Jungle Jargon

A Monthly Broadcast to

THE LIONS CLUB OF CRANBURY, NEW JERSEY

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	Mike Kaiser	Directors – 1 year	Walt Caldwell
1^st Vice President	Andre Mento		Jon Goldstein
2^nd Vice President	John Kobland		Tom Reilly
3^rd Vice President	Dave Cook		Peter Turner
Secretary	George Smith
Treasurer – Operating/Projects	Glenn Johnson	Directors – 2 Years	Ray Dickey
Assistant Treasurer - Projects	Elaine Homoky		Pat Meehan
			Dave Shaffer
Immediate Past President	Rick Burke		Bob Virgadamo
Information Technology Chairman	Dave Shaffer	Publicity Chairman	Rick Burke
Lion Tamer	Frank Marlowe	Jargon Editor	Bob Virgadamo
Tail Twister	Peter Turner
Membership Chairman	Jon Goldstein

May, 2008

May 6 – Board of Directors Meeting – 7:00PM, Tom Gambino Library Room

May 7 – Regular Meeting – 7PM, Cranbury Station; Dinner: London Broil

Speaker: George Arpagian – who will talk about living and functioning with a severe hearing impairment, and will explain and demonstrate how an implanted hearing aid works. He will also bring his hearing guide dog.

May 21 – Breakfast Meeting – 7:30AM, Teddy’s Restaurant; Breakfast: From the menu

Speaker: Semi-Social meeting; general discussion.

June, 2008

June 3 – Board of Directors Meeting – 7:00PM, Tom Gambino Library Room

June 4 – Regular Meeting – 7PM, Cranbury Station; Dinner: Chicken Portobello

Speaker: State Senator, the Hon. Bill Baroni

June 18 – Regular meeting – 7PM, Cranbury Station; Dinner: Beef Stroganoff

Program: Installation of Officers

Welcome …

… To our newest Lions – Doug Diamond, John Gartner, and John Haney, the Cranbury School’s Chief Administrator.

Congratulations!

For his unselfish commitment of Service to the Community, by unanimous vote of the LOTY Committee, the Cranbury Lions Club Lion of the Year is Jeff Grundy. Way to go, Jeff!

But, congratulations also go to the Club’s newest Melvin Jones Fellowes – Jeff Grundy, Jon Goldstein, and Elaine Homoky. And, bringing the Club’s total Progressive Melvin Jones Fellowes to three: Lion Ed Lawson and DG Bob Virgadamo. Congratulations to all for your unwavering service in the spirit of Lionism!

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 not only to attend the meetings, but to become Members under the Family Membership Initiative. In any event, Spouses are wholly encouraged to attend “Spouse Night” meetings.

Mark you Calendars: We will be bottling the wine from the Club Wine Project at the Grape Escape at our first meeting in September 3.

We still need to develop a label for our wine bottles. The Board of Directors has approved a Wine Label Contest, and the winner will receive a prize, undetermined at this time. The label should depict a relationship to Lions (or lions), and must incorporate the official Lions Logo. The artwork and/or wine name may be serious or humorous in nature. Although the contest will only be mentioned at the meetings and in the Jargon, it is open to all Lions, family members and friends. Judging will take place at the end of June. If anyone is still interested in splitting a case, please speak with President Mike.

Due to a lack of volunteers, the LCI Extension Team will not be visiting New Jersey before the end of this Lion Year, as planned by District Governor Bob and District Governor-Elect Tony; but plans are still in effect to bring the Extension Team to NJ during the Summer or Autumn. However, since we already have our volunteers from Cranbury, we should follow through on our commitment and plan to sponsor a new Club in Plainsboro. To accomplish this, we need a few committed Lions to contact local businesses, local government employees, and perhaps run a membership drive in one (or all) of the shopping plazas to gather local residents as members. This would not be unprecedented; the Cranbury Lions sponsored the Hightstown Club, as well as the (now defunct) Hamilton, Jamesburg, and (former) Plainsboro Clubs. There’s no doubt that this will be a large undertaking, but the satisfaction obtained at the other end will make every Cranbury Lion proud! Interested Lions should contact President Mike or Governor Bob ASAP.

Lion Neile Wright, one of our newest Members, has taken on the job of Advertising Chair and has already streamlined the existing program through a letter campaign; Lion Neile has already collected over $1000 and brought in a few new advertisers. A laurel, and hardy handshake to Lion Neile for her outstanding contribution!

It has been recommended that a member of the Club be totally familiar with the Lions Clubs International Insurance Policy, which covers us under its umbrella, and be available to inspect our event sites and complete a form as it may apply to any particular event or fundraiser, as the new Club “Safety Officer”. Anyone interested in this position should contact President Mike.

The Student Affairs Committee received a number of applications for our two scholarship awards and our Community Service Award, and after some very tough deliberations reviewing some amazing applicants, came up with the winners of these awards:

The Todd Beamer Scholarship will be awarded to Sarah Gordon

The Dr. David Tudor Science Scholarship will be awarded to Thomas Hellstern

The Stan Thomas Community Service Award will be presented to Sarah Gordon.

The annual Joint Zone Meeting was held at the East Brunswick Chateau on April 16. As has been done in the past, this was also our Lion of the Year Dinner and Presentation of Melvin Jones Awards. We had a good turnout, and many Spouses attended. As indicated above, Lion Jeff Grundy was awarded the honor of Lion of the Year, and the prestigious Melvin Jones Award was presented to Lions Jon Goldstein, Jeff Grundy, and DG Bob Virgadamo; this is Governor Bob’s first Progressive Award. A couple of other awards were to be presented, but the Lions were unfortunately unable to attend the LOTY Dinner; Lions Elaine Homoky and Ed Lawson were presented with their Melvin Jones Awards at our May 7^th meeting; this is Lion Ed’s first Progressive Award. [This makes a total of three Progressive Awards in the Cranbury Club; the first was Nick Altieri, awarded in 1994.]

Governor Bob made his Governor’s Visitation Presentation at the R4Z1 Zone Meeting and Lion of the Year Dinner. He discussed International President Amasuriya’s Initiative, “The Challenge to Change”, and how we (the Clubs) can help create positive change by redoubling our efforts of participation – not only at the Club level, but at the District and State levels; by changing our meeting structures, and fundraising and Public Relations methods; and, by actively pursuing new members…not just in our Club, but via extension in our local areas (new clubs). By and large, to quote one of our members who attended, “… it was an interesting and enlightening presentation.”

The Multiple District 16 State Convention was held from May 1-3. Under the “Challenge to Change” initiative, there were numerous positive changes made to the Convention for the benefit of the Delegates, non-voting Lions, and spouses; the business portion of the convention was fairly interesting. For an outline of the weekend, see the attachment about the convention at the end of the Jargon.

The 10^th Annual Cranbury Lions Golf Classic will be on Monday, May 12 at the Peddie School. The Shotgun Format will begin after lunch; at the end of the day, prizes will be awarded at the golf dinner; there will be an open bar at dinner (all included in the price of play). Lion Ray Dickey and his Golf Committee have done a phenomenal job of organizing and restructuring the Outing. We think you’ll have a great time. Non-Golfers are invited to attend the dinner after play is through; around 5PM, $30 per person. There is a sign-up sheet going around at the meeting, or contact Lion Ray if you plan to attend. Oh, by the way…we could use a few more players. An application to play has been attached at the back of the Jargon.

Spring Raffle Tickets have been mailed out to all Club Members. All the tickets sent to you must be sold, but we ask that you please make every effort to sell as many tickets as you can.

And of course, The Memorial Day Parade and Post Parade Ceremonies are coming up! 3^rd Vice President Dave Cook will reprise his role as Parade Chair and he needs some help. As usual, we need traffic assistance, strolling Super 50/50 Sellers, and help with the float. A sign-up sheet is being circulated at the meetings, but, if you can’t make the meeting, please call Lion Dave and offer to help.

The Cranbury Lions have been asked to participate in a Town Picnic Event in conjunction with the First Aid Company, the Fire Company, and the Police Department. This is an excellent opportunity for the public to learn about what we do, and perhaps to gather a few new members. It will be held from 11 AM to 3 PM on June 7, 2008 in Village Park. This will be a BIG event in Cranbury and we are going to need quite a few volunteers – think “Pancake Breakfast” and “Cranbury Day” big. In addition to members manning the Lions table and the ice cream cart, we need one member to help form at least 12-15 teams (Per Team: 1 Lion, 1 Cop, 1 Fireman, 1 First Aider). Please don’t forget why you joined the Lions…to help serve the Community; and this, Cranbury Day and the Pancake Breakfast, is as close as it gets. There is a sign-up sheet going around at the meeting, or contact Lion Andre Mento to offer assistance.

Every June for the first twenty-five years or so of our Club’s existence, we had a “Charter Night Dinner Dance” (always formal and always at the Forsgate Country Club); in the early 50’s, the dinner dance was moved to April and re-named the “Spring Fling”; during this time it was still formal, but at a number of different venues. By the late 1990’s the “Spring Fling” had slowly crept back into mid-June, and was re-named the “Installation Dinner Dance”. Now, with both hindsight and foresight – and a little knowledge of what nearly every other Club does – the Board of Directors has voted to re-name the event, going back to our roots. Unfortunately, due to lack of interest, there will be no Charter Night Dinner Dance this year; the Installation of Officers will take place at a regular meeting, on June 18.

Baseball Season is Upon Us! Our Trenton Thunder Super 50/50 will be held at Riverside Stadium at the Trenton Thunder v. Reading Phillies game on Friday, June 6. We need a MINIMUM of six volunteers to sell tickets, but the more volunteers we have the more tickets we can sell. This is a great fundraiser for us, and all we have to do is walk around while watching a baseball game – how good can it get? Tickets can be sold by anyone over the age of 18, bring your spouse…bring you older children…bring your next door neighbor and/or his the kid, but they must wear a hat or vest (we have extras). Entrance into the Park is free and the Club will buy each ticket seller a hot dog and a beverage.

And, mark your calendars…Our Annual Trenton Thunder Baseball Outing is scheduled for Saturday, August 23. The came starts at 7:05PM, and coincidentally, is Thunder v. Reading Phillies! Tickets are $10 each and are for sale to all Lions, their family and friends – and any Cranbury resident. Tickets are available now. For Tickets call DG Bob or any Cranbury Lion.

Membership – Membership – Membership

This year’s theme is “the Challenge to Change”, and, through change, we can increase our Membership while rejuvenating existing members to help to keep the Club young, active, and viable! Cranbury Lions Club President Mike has adopted this theme, and is asking ALL members to assist Membership Chair Jon Goldstein in attracting and bringing in new members. With so many new homes in Cranbury, there are many opportunities for new members. To get information about membership options (Family membership, etc) or to obtain membership applications contact Membership Chair Jon, Secretary George Smith, or President Mike. In any event, we MUST begin a proactive campaign to bring in new Members! Let’s try to keep our Lions Club from being Cranbury’s “best kept secret”.

…And Attendance…

Using the tag-line, “If you build it, they will come”, President Mike is asking EVERY Cranbury Lion to provide suggestions on how we might be able to CHANGE the meetings to appeal to broader range of the membership, in an effort to build a stronger Cranbury Lions Club. Please provide your suggestions to him directly.

Reminders

Do you know of an interesting speaker? You may be an interesting speaker! Please advise Program Chair Frank Marlowe 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 Dave Cook (“phone tree”), and/or Bob Virgadamo (e-mail notifications) so that all members may be notified as soon as possible.

Member Pick-Up – Ed Lawson (5 S. Main)

Lion George Smith has volunteered be the “permanent” pick up driver for Lion Ed; Lion Frank Marlowe has volunteered to be the “permanent” back-up driver. Drivers: if you cannot make your pick-up, please notify President Mike as soon as possible. Riders: please notify the assigned driver if you cannot make a meeting.