Gathering Together and Announcements: Our “Third Thursday of the Month at 12’noon” Club meeting was held at “Fat Daddy’s Catfish House”. As members assembled, various notes were reviewed & some announcements were made:

The Benton Lions Club is having a drawing to Win 4 Razorback Basketball tickets plus $100.00. It is for a home-game, against Kentucky, in Fayetteville on February 14^th. Tickets go for $7 each or two for $10. Drawing will be January 23^rd. Contact Lion Tom Spann at 1-870-672-2766 for more information.

“Lion Leader Weekend”, at Mid-South Lions Sight & Hearing Service, will take place on April 24^th-25^th in Memphis. This is a wonderful experience & any member is eligible to attend. Go see for yourself how they are able to perform “A Miracle A Day”. For more information on making a reservation, contact Lion Matt.

The Arkansas Lions State Convention is scheduled for May 22^nd & 23^rd and will be held in Hot Springs, AR. Featured speaker will be International Director Harold Ott from Pennsylvania. Registration forms will be forthcoming.

The “USA/Canada Lions Leadership Forum” will be held in Memphis this year. It is scheduled for September 24^th-26^th. We should have a large number of our Club members attend this valuable learning opportunity. Please make the decision to go & meet other Lions from around the world! For more information, contact Past District Governor Wanda Barnett or Lion Matt.

Call To Order: In President Jeff & V.P. Sara’s absence, Secretary Matt rang the bell & called the Club meeting to order at 12:20pm. Lion Jackie led us in the U.S. Flag’ Pledge of Allegiance & Lion Rick gave the opening prayer.

Tail-Twister: Lion Jackie passed out a “What Do You Know?” sheet (see attached) to those present, with multiple chances not-to-be-fined. We had great fun attempting to answer the questions, but in the end the Tail-Twister had the last laugh. Lion Jackie collected the customary fine of 50 cent (or more) from each member. (CLOSED)

Member Birthdays: We loudly sang “Happy Birthday” to Lion Shelly, who will celebrate privately on January 27^th.

Program: Lion Matt introduced Stephanie Jones from the Cabot Junior Auxiliary, as well as Karen Knight & Penny Antimo. In addition to explaining what J.A. is all about, they came to visit with us concerning their group taking over the Cabot Strawberry Festival, which is scheduled for April 17^th & 18^th. In an effort to make the event bigger & better, the J.A. is planning some changes for the festival. Included in these changes is how they plan to make it more profitable for everyone involved. Part of this involves changing from taking a percentage from the vendors & dealing with “strawberry bucks”. Instead, they will be charging a flat booth fee ($50 to non-profits, $100 to for-profit vendors and $125 to anyone wishing to have an indoor booth, with electricity). Vendors will set their own fees & prices and deal strictly with cash at their own booths. Stephanie stated that booth spaces would be measured on a 10’ x 10’ basis. With that, she had calculated that the Lions Club’ KIDZ ZONE would comprise approximately 28 booth spaces. Knowing that this was not a viable cost-consideration for our Club ($1400), the J.A. proposed a charge of $350. Again, we would then be able to set the entrance fee into the zone area & collect all monies. Stephanie then went on to say that the Junior Auxiliary is already developing a promotional campaign for Strawberry Festival, including signage & advertisements. Carnival attractions will be set-up for Friday night & all day Saturday. Local talent will be recruited to provide entertainment for Friday night & all day Saturday. The Miss Strawberry Festival Pageant will be held Saturday 9am-3pm. The J.A. ladies thanked us for allowing them to come & share. President Jeff then stated that he would like the informal committee, who will plan our KIDZ ZONE activities, to meet as soon as possible. He said that he would contact Lion Kelly to see about a convenient date. An e-mail notification will be sent to the entire membership. All are welcome to attend.

Club Meeting Locations & January Dates: Upon President Jeff’s arrival, he asked for feedback on Fat Daddy’s location, food & service. Everyone seemed pleased & gave positive comments. Concerned about confusion, both by active members & possibly by the general-public, discussion ensued over prolonging our “temp status” at this particular location. Motion & Second was made to extend our meeting schedule at Fat Daddy’s Restaurant for the First Quarter of 2009 (January thru March). This would alter the original proposal of holding Club meetings at Fat Daddy’s in January and then Los Lomas Mexican Restaurant in the month of February. All voted “Bite Em”. A special thank-you was extended to Lion Bill, for arranging for us to come to Fat Daddy’s.

President Jeff reiterated that we, as a group, will evaluate our adventures with different restaurants & then make a decision on whether or not to move our meeting to one of those new locations. (OPEN)

Adjournment: Upon completion of the meeting mission, President Jeff adjourned us at approximately 1:05pm.

Our next regular Club meeting will be January 29^th, 2009 (5:30pm) at “Fat Daddy’s Catfish House”, located at 2797 South Second Street. Please make every effort to attend & bring a friend or two with ya!! Our program will be 7N District Governor Linda Nickel.

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