Our next meeting will be Tuesday, March 6, 2018 on the Mezz at Festival Foods On East Washington Ave. Announced starting time is 11:30, and this is our Business Meeting for March. There is always business, but our Rose Day sale looms large, and there usually are other pots simmering out there. For example, ownership of Bags Tournament Boards seems to require large blocks of time for discussion.

At our last meeting our valiant Man of All Duties, Treasurer SCOTT GROVER, rang the meeting bell, since everyone upstream of him in the order of succession was not present. It is notable that the Bell was present, although the Lion Bank was not. Perhaps we need to create an official position of Guard, not for the door as in many organizations, but for the Lion Bank. Considering the risks involved, a volunteer might be hard to come by, and there would probably, in these times, be a vociferous public kerfuffle over whether the Guard would be armed, and if so, whether the appropriate weapon would be a peashooter, rubber bands or spitwads. Involve the Madison City Council, and the issue would never be heard from again.

Anyway the meeting proceeded, hearing the welcome news that Festival Foods will let us run our Rose Day depot in an area of their parking facility just northeast of the ramp. There's eight or more parking spots, and a nice spot for the flowers. Drive in, pick up your flowers, and drive out.

Reservations have been sent in for those MCLC Lions who are going to the District Convention. JOHN JENSON Handles Convention stuff, and if you should make a late decision to attend, see JOHN about the details.

VP DALE BURMESTER has been tackling our membership problem, which is a big one (that is, the problem is big, our membership is not). He has just put out an action plan in which we all can and should participate: “As many of you know, I've been participating in a series of meetings over the last few months with a focus on growing membership in the Madison area Lions clubs. The culmination of those efforts is rapidly approaching and the team needs your help. I have two requests for every one of our members:

1) Who Do You Know who might be interested in joining Lions or hearing more about what we do? Think about people you come into contact with regularly (dentist, optician, insurance agent, realtor, financial advisor, small business owner, minister, etc...) Then provide me with a list of individuals, the business/organization they are affiliated with (optional), email address and phone number (also optional) by next Wednesday, March 7th.

2) “Canvassing” will begin March 12th and we anticipate that many of the initial contacts will be made by email or by phone. If you have an hour or two to spare, please let me know and we'll include you on the contact team ... it should be a fun and rewarding experience. If you volunteer, we will provide training and additional information.”

GAIL reminded us about Cycle for Sight. She has set up a team slot for anyone interested in physically participating. If you're interested in monetarily participating, here's the link.

The NESCO Senior Health Fair will be March 23 - tell SCOTT if you're able to assist.

The Spring Bags Tournament may be on either May 12 or May 19. Our partners-in-bags from Oregon/Brooklyn are checking to see if HeadQuarters is available. We've been invited to participate again in the Early Childhood Parent Resource Far on April 4 at the Children's Museum. Lion MILO from New Glarus will be bringing a camera, and there should be a lot of children to screen.

TailTwister ADAM (who is still lamenting the loss of his brass Lion) introduced Brent Perzentka, the Store Manager at the Council of the Blind. Brent showed us a crate full of wonderful gadgets that they sell - all sorts of magnifying devices, kitchen tools, games, watches, calendars, talking labels. Turns out he was hired by DICK POMO. As with many of our programs, if you missed it, you missed an entertaining and informative one.

Rose Day is April 23. SELL MORE FLOWERS!