Next Meeting - Next Tuesday, July 16, almost the earliest the third Tuesday can be, AT NOON. At the Sheraton, as usual. JACK HEIM is the Program Host, but we don't know what he has in mind. Since you won't have to get up in the middle of the night, no excuses, make the meeting!

There are a couple things on the program that we do know. For one, we will install our new officers for the next Lion year, and since your editor is supposed to do it, we can assure you that it won't take long. Just about everybody who will be there will know the drill anyway.

Much more importantly, we will celebrate Lion Birthdays for 9 Lions. What we are really celebrating is the years of service they have given to their community. The list for this month is: GAIL STIRR, 4 years; JACK HEIM, 4 years; Dr TOM STEVENS, 10 years; MICHELLE VETTERKIND, 21 years; STEVE BRIGGS, GREG MILLER and JIM SCHUTZ, 32 years; JIM KEMMETER, 33 years; and DAN STOUDT, 51 years, the first 9 of which were in Delaware.

Since there was no 1st Tuesday meeting this month, there is no “last meeting” to report on. We have a number of things on the calendar in the near future - our summer social event on Sunday the 14th at Save Sight Night in the Duck Pond at Warner Park (hope you've secured your tickets), the bus trip to Lions Camp is on Wednesday the 17th, the Youth Exchange Picnic (JODI BURMESTER's the contact on this one) on Wednesday the 24th, and there will be more on the August 17 “Stuff The Bus” project, which is statewide. School supplies for kids who don't have them. You can participate in this - see the local “Stuff The Bus” web page and the volunteer sign-up web page.

There are a number of Lion traditions that are under discussion, including the procedures for opening our meeting. The old standard was the singing of “America”, the Pledge of Allegiance, and an invocation. There are old stories about all of them, such as the substitution of “God Bless America” in place of the Americanized version of “God Save The Queen” (don't know if we ever sang that one, even when she was visiting the US), LEO MERKEL's invocations in 16th century language, ROSS ROYSTER's ability to pack a lot into few words, and various individuals serving as flagpoles, but the issue is which, if any, should be continued, particularly since we no longer have ORV SHETNEY and the piano to cover up what we did to the music. Personally, your editor does not go along with the current idea that “if we've always done it that way there must be something wrong with it” but still, times change. For proof, we don't haul 80 copies of the TALE to the Post Office every week anymore. And I've always said “By Gosh, if I was in charge, things would be different! Maybe not better, but different!” So, make your wishes known to the officers, and if change is in order, so be it. And I didn't even mention the quaint custom of Lion vests, complete with patches and pins.