Next Meeting - Our next meeting, on March 3, will be a Board/Business meeting.

We started our February 19 meeting with a short review of the joint with Madison-Monona Lioness service project, Monday Evening Meals at Triangle/Bayview. As you may recall, we voted "YES" at our last meeting. Julie Baglama will speak at our May program meeting with more information. Save the date: October 19th for the first occurrence of this project.

August 5th is our Lions Camp visit. We will leave Madison about 7:30am and return about 4:30pm. PHIL reports that the trip to Lions Camp has been confirmed for August 5, and the bus has also been confirmed. There is a limit for the visit, as set by Lions Camp, at 25. Interested persons should email PHIL with their interest, if they haven't already. This is a great recruiting tool to show what Lions do. the cost will be $30.00 for the bus, lunch, and water on the bus.

John Jenson is working on a list of eyeglass dropoff spotsto share with all of us, and he reports that it is almost done. John will send it to everyone to check and then we can post on our web site.

The MCLC Centennial is soon (2022). We will start a committee in July, 2020 to plan/promote the occasion.

We had previously discussed a new club banner. The cost of a new banner from LCI is $375.75. Is it possible to have someone put a backing on the existing banner and and buy just the stand? The motion to buy a new one was tabled.

Congratulations are in order: As of February 15th, there are 16 Certified Guiding Lions in District 27-D1 including BECKY, JODI and DALE.

On February 11th, WI Lions and the MACC fund present a $200,000 check to American Family Children's Hospital for the second flow cytometer for Wisconsin - see https://www.channel3000.com/donation-funds-tech-to-improve-pediatric-cancer-treatment/.

Planning ahead for our March 17th MCLC Program Meeting, we learned that Daniel Elkins will be our speaker. He started a cyber Lions Club around opioid addiction prevention and will be helping with the formation of the LEBW cyber club and Restoring Hope Transplant House club while in Madison. Daniel will also be presenting at the 27-D1 convention. We will invite Madison area clubs to attend if interested.

International Convention - FYI - There will be a resolution to raise international dues and adjust for inflation in the future.

Our Program speaker, Bill McCarthy, Recruiting Assistant for the Madison Area Census Office was introduced. Bill is a temporary worker, one of thousands hired every 10 years for the Census. This is the 24th Census in the US. Libraries have data available up to (older than) 1940 . anyone can look at and search it. The Census used for: Election boundaries, Allocation of funds for schools, police, fire, etc. Much of the data collected is considered private and is safeguarded for 72 years.

Primary goal is to make sure that everyone is "counted". Everyone living in the US (except for foreign diplomats) is counted. In 1931 and 1937, there were two special census held, outside of the 10 year cycle, needed to check on unemployment both times.

On January 21st, the kickoff starts in Alaska at an island/town that can only be accessed by boat. In the middle of March, most of us will receive a notification in the mail. What about the homeless? They will be counted on March 31-April 1st. Typically undercounted: young children, complex household (multi-generational), displaced households (e.g. natural disasters), homeless, renters, low-income, college students, and undocumented persons.

How can we help? More people amy apply for the temporary jobs - it pays $20-$22/hour. Opportunities are available for various timeframes, including now through the end of the summer. The peak is May through July. One task is the awareness of the census to make sure others know that it's safe. All officials have a photo ID. The primary mode of communication is mail - they NEVER ask for Social Security numbers.