Talk To All Of Your Members

Let’s culminate this year with positives:

     Positive One. The convention season is drawing to a close and will culminate this month with the Multiple District convention in Springfield. I am so pleased with this multiple district for having made each of the four single district conventions successes.  And as we put the mask mandate into the rear view - we put the finishing touches on the last of the individual district conventions the last week in March with District E’s and International Director Ken Ibarra and his companion Amy Fink.

It was a lot of fun and a good turnout as well. Thank you all for making that happen. It’s great to see clubs emerging from under the pandemic and once again meeting and getting back into our communities.

     Positive two. Now as we turn to the multiple district convention there has been a lot of consternation because up until just recently we had no location but that has been put to rest.

Also, as we scale it back to just two days, well really one day and an evening, we have moved the OLSHF Trustees meeting and the Council of Governors meeting to Friday, May 20, beginning at 9 a.m. with the trustees and following at 1:30 p.m. with the CoG. I am really looking forward to having International Director Justin Faber with us for the convention as our International guest.

     Positive three. As a part of the convention and continuing with our theme of We Serve we are asking that as a service project for the convention that everyone attending please bring a box or bag full of non-perishable food which will be donated to a local area food bank to aid in their fight against hunger. No one should ever have to go hungry or experience food insecurity and we will do our part to try and make this a reality.

     On a sad note, we were unfortunately unable to hold the Northwest Lions Leadership Institute in April because of poor response. We needed to have at least 15 registered participants and we were unable to get to that number. Although this is unfortunate, it’s not a total loss. The leadership and executive committee of the institute has decided that there will be another attempt to conduct the training this fall, probably in October. So all of you that were thinking about the April training but had not committed, get your calendars ready and reserve some time in October. The official announcement of the date will come sometime in early summer.

     Positive four. I want to leave you with a challenge. That challenge is to talk to all of your members and find out what their needs are, be it financial or motivational, or whatever. Why? Because every year in May and June we see a huge exodus as clubs clear their books and the idea is to try and find out why members are wanting to leave and to try and alleviate the reason. We would really like to see every district finish with a positive net gain in membership, something that has not been accomplished in some time, but is very possible.

     Think about it. All it takes is just one ask. Hmmm. I seem to remember a campaign a couple of years ago that was something like that. I think it was Just Ask. The worst that can happen is they say no. And let’s once again take that one step further with Just Answer. I know that a lot of us have wardrobes made-up of shirts and hats and jackets and a lot of other paraphernalia that has the Lions logo on it. I know I do and almost every time I go somewhere I am asked about the Lions or the logo. That is where the Just Answer portion of the program kicks in. Hopefully you have that 30 second elevator speech on the tip of your tongue and are more than willing to share it with anyone.

     Well my fellow Lions as they say that’s a wrap and I hope to see you in Springfield in just a few days.