Improve Retention and Attract New Members

September 2021 - Lions Magazine

Lessons learned during my first month as District Governor:

1.    Relief. There are local groups that deal with needs daily.  They are equipped to react immediately and have the ability to obtain resources in a timely manner.  Our job as Lions is to partner with these groups and give support where needed.  We need to form these partnerships before a situation arises.   We can provide community education on what you need in case of evacuation, where to go and what to do.

2.    Service.  Our District is busy doing a lot of service projects.  We don’t tell anyone about it, only 12 percent of our District’s clubs report to LCI and only 7 of the clubs in our District have services officers to report their activities. The position of marketing director is under used or not appointed in most clubs.  We need to get out there and sell our clubs and what we do.

3.    Officer Training.  We need to promote signing up for Lions Clubs International Web Site:  There is online training available, project suggestions, recruitment programs and retention programs -- Along with information about their clubs.

4.    Membership. Clubs are not meeting at full strength, there is still a lot of anxiety about getting together.  We need to promote easy outdoor service projects with high community visibility, involve all members in the project and promote social responsibility.  This will help improve retention and attract new members.  We need to promote our districts NAMI initiative.  There are clubs out there that are unaware of our dues for new members. We as Lions can overcome the challenges of today through reimagining how we serve.  We need to become the new Lions of today.

Service From The Heart.  We Serve.

Steve Brewster, District Governor MD36E