin. He reported on the International Covention, which was attended by a record 55,000 people, about 40,000 of whom came from the host country of South Korea. 750 incoming District Governors attended the four-day training session that preceded their formal installation at the Convention. He experienced some culture shock in South Korea, because he found that only a few people and places spoke English. Outgoing IP Wing-Kun Tam had challenged Lions to plant one million trees worldwide, and the report on that project was that a total of over 14,000,000 trees were planted.

He brought a fresh set of service challenges from the new International President, WAYNE A. MADDEN, who is originally from Indiana. Certainly there is still a lot to be done in the world, and he emphasized the problem of literacy and communication. It is said that 1 in 4 people of reading age are still illiterate, and 1 in 6 do not have internet access. If my math is right, that means that more people have internet than are able to read, which is hard to understand. But far more people get thru school without learning to read than you would believe, and it limits them greatly. I recall the statement of a client of the Madison Literacy Council at a United Way meeting some years ago. When asked what it meant to him to be able to read, he replied “I don't always have to stand in the back of the room.” There is still work to be done here. Perhaps our Club could partner with the Literacy Council in some way.