Pleasure It Is to Be Your Council Chair This Lions Year
Great Lions family of Multiple District 36. What a pleasure it is to be your Council Chair this Lions year. I love being a Lion and serving others. We have the opportunity of attending District conventions and meetings with International Lions that bring many words of encouragement and wisdom to grow as an organization. These conventions give us opportunities to meet up with Lions family throughout our multiple district. We just finished up with district 36-R convention. We had the honor of international guest Anthony Paradiso from New York. He was part of District Governor school when I was district governor Lions year 2021/22. It was nice to meet him in person as that year everything, including the International Convention, was virtual.
ID Lion Anthony brought words of encouragement and inspiration on why we as Lions need membership growth. How we as Lions have strength in numbers. He spoke on how we can partner with a like-minded organization wanting to make a difference.
Our multiple district 36 candidate for International Director Lion Phyllis Carlin from Crooked River Lions gave follow-up words of wisdom on Lions serving together as we travel on this journey in Lionism. The convention was well attended. What stood out was the support of the other District Governors Lions Carrie, Paul & Pete in attending DG Lion Lindas and 36-R convention. This is the multiple district working together. I encourage the Lions of the multiple district attend as many of these district conventions and especially your multiple district convention that they can. You not only learn from great speakers, but the fellowship is outstanding.
The convention also featured our Oregon Lions Sight and Hearing foundation. There was a vision panel with three of our vision screeners from 36-R, a school nurse from the Albany school district and Lion Matt Phillips our school vision screening & technology director. Their session gave proof of the difference we as Lions working with our schools and foundation is making. OLSHF also did a ROAR session with Alex Huse, Nick Shenfeld and Lion Melinda Rhodes our patient service director at OLSHF. Our ROAR program has grown and has changed so many lives of those we serve.
We also heard from the Candlelighters who provide support to families with children with cancer. This is one of the Lions causes. Thank you, Lions, for purchasing raffle tickets as proceeds went to the Candlelighter organization.
The reason I point out these speakers from the 36-R convention is because this is what Lions do to change lives through the great work we do. We as Lions are part of the largest service organization in the world. This is why we want to continue to increase our membership. As I believe the more members the more service.
If each Lion in our Multiple district would ASK (the key word is ASK) we could double our membership. With that we could double the impact we make on our communities. We ask ourselves how we do that and get results. I want to think there are two things involved for growth. First, we need to be engaged with our communities. Second, we need to be engaged with each club member. This means we need to be offering opportunities to lead and contribute in meaningful ways. When members are happy about what they are doing they want to invite others to be a part of it. The Lions I know joined our organization with a passion and fire to serve others and give back. Let’s continue our journey to growth in the Lions together one step at a time.
SOMETIMES THE SMALLEST STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION ENDS UP BEING THE BIGGEST STEP OF YOUR LIFE.
Thank you for allowing me to serve the multiple district as your Council Chair.
CC Lion Lynn Coon