The Jungle Jargon

MEETING SCHEDULE

June, 2011

May 31 - Board of Directors Meeting - 7:30PM, Boy Scout Room (Town Hall)

June 1 - Student Awards Meeting - 7PM, Cranbury Station; Dinner: Sliced London Broil

Program: Wayne Wittman will speak to the Students on their future as students, volunteers and citizens.

June 17 - Charter Night & Installation of Officers - 7PM, Dolce & Clemente, Rte 33, Hamilton; Dinner: Buffet

Program: Installation of Officers and Presentation of Awards.

July, 2011

July 19 - Board of Directors Meeting - 7:30PM, Boy Scout Room (Town Hall)

July 20 - Regular Meetings - 7PM, Cranbury Station; Dinner: Maryland Crab Cakes

Program: Club Treasurer Dean Kohler will provide the results of the 2010-11 audit and review the 2011-12 budget, after which a vote will be taken on the new budget. An open discussion will ensue on the serious decline in donations, and how we might affect an increase.

August, 2011

August 16 - Board of Directors Meeting - 7:30PM, Boy Scout Room (Town Hall)

August 17 - Regular Meetings - 7PM, Cranbury Station; Dinner: Baby Back Ribs

Program: Mr. Harry Fini of LifeSaver Living Solutions, a company that deals with keeping seniors independent in their own homes, will discuss how such independence can be accommodated.

Congratulations to our 2011-2012 Cranbury Lions Officers & Board of Directors, and thank you for your service to our Club and Community!

Things To Know

PLEASE TAKE NOTE: Our Annual Golf Outing which was scheduled at the Peddie Golf Course for June 6, has been postponed, due to a lack of signed golfers. The new date is October 20.

Our 79^th Charter Night Dinner and Officer Installation, will be held (in lieu of the 2^nd Wednesday meeting) on Friday, June 17, at Dolce & Clemente restaurant on Rte 33, Hamilton. Cash bar cocktails hour at 7PM; dinner at 8PM. Please join us as we welcome our 2011-12 Board of Directors and congratulate our 2010-11 Melvin Jones Fellowship Recipients, and other awardees. Dinner will be (approximately) $35 per person; members will receive a credit from dues.

Student awards will be presented at our Student Affairs meeting on June 2. It is of some importance to note that the Student Award recipients were chosen on Monday, April 25^th. The recipient of the Todd Beamer Community Service Scholarship is Greg Carroll, based on his leadership qualities both at school and as an Eagle Scout, including his project of putting together the whole Helene Cody 5k Run. The Doc Tudor Scholarship and the Stan Thomas Citizenship Award will be posthumously presented to Emma Brunskill for her love of animal science and biology, her work with Seeing Eye Dogs, and her Peer Group Leadership. The Club will also be providing a quest Donation to Acting School Administrator Carol Malouf.

Lion Fay Kobland is the District Liaison to the Jamesburg School for Boys, but more importantly, she has been working as the Cranbury Lions Club liaison with the School Administration for over a year to work out the details in getting a new Leo Club started at the facility. Through her diligence and perseverance, Lion Fay has made the LEO Club a reality: the first meeting was held on April 12, and election of officers was completed by the end of April. Secretary Bob has sent in the completed LEO-51 Form to register the Club with LCI and has ordered the Club Banner which our Club, as sponsor, will donate to the Jamesburg Leo Club. [The town in which the banners are actually produced for LCI was one of the hard-hit areas during the recent tornadoes; due to a severe backlog, the banner may be delayed.] Lion Alex Johnson will lend Fay a hand as Co-Coordinator, but additional volunteers are welcome; if you can help out, please contact Lion Fay directly. The Jamesburg Leo Club will have their Charter Night Dinner and (formal) Installation of Officers, at the Jamesburg School for Boys, on Thursday, June 9; ALL Cranbury Lions, and spouses, are invited to attend the dinner to show support for the this new Leo Club; A sign-up sheet is circulating at meetings or you may contact Lion Fay or Secretary Bob with your RSVP.

Due to our Club's attendance at the Memorial Service for Lion Don Jo Swanagan on May 14, we were only able to field four delegates at the State Convention (at which both Don Jo and MaryEllen Larson were named during the Convention Memorial Service). In addition to voting on the state-wide Re-Districting Proposal - which passed by over 2/3 majority, and will be finalized starting with Lion Year 2014-15 - the delegates elected 1VDG Doug Reeder as Governor and 2VDG John Kobland as First Vice District Governor.

The "ownership" of the Cranbury School Drug Free Fair has passed this year from the school to the Cranbury Municipal Alliance, and they have instituted a change. The fair was on Saturday, May 21, from 3-6PM, and the Club would like to thank Lion Alex Johnson and his crew for staffing the event and continuing to give the Cranbury Lions Club a presences at this school event.

May 30^th marked our 53^rd Annual Memorial Day Parade and 61^st Spring Raffle. A beautiful day for a parade (if a 'tad' warm), and as well organized as ever! A laurel and hardy handshake to Lions Dave Cook and Andre Mento and their dedicated crew of volunteers for making the event look easy. The Post Parade Memorial Service - our 78^th - was equally well done and nicely attended by Cranbury residents. There was a new twist this year: LTC Rob Smithers, ASAR arranged for a full dress military Color Guard (for the parade) and the awarding of a posthumous Purple Heart to a Cranbury Resident and WWII veteran, presented to the family. A quick 'ATTABOY' to PDG Bob for putting the Memorial Service again this year. Thanks go to Jerry Yochelson for his coordination of the Scout Band and the Memorial Flag Ceremony, including the Scout Color Guard, which, this year included Boy Scouts Clay Kaiser and Sam Harshbarger and Girls Scouts Kathryn DeMilt and Katie Stewart; The Scout Bugler was Christopher Gittings. We would also like to thank Cheryl Schroeder Blackburn for once again leading us with her rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. The winner of the Parade Float Contest was the Cranbury Historical Preservation Society, and the winners of the Decorated Bike/Trike/Wagon Contest were Melissa Le Donne (1^st place) and Serena Hu (2^nd place). Unfortunately, our 50/50 Spring Raffle ticket sales were 123 less than last year, and consequently we only netted $3,165 in donations. In any event, the Board of Directors would like to thank all those who participated in selling tickets, but especially Lion Mahlon Thompson, who ran his "Ad Hoc" Sales team outside Teddy's for two weekends, selling over 200 tickets. Finally, the winners of the Spring Raffle were Glenn Johnson (1^st), Andre Caldini (2^nd), and Jen Boutureive (3^rd).

The Club is planning a new fundraiser, which we hope will be as fun as it can be lucrative - a Rubber Ducky Duck Race. A committee chaired by Lion Jon Goldstein is currently working on the details, the first of which will be the Township's permission to run the ducks over the dam/spillway from the lake. If all goes well, we hope to start selling ducks in May, and have the 'race' on Cranbury Day. Details for this event will follow, after we have the necessary approvals.

Our Annual Super 50/50 at the Trenton Thunder game will be on Saturday, July 2, 2011 (Thunder v. Altoona Curve - AA affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates). As always we need at least six (6) volunteers, but the more we have, the better our sales will be. Anyone over 18 can sell tickets and does not need to be a Club Member. And besides, what better way to spend a portion of the 4^th of July weekend than at a baseball game! A sign-up sheet is circulating or call PDG Bob, directly.

The Township will be holding their Annual 5^th of July Fireworks Display, and the Board of Directors has agreed to place our ice cream cart in the park, from which we will sell ice cream and baseball tickets. Any member who can volunteer for an hour or few should sign-up on the sheet being circulated at meetings or contact Lion Christine Thompson, directly.

Our 3^rd Annual Gil & Bert's Ice Cream Fundraiser will take place on July 9; volunteers may sign up using the sheet circulating at meetings, or by contact Lion Jon Goldstein, directly.

The Annual Club Picnic will be held on July 30, 2011; it is tentatively scheduled to be held at the home of Lion Dean & Ellen Koehler's home.

Habitat for Humanity will be doing another build this summer, and the Board of Directors has voted to keep this as a Club Service Project; attending members provided an affirmative vote at the February 2 meeting. As soon as we have more information concerning the build, a sign-up sheet will be circulated.

VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE!

At this time, ticket sales for our Annual Trenton Thunder Baseball Game have not been very brisk. Fellow Lions, this fun event is open to ALL Lions and ALL Cranbury residents, and ALL Cranbury Merchants, as well as their friends and family, and we need your help to sell all 125 tickets. At $10 per ticket ($1 cheaper than the printed value), these tickets are a good deal and a great - and affordable - family outing! It is not too early to start selling these tickets, and "get a leg up" on our guaranteed commitment. Contact Secretary Bob for tickets. Thanks for your participation and help.

The date for our Annual Trenton Thunder Baseball Outing is Saturday, August 20, 2011; Thunder v. Bowie Baysox, the AA affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles.

We'd like to remind all members to PLEASE, share the Jargon with your Spouse, so that our events may be better scheduled on your personal or family calendars for better attendance and participation. Please Note that Spouses are not only invited to attend all meetings, but to become Members under the Family Membership Initiative. In any event, Spouses are wholly encouraged to attend our quarterly "Spouse Night" meetings.

Membership - Membership - Membership

We always need new members who will help to raise the charitable funds which we need to complete our mission, and to help "broaden" our charitable collection base. But we are about to face a new problem…

Our Administrative Budget is becoming increasingly tight, and our Administrative "back-up fund" has become alarmingly low. Ladies and Gentlemen…Fellow Lions, WE ARE IN NEED OF NEW MEMBERSHIP, and while all are welcome, we need some "youth" so that we won't face the ever continuing possibility of becoming "an old persons' club".

As we've said so often, membership is the key to our survival! New members will rejuvenate existing members and help to keep us ALL young-at-heart, active, and viable! President Dave is asking ALL members to assist Membership Chair Jon Goldstein in attracting and bringing in new members.

Some of our members have said that the reason it took so long to become Lions was that no one asked! Ask your friends and neighbors if they would like to give a little of their time to serve and to give back to the community, while having a good time doing it with new friends. If every one of our 60 members asked just one person to join and only 25% of those people joined this year, we would increase our membership by 15 people! To get information about membership options or to obtain membership applications contact Membership Chair Jon, Secretary PDG Bob, or President Dave. In any event, we cannot complete our Mission without a Membership Pool so we MUST maintain a proactive campaign to bring in new Members and keep our Lions Club from being Cranbury's "best kept secret"…or worse.

...And Attendance...

President Dave is asking EVERY Cranbury Lion to provide suggestions on how we might be able to make the meetings more appealing to a broader range of the membership, in an effort to build a stronger Cranbury Lions Club. Since attendance is such a problem, there must be a reason or reasons; please provide your suggestions to President Dave directly. We can't fix it until we know what's broken!

Reminders

The Club requires that all Members wear a Lion Vest, Shirt or Hat when we are at a fundraiser or Service Project. If you do not have one of these items, please contact Club Secretary Bob to obtain one. These items are at "cost" to our members. Vests @$40 (S-M-L) or $45 (XL, 2X); larger size vests (to 6X) are available as a special order; hats are $12. Ladies Cut for vests are available, same pricing. We also have a couple of "T-Shirts" left (large), $10 each.

Members can access the Club Directory on-line with the required logon and password. Members without internet capability may contact Lion Phyllis Johnson for a hard copy of the Directory.

One of the most difficult jobs in our Club is the Program Chair, and the ability to get speakers for our meetings. Lion Tamer Frank Marlowe is our Speaker Chair and would be most appreciative of any and all speaker leads he is given. Do you know of an interesting speaker? You may be an interesting speaker! Please contact Lion Frank with any and all suggestions for speakers at our meetings.

Any member who learns of the sickness or death of another member, or in a member's family, or any other similar incident or emergency, should contact Lions Frank Marlowe (Chair, H&W) and/or Christine Johnson ("phone tree"), and/or Bob Virgadamo (e-mail notifications) so that all members may be notified as soon as possible.

Member Pick-Up

The Club will arrange a ride for any member who is unable to drive to the meeting(s); Lion George Smith has volunteered to be the "permanent" pick-up driver for Lion Ed Lawson (Lion Frank Marlowe is the back-up driver). If a Member needs a ride, please contact President Dave or Secretary Bob to arrange for a pick-up. Drivers: if you cannot make your pick-up, please notify President Dave as soon as possible. Riders: please notify the assigned driver if you cannot make a meeting.