Prelude to a Tale - It's official! At our September Board meeting, the Board decided to officially change our meeting place to Festival Foods.

Next Meeting - Tuesday, October 3, at Festival Foods on East Washington Avenue. Our meeting place is the Community Room in an area called “The Mezz”, presumably because it's located on a sort of 2nd floor mezzanine balcony at the west end of the store, the opposite end from the parking ramp. Said parking ramp is entered either from E. Washington (westbound only) or from a mid-block alley back of the store which can be entered either from Livingston or Patterson Sts.

If you are so inclined, you can buy food from the deli and take it up, either by stairs or by elevator, to the meeting to have lunch. You have to ignore a “Vendors or Associates Only” sign to go the last few feet to the Community Room. If not so inclined, the Editor can testify that the bakery, which is at the other (parking and checkout) end of the store, has some tasty rolls and/or donuts either to serve as lunch or take home.

Timing is another matter. Previous info has been to arrive around 11:00 if you want to buy lunch with an announced meeting start time of 11:30. The Editor arrived, only slightly out of breath, at about 11:50 last time and found the meeting in progress, apparently having started shortly before. Problem is, we have to be out of the room by 1:00 PM because the store needs it at that time.

This next meeting is one of our business meetings, and no doubt the meeting itself will be part of the business discussion. If you have problems or suggestions on the new meeting arrangement, come and make them known, and If you can't be there then let one of the officers/Board members know. There may be some followup on Stuff The Bus, or some further discussion of either continuing or replacing the Holiday Treat Sale. There must be some kind of omen here, because the Editor takes meeting notes on pieces of scrap paper saved for the purpose, and just noticed that the last set of notes are on the back of an order blank from last year's Treat Sale.

At the last meeting, Pres. KEVIN ran the show, backed up by the Vice President and the Treasurer, so 1/3 of the attendance was made up of officers. With all that firepower, tho, there were no contentious issues and all went smoothly. We heard that Stuff The Bus received about $35,000 in donations, a new high. We also heard that the Bags Tournament has been rescheduled to Nov. 4, in partnership with the Oregon Lions, and there will be a Meat Raffle in conjunction.

Nov. 4 is also the date of a Vision Screening Training and Certification session, which will be held at the Edgerton Hospital starting at 10:00 AM. This is an opportunity to learn how to use the equipment and the various procedures involved, so that you can become certified as a Vision Screener. This is absolutely a “hands-on” project where you as a Lion can make a real difference, and if you are interested, SCOTT GROVER has the details on how to pre-register for the training session