Next Meeting - April 5, First Tuesday in April, and a couple days after the deadline for flower orders for Rose Day. The meeting is at the Coliseum Restaurant and Bar, at noon, as usual. This will be our business meeting for April, and certainly the Flower Sale will be one of the topics of discussion. Delivery Day is Monday, April 25th, and lots of help will be needed. Come and find out what else is going on- there's a lot, starting with a Vision Screening the next day, April 6, at the Childrens' Museum. Word is that we will have the latest model of screening equipment, which is said to be slick!

There will be two meetings that day. Ours, as above, and the new Winners Circle Lions Club's Charter Night at 6 PM also at the Coliseum Bar, rescheduled from a snowy day a while back. If you had signed up for that one, you should have resolved the question of coming to this one by now. All Madison Central Lions are encouraged to attend to support this new Club, for which our Club is the sponsor and Lion JODI BURMESTER the driving force.

Our last meeting seems like a long time ago, now, but the Editor remembers feeling very “Past Generation” as the meeting started - next to me sat VP KEVIN OLSEN, with backpack, laptop and water bottle. I had paper and pen at the ready to take notes and my TracFone in my pocket. If I'd needed to carry anything, I would have had my briefcase. Didn't even have my cup of coffee. When I started in the insurance business I remember my father, who was also my boss, saying “Always have something with you to write with, and write on, even if you have to prick your finger and write in blood on your shirt cuff!” Fortunately it never came to that, but old habits do persist.

Pres MIKE rang the bell, but it didn't immediately silence the multitudes, since we had the highest number in attendance in recent memory, nineteen. Just goes to show - the Lions Tale went out very late last time, but Lions came anyway, in greater numbers than usual. So much for the theory that the Tale influences attendance. We noted the passing of Lion JIM KEMMETER, and our current Dispatcher for the Eye Tissue Transport missions reported that he had visited with JIM, who was the Dispatcher for years, shortly before his death. We had one guest, Abe Smith, former Lions Camp(er), with ADAM GRASSNICKLE.

LINDA BERGREN reported that the District Convention was well attended, and that our Club Raffle was in process of preparation. This year's plan of operation will be revealed soon. She didn't mention the few chocolate nuts she still has left from the Holiday Sale, but she has 'em.

Money from the Flower Sale goes, as always, to MELISSA NOVINSKI. If you make a Credit Card sale, be sure to provide the buyer's billing address on the order blank, and, as always, GIVE COMPLETE DELIVERY INSTRUCTIONS. YOU may know exactly how to get to the delivery destination but the Lion assigned to make the delivery may not. Name of office building is not enough - give address, office number or location, whatever. Just put down what you'd want to know if you were the one making the delivery and had never heard of the location before! Prices are the same as last year, and the delivery depot is the Coliseum Bar as before.

GAIL STIRR said that individuals wishing to make a donation to Cycle For Sight may do so until April 14. That way you can help out without all the huffing and puffing.

CRAIG BUTLER introduced the speaker, who needed little introduction because he was our Past President JACK HEIM. This time, though, he was speaking as International President of the Association of Visually Impaired Technologists, a group which he helped found whose objective is to provide resources for its members, work with tech manufacturers to make their products easier for the visually impaired to use, and promote Information Technology as a career for the visually impaired. None of this is easy - about 65-70% of visually impaired people are unemployed, and they are about 26% less likely to get a callback after an interview. Seems like there's a lot for this new organization to do, but the more people we have who can understand and work with technology as new things are developed, the better off we are.