January Cabinet Meeting
Region 3 Zone 3 Report

The second Zone Meeting for Region 3 Zone 3 was hosted by the Verona Lions and held at Grey's Tied House in Verona on October 27, 2014. All four zone clubs were in attendance as well as 2nd VDG Eric Holthaus and WLF Director John Dickson. The information presented at the Cabinet meeting was presented in handout form with several items highlighted, including the Centennial Challenge, Awards and Recognition and Leadership Opportunities. Each club took a few minutes to update the other clubs on their activities, projects and upcoming events. The remainder of the time was spent on the training topic “Providing Community Service.” The outline for the topic had been sent to all zone members prior to the meeting. The topic was presented briefly and then opened for discussion by the attendees with clubs sharing their ideas. The end of the discussion led us to the topic of social media. Verona uses Facebook and Twitter as a way to keep members informed and attract new members. Being impressed with Verona's use of Social Media, Lion John Dickson and I both asked Verona Lion Brian McKay to do a presentation at District Convention.

During September and October, I conducted an audit of the Fitchburg Lions Activity and Administrative accounts. Since an audit has not been done on a regular basis, I urged them to have one done each year as a way to catch any errors before they are too distant to clarify and correct. I met with President Janice, Secretary Tom and Treasurer Roger to go over the audit results and gave them recommendations to keep their accounts up to date and balanced. Fitchburg held a fundraiser for their Reach Out and Read project at the Epelgarden Orchard in October and had a great article published in the Fitchburg Star (Copy Attached). They added a new member in October.

I visited Oregon-Brooklyn on December 2nd. It is more difficult to visit them as they changed their meeting night to the first Tuesday, which is the same night of my club meeting. I have to be more selective on missing my own club meeting since I am club secretary as well. Oregon/Brooklyn had a presentation on ALERT at their meeting from PDG Daryl Porter and Lion Ed Proctor. They also inducted a new member at the meeting. They welcomed a new member in November as well and have 2 more possible members coming in January. New president Mark Evert did a nice job running the meeting and members were engaged in the meeting discussions. They are in the midst of their annual nut sale fundraiser and had just finished with their Thanksgiving Basket project and are continuing with their Christmas Baskets. They also have a Pancake Breakfast coming up in February.

McFarland held their semi-annual Food Drive for the Food Pantry in September, participated in the McFarland Family Festival with an information/preparedness booth, marching in the parade and passing out carrot packets to the children and directing traffic for the parade and served the community meal at the McFarland Shared Table. They did two vision screenings dates at the elementary schools, screening about 80 children. They decorated the Gazebo in town center for the holidays and are currently Ringing Bells for the Salvation Army during the holidays and preparing to host District Bowling in January.

Verona finished up another successful year doing Brat Sales at the Show Box in Black Earth, raising funds for several of their projects. They held both an Adult Vision Screening and Children's Vison Screening during October. They just completed their 3rd annual Breakfast with Santa on December 6th and was a huge success with their biggest crowd. They also did vision screening during the event.

All clubs seem to be doing well as each have found niches in their communities. McFarland, Oregon/Brooklyn and Verona all have good attendance at their meetings and have good leadership from their officers and members.

Fitchburg had less than half their members attend both times I was there. This is this only problem I have seen in my visits and will continue to monitor their attendance. They have good officers and core members, so hopefully they will be able to increase their meeting attendance. Other than limited attendance, they are doing well with projects and fundraisers.

The next Zone Meeting will be held at Benvenuto's Italian Restaurant in Fitchburg on Wednesday, January 28, 2015, with Social starting at 6pm.

Lion Bruce Voight
Zone Chair R3Z3

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