Next Meeting - Tuesday, April 16 -12:00 NOON. At the Sheraton. MICHELLE VETTERKIND is the Program Host, and she'll introduce Todd Pritchard from Wisconsin Emergency Management. Not sure what kind of emergencies he'll talk about, but hopefully it will be floods or storms and not Kim Jong Un. We will celebrate the Lion Birthdays, and honor the Lion service, of: SCOTT GROVER, 13 years; LINDA BERGREN, 17 yrs.; SPARKY WATTS, 18 yrs.; JODI BURMESTER, 20 yrs.; PHIL STOWITTS, 26 yrs.; ROSS ROYSTER 32 yrs.; JERRY MILLER 33 yrs:' JIM BRADLEY 36 yrs.; RICH MATZELLE 42 yrs;, PHIL INGWELL 46 yrs,; JIM RUNDELL 51 yrs.; and TERRY SCHAR 54 yrs. That is a total of 388 years of service!!! Still more to do.

Our April breakfast meeting was started handily with TT JACK HEIM collecting dollars from everyone who could not identify the retail cost of his DoubleTalk, an audio voice synthesizer. The lucky Lion who came closest was JIM SCHUTZ. Yr reporter SCOTT GROVER, not wishing to spoil a later opportunity for the TT, forgot to write down the actual cost.

President LINDA shared three thank you notes, two from eye glass grant recipients, and one from the UW Foundation for the club's donation to the McPherson Eye Institute (a matching grant for the Cycle for Sight). Goes to show how we spend our hard-earned Foundation money.

JACK and JODI BURMESTER reported on the recent Diabetes Awareness Workshop we did at the Goodman Center. It was an outstanding program, but could benefit from more publicity. There were lots of Lions there to help, and a lot of learning curves. Sixteen adults and one child (young adult?) were screened, and several were referred to their optometrist.. Leftover DVDs were donated to the Oregon Senior Center for their diabetes caretaker program.

LINDA was finally able to auction the famed Italian hoodie. Spirited bidding kept yr reporter from bidding, and once-again-lucky JIM SCHUTZ won the hoodie for a mere $75. JACK also had a Shell gas card and LINDA had a flower pot arrangement, both to be saved for future auctions. PADDHE HEINEN donates almost all of these auction items.

Our next event of note will be the Flower Sale. Of the ten in attendance, there were lots of volunteers for warehouse duty and delivery, but not so many flower orders. Order forms can be picked up at the next meeting (cutting it close) or printed from our web site, and there is an instant online order form. There was a discussion about keeping the flowers in water until the moment of delivery (highly recommended by our florist). MELISSA has prepared a set of delivery instructions, in case you forgot how to do this. We learned that our warehouse will be in the Sheraton, just inside the entrance next to the restaurant (the room with French doors), which will be very handy. If you can volunteer for the routing committee, make that known to LINDA or MELISSA. DAN STOUDT will deliver south of the Beltline, JODI and MICHELLE VETTERKIND will deliver downtown, PHIL INGWELL will do the far east side, JIM SCHUTZ will do the north side, MELISSA's husband will do Waunakee, SCOTT GROVER will do Oregon,, the LIBERTYs will do Middleton and Cross Plains. Those Lions electing to do self-delivery should try to include stops on their way. Please get your orders in right away.

The suggested slate for next year's Board of Directors is almost ready, and we will vote on that slate at our next meeting.

Our next project will be the Highway Cleanup, scheduled for April 27, weather permitting. Same routine as in the past - meet for breakfast at 8:30am at Hy Vee, then out to County TT, done by noon. Contact SCOTT if you're planning on helping. This is a fun project, and everyone has a good time.

Don't forget our adult vision screening on May 10 at Warner Park. This has been busy in the past, so volunteer to help. Fluency in Spanish helpful, but not entirely necessary. Hours of operation 8:30am until noon.

BMO Harrris Bank has volunteered space at their office on the Square to house our eyeglass sorting project. JOHN will investigate further, since we really need a place that's open off-hours.

All this, and we were still done by 8:00!

Thanks to ace cub reporter SCOTT GROVER, who wrote almost all of this Lions Tale!

Special Message from your Treasurer:

Those of you who are paying attention will note that we have started a new fiscal quarter, and that means - dues invoices! We will be trying a new dues structure this quarter. Regular members will notice a big change in their dues assessment. Previously, regular members paid dues and meals. We are trying a new structure where all members pay the same dues, and members who attend meetings will be assessed the actual cost of the meal. If you have concerns about this, please contact your Treasurer or any Board member.