Issue #8
19/11/95
Firstly, apologies if last week’s issue was a day or so late - this was due to problems with my software (actually, one too many return keys!)
I am rushing to get this issue out as, Tuesday sees the publication of Issue 9, a special edition for International Leo Day. That issue is going to be a bit different in that it will have part of it devoted to Service activities done by clubs around the world, and the other half will be a funny side. I was given some funny stuff By Leo Chris Willson today, however, I don’t think I can publish some of it!!! Let’s just say that if your name is Mikaela Berghem, and you come from Espoo City Leo Club - you need to hit Chris very hard when he comes over to Finland next month! (if you want to know exactly what - just email me Mikkis!)
So basically, Issue 9 will have a serious side in listing club achievements, but will mostly concentrate on the fun and silly side. After all, everyone needs to unwind sometimes. So in Tuesday’s issue you will find out: How to join Justin Heslin from Peterborough Leo Club’s Fan Club, and why he likes the pop group Blur but hates ketchup! Also find out why SWF have an obsession with Penguins! (So much so, they have decided to twin with a certain club in 201T1).
If you have anything really funny, please send it in now. If you can’t get it to me by Tuesday- Don’t worry, still send it in for the special Xmas edition. I believe that whilst Leos have the same service orientated mind, they also have the same sense of humour.
Please also let me know what you are doing for International Leo Day. If nothing, how about just wearing your Leo Badge all day. Remember - you’re not only a Leo on a meeting night but 24hrs a day.
Take Care.
PS - If anyone from Finland wants to bribe me to print the story about Mikkis, please go ahead - It’s nothing nasty, but does involve her relationship with Chris Willson
I mentioned last week that interesting things are happening in Poland, and that they are planning to launch Leo Club Growth in order to gain District status. Wojtek Felendzer emailed me to tell me what happened at the meeting they had:
> Last weekend (the one that's unfortunately over) we
> had a meeting in Warsaw between LEO Club Warsaw and
> LEO Club Gdansk Artus, which was supposed to be a
> meeting of all Polish LEO Clubs, but the other 2
> didn't show up. As a matter of fact, it was the
> second meeting of that kind, after the first being
> held in Gdansk in April this year. But to the point...
> What may interest you is that we - LEO CLub Warsaw and
> LEO Club Gdansk - are planning to organise a youth camp
> during 2 weeks of summer 1996. Since this is totally
> new and undiscovered ground for us, we are thinking of
> inviting people we already know, so that when something
> goes wrong it's easier to explain and understand a
> mistake to your colleague... (and you sure know what
> I mean) So that's the way we'd recruit people.
> The camp would be family-based. We'd have 10 people
> for a good start, coming to Gdansk for 3 days, staying
> with a host family, then moving to Warsaw for another 3
> days and then to Cracow for 3 days. Then, we'll take
them
> all to Zakopane, a beautiful little town in Polish
Tatra
> Mountains, and gather them in one place (youth hostel,
> a big house, whatever) for a week, so that they get to
> know each other. So that's what it would be like.
> For the moment just wanted to *let you know*. We'll be
> discussing the schedule here, so as soon as we'll know
> any details I'll let you know.
Svien Hjelle has emailed me to give me the latest news from Norway:
> This week Leos all over Norway sell candles.
> The money will be used in work against drugs.
You may remember that last week, I mentioned that there are plans to increase the activities of Leos on the Internet, although we needed suggestions as to what. Juha Wallius from Finland has emailed me regarding this very matter:
> How about our own Newsgroup?
There is already a newsgroup which covers Leos. It is called soc.org.service-clubs.misc, and covers all service organisations (Leos, Lions, Rotary, Rotoract). There are few Leos on this, and not many more Lions. 80% of the articles are by Rotary or Rotoract which are immensely organised on the Internet. It is not very much used, and averages around 10 articles a week.
Setting up a Newsgroup is going to be a very impossible thing to do. Although I am not to clear on the names, what I am sure of is the following:
In order to set up a newsgroup, a proposal must be put forward to the committee that decides all the newsgroups. They will then advertise for people to vote on whether this new newsgroup should be formed. In order to be successful, we would need 100 more pro votes, than those against. Please bear in mind that anyone can vote: Lions, Rotary, etc.
Rotary and Rotoract are presently trying to organise an soc.org.service-clubs.rotary, however, they have been working on this for nearly a year, if I am correct. Given the size and amount of Rotarians on the net, it goes to show how hard it would be to set up a newsgroup.
HOWEVER, I am presently working on an idea with Leo Mark Rogers to put into place his idea of a Leo Listserver. This would mean you would mail your comments/articles/etc. to a central address which would then send them out to all subscribing to that list! This, as Mark will agree, is not a simple matter, and we have been busily emailing each other pages and pages trying to get around several problems:
1) It should be distinctly different from The Leo in content. This means we might decide to limit the subject matter of the Mailing List. We do not want The Leo to become just a report of what happened in the mailing list. The Leo has the ability of being Leo Clubs International’s voice to Lions Clubs International and we do not want to ruin that by killing it with a Mailing List. Several ideas have been discussed, the most likely being a ‘fun forum’ - an area for a laugh and a joke. The current idea is that The Leo is like a meeting, whilst the mailing list would be like a social. This is being heavily debated, with myself and Mark due to physically meet a couple of times before the end of the year. We may run trials with just 5-10 people so to get an idea of the problems associated with this.
2) It should have a disclaimer (more detailed than The Leo’s one) so that Leo’s comments won’t need to be moderated. Please remember that some subscribers are still quite young, and due to cultural differences, what someone might find funny, someone else might find rude or offensive. We must cover this, as the last thing we want is a parent complaining to Oakbrook.
3) It should only be open to Leos (Oakbrook would also be allowed, although whether Lions would be allowed to subscribe, is still a matter of discussion).
There are also many other points we have raised and discussed and sorted, so if you are have an idea of how a mailing List could run alongside The Leo, please let us know in detail (i.e. around 50 lines excluding header). The first few will be invited to participate in the trials, before we open it up to all Leos, hopefully in the New Year
Juha Wallius also informed me of the following:
> There is already a Lions Club having its meetings on
the
> Internet Relay Chat network and I have seen a channel
> #leos there as well sometimes. So far in Finnish only.
> Is this IRC thing familiar to you?
I am familiar with IRC, although if anyone knows more about the #Leos channel, could they please let me know, the IRC address and I will publish it in a forthcoming edition of The Leo
Leo Paul Leahy has asked me to put in the following Plug for MD105 Conference. As is the case, with anything you want to plug, please feel free to do so.
> Those of you who attended the 17th MD Conference
> at Heathrow and thoroughly enjoyed yourselves,
> probably can’t wait to learn more about the next
> conference! It is with some pleasure that the Leos
> of 105D cordially invite all Leos, Lions, Lionesses
> and friends to the 18th Multiple District Conference
> to be held 22-24 March 1996 at the Bournemouth Moat
> House Hotel.
> The Moat House is a luxurious 4-star hotel boasting
> a swimming pool, snooker/pool room, private cinema,
> children’s playroom and a restaurant which will stay
> open late on the Friday. So you could stay inside
> the hotel all weekend, but we hope you will venture
> out to see more of Bournemouth in the leisure times!
> The usual wide range of packages is available, from
> the Business Meetings only, Sat/Sun at £5 to the Full
> Conference Package (Friday-Sunday) at £99. The
> committee hopes you will want to spend the whole
> weekend with us with all your needs taken care of.
> We do not stand on ceremony during the constructive
> but interesting business sessions, however, the Leos,
> Lions and partners do like to dress-up a bit for the
> Gala Banquet on the Saturday Evening. If you have not
> been to one, then come next year to experience a
> brilliant evening for just £25. Those coming from the
> Friday evening onwards bring a hat (the more bizarre
> the better!) to wear at the disco.
> Please come to the Leo MD105 Conference to enjoy an
> illuminating weekend, and help us prove that with
> co-operation and discussion Leos and Lions can achieve
> whatever they put their minds to.
Being a regular attendee of these events myself, all I can say is that they are probably the best weekend you’ll have all year. Last year, even though I was on MD Council, I didn’t sleep all weekend. There is a custom in MD105 of going to breakfast on Sunday morning still in your dinner jacket from the night before - this is known as “The Breakfast Club”.
Whilst the Business sessions are both fun and entertaining, what makes the conference is the ‘Buzz’. You come away from a conference feeling like your batteries are recharged, having made loads of new friends.
PROGRAMME OF EVENTS
FRIDAY 22ND MARCH 1996
12-7pm Registration at Bournemouth Moat House Hotel
Restaurant open in evening
8pm-late Disco - Theme “Silly Hats”
SATURDAY 23RD MARCH 1996
8.30am Breakfast/Registration
9.30/10am Opening of Conference/Business Session
1.30pm Lunch
2-7pm Free Time
Leisure facilities available
Competition
7pm MD President Nigel’s Reception
7.30pm- Gala Banquet
SUNDAY 24TH MARCH 1996
8.30am Breakfast
10am Business Session
1.30pm Lunch
2.30pm Farewells
For more details contact Richard Bowring at reb@dsbc.icl.co.uk
It actually surprised me that many people don’t know what it actually is. I asked two club Presidents from different Districts, and they both told me it was about getting new members.
It’s not, it’s about ensuring you keep your existing members happy & interested so they don’t get bored & leave. And it’s far from easy!
Retention is the hardest job in Leos! Fact!
When most clubs are faced with R&R problems they automatically say, “Let’s have a recruitment drive”. They think the answer to old members leaving is to get new members to join However this is like pouring water into a sink with no plug. The idea with retention is to plug the plughole!
This is probably why many consider retention more difficult than recruitment. With recruitment, you can lie to prospectives and they will be none the wiser, but it is impossible to con your own members, they know the faults of the club. Even worse, by trying to sort out the problems with in your own club, you may find yourself in confrontation with a few of your fellow members.
If your club is going to succeed you need to establish the notion of ‘the club’. this is probably the hardest concept to understand, but I will do my best to explain.
My guess is at the moment, that when Leo Fred mucks up, everyone blames Leo Fred. When Leo Bill gets a District position, everyone goes round saying how great Leo Bill is.
Try & see the subtle change of attitude in the following paragraph:
‘When Leo Fred mucks up, everyone says that it was the ‘club’s fault. When Leo Bill gets a District position, everyone goes around saying how good the club is, as a member has just received a District position’
IF YOU CAN’T SEE THE DIFFERENCE GO BACK & READ THE TWO PARAGRAPHS AGAIN.
So, you can see the difference but not see the relevance. It’s really all down to the attitude that members have toward the club. If Leo Fred mucks up, having everyone have a go at him is not going to achieve anything. What’s done, is done. Instead, you should be trying to see how not to make it happen next time. Having a go a Leo Fred will only cause ill-feeling within the club, and ill-feeling is what causes splits and clubs to fail.
Similarly, instead of singing Leo Bill’s praises, sing the club’s praises for having a member so gifted, without a mention of Bill.
Basically, in order for your club to succeed, you need to establish a team spirit: Every fault is the team’s fault, every achievement is the club’s achievement.
This doesn’t mean you can never criticise. On the contrary, the club will need constant improvement & altering in order that it never becomes stale and boring.
A CLUB IS NEVER PERFECT
However, just putting the blame (rightly or wrongly) on each other will only cause your club harm. If a club member mucks up, then ask yourself what could YOU have done to help them?
If an attitude of fellowship & mutual respect can be established in your club then you will succeed. Without, you’ll fall down sooner or later.
It all started just over a year ago. The dedicated few at Ruislip had just about had enough. We had been standing in the cold rain at the Ruislip Lions annual FunDay having made just 50p on our ‘smash an egg’ stall. We were down to our last egg and the crackshots from the Local Air Training Corp were hanging around again, waiting to clear us out. Dare we risk letting them have one last go? If they were to win, Paul’s fundraising report would be very sad next Tuesday. To add insult to injury the Gazette photographer wanted to take their picture while they were having a go at our stall.
I kept trying to get in the picture, flashing my Leo T-shirt at the cameraman, but he was more charmed by their youth and uniforms than by an ageing Leo. we decided to turn on our car stereos really loud next time their marching band entered the arena
Then things took a turn for the worse. Gordon (who always wins everything) won a cuddly toy, and not a bottle of Scotch in the raffle. That’s when he cracked - and so did our last egg. At least we could go home now.
That night in The Swan we swore it would be the last time we hung around in the rain for seven hours.
At least we hadn’t had to pay for our pitch like the Scout Group next to us. We were too embarrassed to go to the next meeting and tell the others we only made 50p, so we had a whip round.
Then it happened. Andy C had a brainstorm (wonders never cease) “Let’s buy a Bouncy Castle,” he said. “Oh yes, let’s do,” we replied. So off the lads of Ruislip trotted to the Bouncy castle shop. They bounced, jumped, sprung and lept until they found one that would hold the combined weight of Jim, Andy C and Gordon
Then they did a bit of haggling and got us a real bargain. Our red and white inflatable is more like a palace than a castle - it’s our pride and joy. Our standing-in-the-rain days for a piddling amount were over - now we could stand in the rain and make loads of money, as the castle’s first outing proved.
November 5th last year. Firework Day. Ruislip Lions were having a display. They picked the muddiest, most water logged field in Ruislip and gave us the sloping corner where all the rain from the last few days had collected. the result - the inside of our castle looked more like the field than the field did !
We spent all day Sunday hosing and drying it off (It has to be completely dry before its packed away). We decided to stick to spring/summer events - although we’ve made a few exceptions for ‘friends’ of Ruislip Leos.
We held a business meeting in the castle to enter a contest organised by Sam the MD Competitions Officer. We picked a beautiful afternoon and bounced our way through ‘any other business’. We lost the competition but the Castle was definitely a winner with the local kids. It acted like a magnet, drawing children of all ages from whatever they were doing. Queues started to form for a FREE bounce, and the afternoon turned into a great PR event.
We are looking forward to raising lots of dosh this summer for our chosen charity, The West London Meningitis Trust.
Get your own Free Home Page