Updating Your Constitution and Bylaws

     Clubs where are your constitution and bylaws?  Over the past few months, I have become aware that many clubs do not know what their constitutions and bylaws say and even where they are.  These are the documents that guide your club in all your actions and interactions with club members and the public.  It’s time to drag these documents out, dust them off, and take them to your club meetings for review and updates as necessary.

     Lions Clubs International has a lot of resources on their website to aid clubs in updating their constitution and bylaws, the best one is the club president eBook and the club secretary eBook, these documents have links to most of the resources that your officers need in their endeavors to lead their club into the future.

     As clubs we need to be inclusive of new members, open to change, we’ve always done it that way no longer works.  We need to let our communities know what we are doing. We need to keep track of our existing members and keep them involved.  We are about fellowship and community involvement.

     We need to remember the first part of all constitution and bylaws:

     The purposes of this club shall be: (a) To create and foster a spirit of understanding among the peoples of the world. (b) To promote the principles of good government and good citizenship. (c) To take an active interest in the civic, cultural, social and moral welfare of the community. (d) To unite the members in the bonds of friendship, good fellowship and mutual understanding. (e) To provide a forum for the open discussion of all matters of public interest; provided, however, that partisan politics and sectarian religion shall not be debated by club members. (f) To encourage service-minded people to serve their community without personal financial reward, and to encourage efficiency and promote high ethical standards in commerce, industry, professions, public works and private endeavor.