We Serve to Lead, and Lead to Serve.
Each of the Lion Districts in Oregon have clubs with less than ten people in the club. Some as small as 3 or five. Of course, there are clubs that have 100 or more members. It may appear that the larger clubs have some kind of formula or magic spell that attracts people to be interested in becoming a Lion. My own club, has 11. Not a large club yet a club that seems to always have an activity or is planning a service to the community. We have a healthy comradery. There is no magic spell or social formula to what makes a club what it is except maybe service.
Service, and mixing it up with the members of our community has a large impact on who shows interest in what the Lions are about. Service of course is where the non-Lion community citizen sees and feels the effects of having a Lions Club in their midst. It makes sense. Service is the way we communicate our willingness to act outside of ourselves and have “mission” in doing so. Working side by side with our neighbors in service, especially an activity that goes to the heart of the needs in the community.
Most of us don’t see ourselves as leaders. Even those who hold an office in a club. Probably because giving a ride to someone to a doctor’s appointment or to the bank doesn’t seem like leadership. Giving out scholarships to High School graduates doesn’t feel like leadership, or flipping pancakes or working at the food bank or picking up trash along the roadway or whatever your service project is at any given time.
The biggest challenge we have as Lions today is to find and adapt ways to attract families and working people to being part of our service activities. What do working families need or wish for? What are their passions? The leadership we must exercise is developing and exercising conversations with young working families. Showing, and inviting, this new generation of Lions the possibilities for them to express their ideas for service on their own time and their own schedule. Effective leadership is based on those conversation and practicing good listening. We Serve to Lead, and Lead to Serve.