Well, our January business meeting may have started off with a bang, but our Valentine's Day meeting certainly did not. The meeting was entirely live - there were no virtual attendees. Four members showed up, and, in a pleasant surprise, Alexandra Vizcarra Becerra attended. She is the young woman who successfully requested a Community Service grant to participate in an eye mission to Peru. She explained to us that the mission organizer requested that she take additional items in her luggage, which raised alarms with her. She withdrew from the mission, and returned the grant. She expressed her gratitude for our generosity, and has volunteered to assist us with upcoming children's vision screenings. President BECKY brought cookies in keeping with the spirit of the day.

While Tailtwister PHIL was not in attendance, he did send an update about our request to hold our meetings at the Dream Bank. In a change from the previous discussions with them, they are now saying that they won't schedule regular recurring meetings. So the search continues. If you have a suggestion, please pass it along.

We learned some sad news. MIKE has notified us that he wishes to transfer his membership to the Madison Monona Lioness Lions Club. We received a check from Sauer Vending, for gum balls. Apparently, the pandemic kept people from purchasing gum balls, because the check was considerably lower than in pre-Covid years. Still, it is a generous source of funding for Lion causes.

We briefly discussed the upcoming Holiday Party. As a reminder, it will be on March 14, at the Great Dane Hilldale, starting at 5:00. In order to match the amount of food to the number of attendees, please RSVP to SCOTT before the end of February (tick tock, tick tock). We are hoping to see a lot of Lions we've not seen in a while.

We turned our attention to the District Convention. If you are planning on attending, register soon. There are registration instructions on the District web site.The registration fee is $20. In addition to the other events, there will be a hands-on children's vision training and certification on March 10. There are limited seats available, so contact SCOTT if you are interested. Clubs have been requested to donate a prize for a Convention raffle. BECKY suggested that she purchase a suitable gift card from the Red Cross reward we received for sponsoring blood drives.

As announced before, there will be a club workshop and discussion about the recent Happy Lion survey report. It will be on March 5, at Festival Foods, from 1:00 until 5:00. This will provide us with an opportunity to discuss what's right with our club, and what's wrong. If you are concerned with our declining participation, you should attend.

Upcoming Events:
• March 5 - Happy Lion
• March 10, 11 - District Convention
• March 14 - Holiday Party