Next Meeting - Tuesday, Sept. 3 - the day after Labor Day and the unofficial end of Summer. Where did this one go? Following our current practice, this meeting will be at 12:00 NOON! No more dawn patrols, at least for now. We do seem, however, to be continuing to have the first meeting of the month for Lion business discussions, without a formal program speaker. For the next one, LINDA has laid out a sort of agenda for us to talk about. It was summarized in the BULLetin a month ago, and since the editor hasn't found any improvement to what was said then, here it is again:

As a Club we have a lot of decisions to make about what we do, and how we do it with the numbers we have available. We have an Eyeglass Collection project that is still active, but largely invisible. We need more Lions to collect, we need more locations for donor boxes, and we need to decide whether to once again read and sort the collected glasses, a job we used to do but have largely passed off to prison inmates, who at least have a lot of time on their hands. We also need to review our fund raising efforts. The UW concessions are in transition, and up to now we don't know whether we are in or out. We have a Holiday Treat Sale, which LINDA is keeping afloat, and a Rose Day flower sale, and we need to consider the future, if any, for them. Those, of course, affect what we do for LCIF and WLF. Where else do we look to raise funds? How do we get people to come to us, by staging an event, rather than having to try to go out and locate customers/donors?

There are also still some questions about meeting format - do we still want a song, invocation, Pledge? Where might we find interesting programs, and for that matter, what constitutes an interesting program?

There is more than enough to talk about in this list, and if you want any influence on what happens next, you need to be at the meeting to make your thoughts and preferences known. Talented tho they are, the Board can't do it all, and any leader has to look around from time to time to see if anybody's following. The Club needs enthusiastic participation to accomplish its goals of service, friendship and activity. We also have to be more visible to our local community.

SCOTT GROVER reported that the Kohl Center Concession stand fundraiser will apparently continue under the new UW athletic concessions agreement. Since almost all of our workers are over age 18 the current kerfuffle over workers should not affect us, but it remains to be seen what the compensation will be. [Update: The Board (or, at least those that attended the last meeting) did not think much of the Levy contract. Without significant negotiation and change, we may not be doing the Concession Stand this year.]

SCOTT also said that he has IDs for our Eye Tissue Transporters. Apparently this is a new addition to the mission. If you're one, see him for yours. If you'd like to be one, see him about that too.

It seems that our first statewide Lions project, the “Stuff The Bus” effort, had considerable success. We had TV coverage - the Lion logo was on the screen - and the International President actually made it to Milwaukee to participate. Our Club's point person for this one was JODI BURMESTER, and she reports an impressive list of contributions from our Club. We stuffed one bus with supplies, collected $775 in donations at the various sites, and our own Club members put in $100 at our last meeting. Among those who did the actual work on 8/17: MIKE KNOWLTON and JOYCE FOX from East, LINDA BERGREN, JODI BURMESTER, JOHN JENSON, MELISSA NOVINSKI, GAIL STIRR, DAVID YORK from Central, and donation sorters LINDA, JODI, SCOTT GROVER, DAVID YORK and Linda's daughter CHRISTINA. In the process we helped a lot of kids get ready for school.

Our speaker, DG BOB FALIVENO, reflected on the International Convention - 25,000 people from literally all over the world, coming together to celebrate service, and outlined some Lion goals for the coming year. Of course membership was one - share Lion projects with your prospect - and locally, support for Project Hope Transplant House. He pointed out that Lions will celebrate the organization's 100th Anniversary three years from now, in Chicago where it all began. Put that one on your calendar! Lion pin trading is a popular activity, tho we haven't had many pin traders in our Club, and he has State Pins for 2013 and 2014 available, along with some others. For those who've never seen one, they are often worn on the gold (or blue) Lion vests that used to be one of the badges of service, and still are in some places. They are, at least, visible, but have never been popular in our Club. As an aside, there are thousands of different Lion pins, some huge, some small, representing everything from birds and flowers to jet fighters. Your editor tried for years to get a Swiss one, and finally did succeed. One effect of retirement - no suit lapel to put a pin on. “I'm retired. This is as dressed up as I get.”