Jungle Jargon
A Monthly Broadcast to
THE
LIONS CLUB OF CRANBURY, NEW
Contact us at: http://cranburylions.org
“A Country Club Trying to Serve Its Country”
|
Ideals in
Government |
Mutual
Helpfulness |
||
|
Social Progress |
Understanding |
Civic Betterment
|
Fellowship |
|
President |
Rick Burke |
|
Directors – 1 year |
Frank Brennan, Jr. |
|
1st Vice
President |
Mike Kaiser |
|
|
Dave Cook |
|
2nd Vice
President |
Andre Mento |
|
|
Ray Dickey |
|
3rd Vice
President |
John Kobland |
|
|
Jeff Grundy |
|
Secretary |
George Smith |
|
|
|
|
Treasurer – Operating/Projects |
Glenn Johnson |
|
Directors – 2 Years |
Walt Caldwell |
|
Assistant Treasurer - Projects |
Elaine Homoky |
|
|
Jon Goldstein |
|
|
|
|
|
Tom Reilly |
|
Immediate Past President |
Alex Johnson |
|
|
Peter Turner |
|
Information Technology
Chairman |
Dave Shaffer |
|
Publicity |
|
|
Lion Tamer |
Paul Hayden |
|
Jargon Editor |
Bob Virgadamo |
|
Tail Twister |
|
|
|
|
|
Membership Chairman |
Mike Kaiser |
|
|
|
May, 2007
May 1 – Board of Directors Meeting –
May 2 – Regular
Meeting –
Speaker: David Mercaldo, the author of "Seamstress";
this will his second appearance at our Club. His first appearance was about his
earlier book, “Ferry”.
May 16 – Regular Meeting –
Speaker:
Prof
June, 2007
June 5 – Board of Directors Meeting –
June 6 – Regular
Meeting – Annual Student Affairs meeting –
In lieu of Speaker: Presentation
of Student Awards; Presentation of plaque to
June 23 – 75th Anniversary Celebration –
Celebration of Service –
Formal Passing of Gavel – Speakers include: President
Congratulations!
On April 25th we held our Annual Joint Zone
Meeting at which we awarded the Cranbury Lions Lion of the Year Award. This year’s honoree was
… About the 75th Celebration…
A letter has been sent to all Clubs in the District as well as to many dignitaries throughout the state requesting ads and or ticket sales. Not only are we anticipating these sales, we expect booster sheets ($5 per name, per line in the Ad Journal) from a number of Clubs. All Cranbury Lions are asked to contact President Rick to add their names to the Cranbury Booster Sheet; the $5 can be billed with your dues.
A plea to ALL MEMBERS: YOU are the Cranbury Lions Club; it is your Club – our Club – we are all here, together, so it would be more than appropriate for ALL Members to help, even in the slightest way, with the planning, execution, and especially the fundraising, of and for the biggest event in our History. We are asking every Member to attempt to obtain either an ad for the Journal or a low, middle or high ticket item for the Silent Auction. All donated items are appreciated; “smaller” items will be grouped as “baskets” (for example, two bottles of wine with a corkscrew and 2 glasses). Please do your part to make this not just the biggest event in our history, but the most successful.
A Note from the District Governor, Elect
As all Cranbury Lions are probably aware, I will be
(formally) nominated and elected to the position of District Governor of New
Jersey District 16-D at the State Convention on Saturday, May 19, 2007. My Term
of Office will begin at the International Convention in
Slate of Officers – 2007-08
The first reading of the Slate of Officers for the 2007-08
Lion Year was read at the meeting held on
Things To Know
Even though we have begun sending a revised “Calendar of Events” with each dues mailing, 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. Please Note that Spouses are invited to attend all meetings, but are wholly encouraged to attend “Spouse Night” meetings.
White Cane Days have
been postponed and will be rescheduled in the Autumn; the new date will be
announced at meetings, in e-mail and in the Jargon.
The Annual Spring
Raffle Super 50/50 tickets have been mailed out to every member. All proceeds
and any unsold tickets should be returned to Lion Mike Kaiser at
The State Convention,
which will be held at the
The Hightstown Lions
Club 70th Anniversary was held at Theo’s Lakeside Tavern on
April 28; five Cranbury Lions and their spouses were able to attend, and a good
time was had by all – especially President Rick who managed to win an item or
two in the raffles. The Board would like to thank everyone who was able to
attend.
The Barn Project…After
more than four years, we have finally come to an agreement with the Town and
have possession of the two of the Historic Updike Barns (the rearmost ‘potato
barn’ is not part of the agreement). We will now begin the process of restoring
these barns, and although we will retain the use of the Carriage House for
storage of all our equipment and paraphernalia, we will be able to return the
restored barns to the Town as a service project. VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED for a
clean-up detail (clean-up ONLY!) on Cranbury Clean-Up Weekend (Saturday, May
5). Contact Lions Mike Kaiser or Bob V to go on the Clean-Up Volunteer List and
to get additional information.
For the General Information of the Club, here is the tentative schedule for the restoration, so far:
·
roofing repairs are schedule to be made during
the week of May 7, but the metal roofing will be installed ASAP, and may
already be installed by the time this issue is distributed.
·
Saturday5/5/07 - volunteers are needed to
"clean out" the building. This is not construction
related work, but simple removal of ancient artifacts, etc. Two trucks will
be available to transport the trash to the public works yard in town. Sat
is the first of two Spring Cleanup days. Volunteers should be able to
load items into a truck and assist in transferring them from truck to dumpsters
at the
·
In the following weeks, the floor will be dug
out to accommodate a new gravel base with concrete floor. At that time, we
can use volunteers to help with some shovel work, if possible.
·
Some time in May a carpenter will make repairs
to the doors, etc. as needed, and install locks.
·
Hopefully, by the end of May we will be able to
bring in a concrete contractor to pour the floor and finish trowel it.
By early June we should be ready to use the building, and
throughout the summer, will be asking everyone who has been storing Club
materials to bring them to the Carriage House. If you have materials, please
contact Lion Bob, so the necessary “space” arrangements can be configured.
Please do not bring the material to Lion Bob or the Carriage House until asked.
Thank you.
The 9th
Annual Golf Outing will be held at the Peddie Golf Club on
The Drug Free Fair
will be on May 19, and, as usual we will have a sponge toss game; We will need
a few volunteers on the day to assist with the game and giving out prizes;
available volunteers should contact Lion Jeff Grundy; a sign-up will begin
circulating at the May meetings
Once again, the Club will host and produce the Memorial Day Parade; Lions
We had a very nice turnout for our Student Awards this year. This year’s applicants were all so closely qualified (in almost every area) that it was quite difficult making a final selection, however, all the candidates have been reviewed and recipients of the Student Awards have been chosen. Unfortunately, this edition will hit before the candidates themselves receive their acceptance letters, so awardees will be publicly announced at the second meeting later in May, and the Awards will be given to the Students at the meeting on June 6.
We managed, once again, to get a spot in the schedule and
will have our Annual
Lion Joe and Suzanne Carroll will host the Annual Club Picnic at their home again
this year; anyone who has attended this event in the past knows what marvelous
hosts the Carrolls are and what a great time is had at the picnic. The picnic
is open to all Members and their families, as well as any potential members
(and families). The Cranbury Lions Club Picnic will be on Saturday, July 21, at
…More about the 75th Anniversary…
It would appear that we have an excellent Membership attendance commitment of about 90% of the Club, however, we have only received payment for the tickets from about 70%. Please send your payment in ASAP, and let us know if you have table preferences; at this time, only full tables may be reserved, although we will TRY to reserve tables where there are at least six people who would like to sit together.
Tables are being set for 8, 10, and 12, and ticket requests
are staring to come in – do you have
your table yet? If you need extra tickets, see Lions Walt Caldwell,
Dinner Choices MUST be made before the event; we are required to provide numbers to Forsgate for planning purposes. Dinner Choices are: Prime Rib, Roast Stuffed Boneless Chicken Breast (w/Pecan Crusted Stuffing & Apricot Glaze), or Broiled Salmon. An e-mail will go out shortly asking for your dinner choices. Anyone with out e-mail capability should PLEASE contact Lion Bob V or Lion Andre to provide your Dinner choice and/or seating arrangements.
Any Lion (or Spouse) who wishes to assist on any committee should
contact either Lion
Fundraising efforts
are underway through the Promotions and Ad Journal Committees by trying to
obtain both goods and services for a Silent Auction (at the Celebration) and
cash donations (as Journal Ads)…but they need the help of every member. Remember
that the cost of the ticket is the cost of the event – we make NO money on the ticket; all FUNdraising will be via
the Ad Journal, the Silent Auction, and the evening’s 50/50. ALL CRANBURY LIONS
are asked to PLEASE do what YOU
can to procure goods or services for the Silent Auction, and ads for the Journal.
Membership – Membership – Membership
As
always we are looking for new members. New Members help to keep the Club young,
active, and viable! This year’s theme from International President Jimmy Ross
is ‘Renewal’, and President Rick has adopted this theme. With so many new homes
in Cranbury, there are many opportunities for new members. Additionally, there
is a new Initiative from LCI called “Family
Membership”. For more information about Family Membership, or membership in
general, or to obtain membership applications contact Membership Chair
…And Attendance…
On the flip side of the membership coin, we also seem to be
having a problem with attendance. Over the last couple of years meeting
attendance has diminished from an average of 45+ members per meeting to an
average of plus or minus 25 members, per meeting. Our core volunteers have
always come from sign-ups at the meetings, and with meeting attendance down,
so are the number of volunteers. While we would love to see “a
packed house” at every meeting, it is understandable that many of our Members can’t
make every meeting due to the demands and obligations to their jobs and
families, however, the Board of Directors is asking every member to try to
attend at least one meeting per month.
Reminders
Frank Marlowe has been our Program Chair for a few years now, and has done quite an excellent job lining up speakers for each of our meetings. You can all imagine how difficult it can be, finding 20 speakers per year that will be of relative interest to all our Members! We all come in contact with someone interesting on a regular basis. When you do, or if you have any suggestions for speakers, please give Lion Frank a call, or e-mail him at marlowe@cranburynj.com .
The Cranbury Lions Club is always in search of additional new fund raisers – different, entertaining, and most importantly, fun. Any member who has a FUNdraising idea should share the idea with President Rick, or bring it up at one of the meetings. The list of potential fundraisers, and the input from interested Lions, will be discussed at a Board of Directors meeting, and presented to the general membership at a regular meeting.
While it is important that we increase our fundraising
capability, it is equally important that we do it without continually
requesting donations from our small community on a too frequent basis. With
over 300 commercial locations in our immediate area, the website is one of the
easiest and best fundraisers we have. We ask every Member to please try to bring in at least one new advertiser per year.
Refer all advertising leads to Lions John Kobland,
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 Lion
Member Pick-Up
Lion
Lion Frank Marlowe
has volunteered to be the “permanent” back-up driver.
Drivers: if you cannot make your pick-up, or need to switch, please notify Lion Rick Cusworth (655-2426) as soon as possible. Riders: please notify the assigned driver if you’re not going to make a meeting.