Next Meeting - 7 AM, Tuesday, June 4, bright and early, at the Sheraton. Our breakfast meeting for the month. Since it's pretty early in the month, there should be projects to discuss while there's still time to do them. The Lions Eye Bank of Wisconsin Golf Outing is coming up fast, June 10 to be exact, and CRAIG BUTLER is doing the planning. Still time to line up your participation, so you can go out there and stun a few nightcrawlers.

Once again, SCOTT GROVER bailed out the editor with the following report:

Our luncheon meeting on May 21 drew seventeen attendees (including the speaker and TWO guests). JIM SCHUTZ presided, LINDA being happily somewhere in the Land of the Midnight Sun. JIM KEMMETER made a surprise visit - excellent to see him up and moving and looking very good. MIKE KNOWLTON introduced two (2) guests - Jay Glick and Frank Adamo. MIKE might be on to something - he's hinted that becoming a Lion may be a condition of employment. We reached a nice compromise with STEVE BRIGGS setting the pitch on our song, and JIM actually conducting, keeping us mostly together. ROSS ROYSTER gave a suitably short invocation, fulfilling all of our Lion formalities.

TailTwister JACK HEIM plugged the recent Vision Walk for Fighting Blindness, indicating that he would be happy to accept retroactive pledge collection. JIM apologized for not picking JACK up for our previous meeting, and paid the requisite fine. MELISSA NOVINSKI gave a brief Flower update, prefaced by a short message from former member Melissa Abbott, who says hello. Some 328 units (business talk for bouquets) were sold, and MELISSA expects a net profit of around $3700, with only 20% yet to be collected. The proceeds are down about 30% - less sales and higher costs. And, no, the PDF attached to a previous Tale was NOT the one intended, due to a goof by the Web Guy. ROSS ROYSTER was our top seller, and 18 people helped with delivery.

JOHN JENSON reported on some recent club activity. Six Central Lions attended the recent State Convention, where KARLA HARRIS was endorsed for International Director. 850 registered for the convention, and 584 attended the luncheon. Next year's State Convention will be at the Kalahari in Wisconsin Dells - a short trip for us. CRAIG BUTLER reported on the Lions Eye Bank Golf Outing, to be held on June 10 at Cherokee Country Club. The registration form is available on our web site. Madison Evening's Save Sight Night at the Mallards Duck Pond will be July 24.

GAIL STIRR introduced our speaker, Professor Nader Sheibani, of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and accomplished basic researcher. He came to the US from Iran right after high school, on December 25, 1978, in a snow storm (and, yes, there is snow in Iran) in New England. He's lived and worked in Nebraska and Wisconsin. He told us about angiogenisis and Ocular Disease (the formation of new blood vessels from capillaries) and Angio Dependent Disease (age related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and retinopathy of prematurity). While his presentation was highly technical, it was also highly interesting. He talked about retinal circulation, the eight or nine cell types in the retina, identifying and characterizing of molecular and cellular features. The goal is prevention, since we currently are lacking the capability to detect occurrence. We must try to understand the natural process, using system biology for a global effect. He is currently working with a $6 million grant from NIH. An interesting presentation, even for non-technical laypersons.