Alabama Lions District 34C Newsletter

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1 Alabama Lions District 34C Newsletter MAY 2017 VOLUME 1, NUMBER 2 Hello Lions of District 34C! Daryl McDaniel District Governor Member of Greater Dothan Area Lions Club Dothan, AL C: darmac451@comcast.net Leadership Development I am excited to inform you that we will be hosting a leadership workshop that is designed to train incoming club officers, zone chairs and guiding lions. Any and all lions are encouraged to attend. The training will be held, Saturday, May 13, 2017, at the Evergreen-Conecuh Chamber of Commerce, 100 Depot Square, Evergreen, AL Attendance is free and lunch will also be provided. Your club should have already received notice of this training that was included in the District Newsletter which was ed out to club presidents and secretaries, March 21st and is also posted on our district website. Membership Growth Here we are in the home stretch. Our goal is to finish strong! Your district leadership team is and will be working diligently to help each club grow in service and membership. One of our membership goals is that each club be Plus One as of June 30, As of the writing of this newsletter, we have eight clubs that are plus one or more; Andalusia, Ashford, Eight Mile, Gulf Shores, Mobile, Orange Beach, Satsuma, and Thomasville. Thank you! I have set two short term goals for our district to help us finish strong and I need your help at the club level. Goal One: Each club adds at least one new centennial member by June 30, We have 24 clubs that have signed on at least one new centennial member Goal Two: Charter at least one new club in the district. Seventeen clubs have yet to add a centennial member this year. If your club is struggling to sustain membership, please reach out to your district leadership team. We are willing to help you meet this goal. With the commitment of 1,100 lions in our district, we can meet these two goals. I will greatly appreciate your efforts. Meeting these two goals will bring in approximately 75 new members who can increase our impact by assisting another 2,250 people that need our assistance in humanitarian care, vision care, curbing their hunger, or other needs.

2 Centennial Celebration One of our district goals for this year is that each club creates a Legacy Project by April If your club has or is working on a legacy project, the rest of the district, including myself, would like to know about your project. You can communicate your club activities, such as your legacy project, so easily by simply posting to our district Facebook page. The page settings allow anyone to post to the page, so I am looking forward to your club s use of our page. Claudia Wigglesworth District Governor Elect Member of Daleville Lions Club Daleville, AL C: ctwigglesworth@gmail.com District Governor Elect Message Lions Pride During my club visits on behalf of the District Governor, I always begin by reminding the club members that they are not only a great group of guys and gals serving their community they are Lions. As a Lion we are one of 1.5 million members, in over 40, 000 clubs in over 200 countries. We truly impact the world through our collective service. As we close out our first 100 years of service let s reflect on the big picture of who we are as Lions. Here is our unifying purpose: Lions Clubs International Purpose To Organize, charter and supervise service clubs to be known as Lions clubs. To Coordinate the activities and standardize the administration of Lions clubs. To Create and foster a spirit of understanding among the peoples of the world. To Promote the principles of good government and good citizenship. To Take an active interest in the civic, cultural, social and moral welfare of the community. To Unite the clubs in the bonds of friendship, good fellowship and mutual understanding. 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. 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 endeavors. 1st Vice District Governor Elect Message Andy Marshall 1 st Vice District Governor Elect Member of Headland Lions Club Headland, AL C: Andym0407@aol.com Where there is a Need There is a Lion and We Serve These are two logos or slogans associated worldwide with Lions Clubs International. And, in fact, we Lions do an excellent job in our local communities filling needs and serving the citizens of our local areas. Just last month, I visited a local Lions club with a large Leo club where several Leo s have over one hundred hours of community service this year, all because one Lion cared enough to step forward and say yes I will lead the Leo club. At the moment, our District has a need. We have a need that involves service and leadership. Most of us are leaders. I am a retired Program Manager, who was responsible for the on time, under budget, delivery of a quality product to

3 international customers involving some 200 employees that at any time could choose to ask for reassignment to another program. Look at yourself and look around you. You will see bank presidents, company managers, business owners, school administrators, deputy sheriffs, police chiefs, teachers, shift supervisors, store managers, librarians, mayors all leaders in the community and in Lions. We need Lions that are leaders on the job, in their community, in their church, and/or in their club that will step up and SERVE as leaders on the District level. District 34C is comprised of some 41 clubs and over 1000 members. There are over fifteen volunteer leadership positions required for this district to function properly, to meet the needs of the 41 clubs, to grow future leaders, and to sustain and grow our level of service through increased membership. Please consider volunteering for one of these important positions. Your role in your local club is very important as a Lion serving your community. Take the next step and serve the people of south Alabama, as a volunteer leader in Lions District 34C. Raise your hand, say yes I will serve. You and the people of south Alabama will benefit. Remember, as Lions, We Serve New Member s Nook The Lions Name On June 7, 1917 at the invitation of Melvin Jones, delegates met in Chicago. The only point of contention was the selection of a name for the new organization. Melvin Jones researched the idea of calling the new organization Lions. He was convinced that the lion stood for strength, courage, fidelity and vital action. On a secret ballot the name Lions was chosen over several others. The Lions Emblem At the 1919 convention, there was a move to change the symbol, but a young attorney from Denver, Colorado rose to speak. His name was Halsted Ritter. "The name Lions stands not only for fraternity, good fellowship, strength of character and purpose, but above all, its combination of L-I-O-N-S heralds to the country the true meaning of citizenship: LIBERTY, INTELLIGENCE, OUR NATION'S SAFETY." The January 1931 issue of THE LION Magazine featured this interpretation of the association's name: Our name was not selected at random, neither was it a coined name. The lion has been the symbol of all that was good, and because of the symbolism that name was chosen. Four outstanding qualities Courage, Strength, Activity and Fidelity had largely to do with the adoption of the name. The last mentioned of these qualities, Fidelity, has a deep and peculiar significance for all Lions. The lion symbol has been a symbol of Fidelity through the ages and among all nations, ancient and modern. It stands for loyalty to a friend, loyalty to a principle, loyalty to a duty, loyalty to a trust. The emblem consists of a gold letter "L" on a circular area. Bordering this is a circular area with two Lion profiles facing away from the center. The word "Lions" appears at the top and "International" at the bottom. The Lions face both past and future showing both pride of heritage and confidence in the future. So when asked the history and meaning of our name and emblem, now you know!

4 (Association Name and Symbol From LCI Website) What Lions Are Not Fifty years after the first Convention in Dallas, Edward M. Lindsay, the Golden Anniversary President of Lions International, realized that the best way to define Lionism was to explain what it was not. In an address delivered to the annual U. S. State Department Foreign Policy Conference for Nongovernmental Organizations, President Lindsey said. We are not a political organization, yet among our members will be found leaders of all political parties and factions. Our Constitution prohibits activity in a partisan political way, yet it carries a positive mandate that each club should provide a forum for the free and open discussion of all matters of public interest. We are not a social club, yet we are directed to take an active interest in the social welfare of our various communities, for only in this way can we realize the full potential of our influence in developing the moral fiber of our societies. We are not a fraternal organization, yet we have found that men of all faiths, all religions, all nationalities, all races can come together in an aura of mutual understanding, resulting in strong bonds of friendship and good fellowship. We are not a youth organization, yet Lions Clubs sponsor more Boy Scout troops than any other organization. We participate in so many youth programs and projects in this nation and abroad that it is hard to determine if the dog is wagging the tail or the tail is wagging the dog. We are not a welfare organization, yet over the years, in good times and bad, countless thousands of less fortunate people have been the recipients of the generosity of Lions. Whenever human suffering has been found, the flexible purposes of Lionism have made it easy for Lions to respond generously and with open hearts. We are not a sports or recreational agency, yet thousands of boys have been thrilled with Little League programs and many other activities built around the training of the minds and bodies of our youth, both boy and girls. We are not a religious body, yet the precepts we live by are familiar to the doctrines of the world s spiritual bodies, and the motivation of our activity, resulting in thousands of complete projects, is deeply rooted on the age-old philosophy of Love Thy Neighbor, found in some form or another in the dogmas of all religions. We are not a medical or health organization, yet our clubs have performed miracles in this wide panorama of community and individual service. We are not an educational foundation, yet thousands of students are today in schools built by Lions. In Mexico, for example,

5 almost a thousand public schools have been built and equipped by Lions. And there is another thing we are not: we are not a United Nations. Yet we are an instrument of peace. Lionism, born while the world was aflame, has grown strong under the nourishment of freedom and liberty, and the effort for peace which we intend to make will be directed along those traditional concepts, for we believe that there can be no meaningful freedom without peace and no lasting peace without freedom. Some fainthearted ones may say, Why are you doing this? Why do you think Lions International should attack this problem when even great and powerful nations have failed through the ages? Our answer is simply this: We are not so naïve, so immature, as to think our effort alone will unravel this tangled mess, but we are confident we must make the effort. We must make our contribution, and so must you. Taken in its entirety from: Kittler, Glenn D (1968) The Dynamic World of Lions International; The Fifty-Year Saga of Lions Clubs, New York: M. Evans and Company, Inc. pp Multiple District 34 Convention The Alabama Lions state convention is three weeks away. The convention planning committee has poured their hearts into making this the best convention ever! If you haven t yet registered, I hope that you will consider attending. There will be a lot of information, experience, and fun to be had. The registration form is available on our district website at the following link: District Convention Photos Club President Alexandra Conniff receives the Presidential Award for her outstanding efforts in promoting Lionism in her club and community of Eufaula. (pictured L- R, International Director Bill Philippi, Eufaula club President Alexandra Conniff, and District governor Daryl McDaniel) District Governor Daryl McDaniel poses with members of the Covington VIP Club. They had a great turnout for the district convention!

6 Pictured L-R, International Director Bill Philippi, Lion Vickie Philippi, PDG Sylvia Acosta, and Past ID Yamandu Acosta Lion John Laney, now president of the Demopolis Lions, Mayor of the city of Demopolis. Lion John did a great job as district convention committee chair. Thank you John! Club President Iris Ethridge and Club Treasurer Valerie Pepper are the first Orange Beach Lions to ever attend a district convention. We were glad you attended! District Governor Elect Claudia Wigglesworth and her husband, Past Club President Charlie are members of the Daleville Lions. Ashford Lions Club President bob Basch and Lion Denise Fowler have been good stewards of their club by regularly attending district cabinet meetings and conventions. Thank you for representing your club!

7 Cabinet Secretary PCC Julia Pacheco provided great assistance in facilitating activities of the convention. Thank you Julia! Cabinet Treasurer Tracey McDaniel and her overseer, PDG Gus Pacheco, are members of the Greater Dothan Area Lions Club. Thank you both for your assistance in conducting a successful district convention! Gulf Shores Lions PDG Bobby Ziglar and PCC Linda Ziglar have been longtime loyalists to district activities. They were both recognized for their efforts in rebuilding the Orange Beach Lions Club. Thank you both! MD Centennial Coordinator PCC Ron Seybold gave a rallying presentation about the upcoming MD34 convention and the Centennial International Convention. Lion Ron, thank you for attending our district convention! District Website Plenty of information is at your fingertips through our district website. Try it out! Remember our motto, We Serve!