Issue #3
What am I doing out of bed at 4:50am in the morning? Today, I have a meeting regarding Leo Club Growth in Birmingham, some 200 miles away, meaning leaving at that time in order to get there in time.
It also means writing most of this week's Leo on the train.
This is the start of quite a busy week for me-not only today do I find out how Leo Club Growth is progressing, but on Monday, I have an interview for a new job. On Thursday, I will be meeting with the INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT as he is attending a function in my District. I hope to get time to chat to him mainly about Leo Club Growth & The Leo. It will be interesting to see how in touch with Leoism he really is.
For this reason, even though it is very short notice, if you can come up with a really good question for him, please email me before Thursday 2nd October 1995 with that Question & I will do my best to ask him & get an answer to publish in Next Week's issue of The Leo.
Please remember, contributions are more than welcome for The Leo - send those articles or bits of information in. If you're worried that your English is not too good - just send it in as best you can & I'll do my best to tidy it up.
This Issue is being sent to over 100 leos in 12 Countries worldwide. Back Issues are available - just send us an email with which issues you require.
The Leo is now available on the Web thanks to the efforts of Andrew Connor of Lauceston South Leo Club, Tasmania. He writes:
"Hi, I have put issue 1 of your newsletter The LEO on our
website, and will update it when future issues of the LEO come
out.
http://uptown.turnpike.net/L/Lions/leo/index.html
I have also put a link to your email address so that others can
subscribe easily to The LEO."
I can also exclusively reveal that MD105 Council of Governors reacted very favourably to setting up a joint Leo/Lion MD Web Site. A meeting is to be scheduled with what it will contain, although I will insist that it contains links to all your web pages. (Mind, you, seeing as I'm the only one who can program HTML, they'll have very little choice in the matter).
I Hope to soon produce a list of all the Leo Web Pages on the Internet.
Retention maybe a new word to many of you whether your native language is English or not. Retention is all about keeping members, and we will explain in a later issue why this is the President's job.
Why many Leos & Leo Clubs fail to gain new members is the fact that they forget all about retention. They feel that just by getting new members in it will sort out their current problems - HOWEVER, this is like pouring petrol on a burning fire.
This may sound odd but 90% of Recruitment is really through retention. If you sort out your club's retention, I GUARANTEE you will gain new members.
Why is this? Well, I have always tackled membership my own way and my way of dealing with membership is through good retention. Retention is all about what is known within management as TQM (Total Quality Management) and is all about continually striving to make yur club better.
Using Management tactics in a Service Organisation may sound wierd but Lions Clubs International's founder, Mr Melvin Jones said he always hoped Lions would aim for that 'elusive goal'. What he meant was that he hoped the organisation would continue to strive for new goals & take on new challenges. If you think about it there will always be work for Lions to do & people to help
The same goes for your club - you too need to ensure that the club always looks to better itself, and by striving to improve your club, so your club will improve and so people will notice, and so people will join.
In the coming weeks, we will look at ways to improve your club - and I hope most are ways you'd never consider. We will then go onto what I did with my club when we dropped to a membership of 2, and how within 12 months, I was asked to be MD 105's Recruitment & Retention Officer. Hopefully you will see that what I did with my club was not so much crazy, but that there was a reason for everything I did. You will then see how I developed those ideas into Leo Club Growth.
Taken from Palmdale Lions new Web site.
The International Association of Lions Clubs began as the dream of Chicago insurance
man Melvin Jones, who wondered why local business clubs -- he was an active member of one
--could not expand their horizons from purely business concerns to the betterment of their
communities and the world at large.
Jones' idea struck a chord within his own group, the Business Circle of Chicago, and they
authorized him to explore his concept with similar organizations from around the United
States. His efforts resulted in an organizational meeting at a local hotel on June 7, 1917.
The 12 men who gathered there overcame a natural sense of loyalty to their parent clubs, voted the "Association of Lions Clubs" into existence, and issued a call for a national convention to be held in Dallas, Texas, USA in October of the same year.
Thirty-six delegates representing 22 clubs from nine states heeded the call, approved the "Lions Clubs" designation, and elected Dr. William P. Woods of Indiana as their first president.
Guiding force and founder Melvin Jones named acting secretary, thus began an association with Lionism that only ended with his death in 1961.
That first convention also began to define what Lionism was to become. A constitution and by-laws were adopted, the colors of purple and gold approved, and a start made on Lionism's Objectives and Code of Ethics.
One of the objects was startling for an era that prided itself on mercenary individualism, and has remained one of the main tenets of Lionism ever since. "No Club," it read, "shall hold out the financial betterment of its members as its object."
Community leaders soon began to organize clubs throughout the United States, and the association became "international" with the formation of the Windsor, Ontario, Canada Lions Club in 1920. Clubs were later organized in China, Mexico, and Cuba. By 1927, membership stood at 60,000 in 1,183 clubs.
In 1935, Panama became home to the first Central American club, with the first South American club being organized in Columbia the following year. Lionism reached Europe in 1948, as clubs were chartered in Sweden, Switxerland, and France. In 1952, the first club was chartered in Japan. Since then, the association has become truly global, with clubs in more than 170 countries and geographical areas worldwide.
The proper name of the association is "The International Association of Lions Clubs." Many Lions, however, prefer the use of the shorter form of "Lions Clubs International."
Throughout the world, Lions are recognized by the emblem they wear on their lapels. It consists of a gold letter "L" on a circular purple field. Bordering this is a circular gold area with two lion profiles at either side facing away from the center. The word "Lions" appears at the top, and "International" at the bottom. Symbolically, the lions face both past and future -- proud of the past and confident of the future. Lions wear their emblem with pride.
The motto of every Lion is simply "We Serve." What better way to express the true mission of Lionism?
The slogan of the association is "Liberty, Intelligence, Our Nation's Safety (LIONS).
The royal colors of purple and gold were selected as the official colors when the association was organized in 1917. Purple stands for loyalty to friends and to one's self, and for integrity of mind and heart. Gold symbolizes sincerity of purpose, liberality in judgement, purity in life and generosity in mind, heart and purpose toward humanity.
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