We're in Lions Magazine!

Lions District 39W hits the pages of Lions Magazine this month with a one page article "In It to Win It" about our recent membership contest!  The magazine, which hasn't hit mailboxes yet, appears on the LCI website in an online magazine format.  Pretty awesome!
 

The second time around

Boise area Lions met at Alive After Five for the second of three "meet and greet" events this summer.  It was a large and friendly crowd with many people stopping by our booth (Thank you, Idaho Business Review!) to sign up for our Idaho Monopoly Game giveaway, chat about Lions, or just get a piece of candy.  Lions also worked the crowd with Monopoly games, getting many more to register and spreading the word about Lions.  Many people have heard of Lions but don't really know what they do.  And many women don't know that women can be Lions, something that correlates to a previous blog post about membership. 

If you didn't get a chance to be a part of this event, either as a Lion or a wannabe Lion, the next Lions after Five will be September 15th. Contact Lion Edwin at the Eye Bank for more info.

International President Sid Scruggs Theme 2010-2011

Fellow Lions, Leos & Bloggers,

Incoming International President Sid Scruggs has announced his theme “A Beacon of Hope.” He believes that by returning our Lions work into visible Community Service we will increase both the good we do for others, but also our membership as we become more visible. In order to do this, he is requesting all clubs do 5 things, all of which are designed to coordinate with his theme. Year long, each club should come up with a NEW signature service project, one which will be visible to the community and doesn’t necessarily involve donating dollars. Examples would be an annual health fair, food drive, volunteer project, or sponsorship of a community event. I’m sure that there are many others that your club can come up with to help encourage you in this regard. Additionally, he has set out his ideas for “2010-11 Global Service Campaigns” by suggesting an emphasis on 4 activities that we Lions do during the year to serve our communities. Many clubs do these already and I hope you continue to do them or give them a try.

AUGUST: Engaging our Youth. Invite Leos and youth in your area to help organize and participate in a service project. Project ideas may include school or community facility clean ups, a visit to a senior citizen’s home or children’s hospital. Allowing youth to develop and lead a service project enables them to learn skills while emphasizing the role of service.

OCTOBER: Sharing the Vision. Plan vision health projects and work with the visually impaired. Many Lions already celebrate World Sight Day in October and we already have “Thanksgiving for Vision” in October This is a great month to organize a vision screening, organize an eyeglass collection or an activity to benefit the visually impaired in your community.

DECEMBER/JANUARY: Relieving the Hunger. Organize food drives and projects to feed the hungry. With a downturn in the global economy, many relief organizations are finding it difficult to keep up with the demand. Help alleviate hunger by planning events around the end and beginning of the calendar year to collect and distribute food.

APRIL: Protecting our Planet. Implement projects that improve and protect the environment. Organize a highway clean up, plant trees, or plan a community “Earth Day” event to collect recyclables that are not ordinarily picked up such as batteries and used cell phones.

We are going to have a great year!! Thanks for all you do for Lionism!!

Lion DG Pat Brown
“Giving back through Lionism”

Happy New (Lions) Year!

It's now the beginning of our Lions year, 2010-2011!  Our District Governor, Pat Brown, is "down under" wearing his white jacket and being inducted as District 39W's DG.  I couldn't talk him into taking a laptop, so we'll have to wait for his return this weekend to see the photos and hear the stories.  (I'll try to convince him to write on this blog, so check back!)

When DG Pat was campaigning for this position, the two things he emphasized to me were education and training for Lions and better communication.  I think since then he's probably found many more things he'd like to do, see, or change in the coming year, but for now, my topic is communication.

As the new Communications Chair (a pretty broad assignment) my job is to help District Governor Pat, the clubs, and all the members improve our lines of communication.  Last year with District Governor Shirley, we launched the new website, adding more pages and information throughout the year.  In November, we started blogging and added a Facebook page.  These three things will be continued in the coming year.

But we're not stopping there.  Beginning in July (after we have the club officers updated), we will be sending out an e-bulletin, probably on a bi-weekly basis.  This will contain event and party announcements, a calendar, notes and news-things you are used to seeing in your email.  The difference will be a consistent format, no attachments, and the ability for any Lion to sign up or opt out.

The next generation of Paw Prints, our newsletter, will also be premiering.  With it's smaller size, it will be easy to print and send by US mail or distributed to the public.  I'll be asking for feature story writers to help out-especially Lions in the eastern part of our district (hint, hint).
 
As always, please be patient as we work out the kinks, and feel free to comment by clicking that blue comments link below.