My Life as a Lion

… what’s it going to be like if and when I’m District Governor?

Following the relative calm of July, August is proving to be a busy month. After the district changeover which I talked about in my last post I attended Zone H’s first Zone meeting of the year on 27th July accompanied by district water projects officer Pauline.

Pauline is travelling around the district promoting her appeal to renovate 10 water wells in Niger, originally provided by a project run by North Sea Lions (a consortium of Lions from the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark). Further information can be found at www.lions105m.org.uk/wateraid.htm.

The zone meeting was well attended and well run with the usual mix of business and good humour you come to expect when you’ve met a few lions. As well as including Pauline’s presentation, the meeting provided me with my first opportunity to speak as 2nd Vice District Governor. I started by adding my support to Pauline’s project and providing some additional information about the DG Partner’s project for this year, Christians Against Poverty (more on this in a later post).

The main purpose of my visit was to encourage all members to read and comment on the District Five Year Plan, but this year I have many hats so in my roles as Communication Chairman and District Webmaster I also promoted the use of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Blogging) by clubs. In this day and age I believe that it is essential that a Lions Club has a website, and I’m ashamed to say that a few still don’t, and that the use of social media enhances the image of the club amongst the target population for new members.

The next evening was spent training deputy webmaster, Joy, in the dark arts of website creation. The main task of the night was to redesign the Midland News page. I have separately been revamping the district website and finished phase one on 3rd August. Next I need the various district officers to provide updated or new content for the site and I will be making a further appeal to them at our district cabinet meeting later in the month.

Following a boozy family weekend I attended another Zone meeting on Monday 1st August. This time it was Zone I’s meeting chaired by first time zone chairman, Martin. Another well run meeting which ended with the zone skittles competition being held as a Wii bowling event. My presentation was pretty much the same as at the previous meeting although on this occasion I was accompanied by my wife, Region Chairman Christine, who provided some questions on the use of social media that allowed me to promote this blog.

On Tuesday 2nd August I held my first Long Range Planning Meeting as chairman. Although the conversations often strayed away from the main subject matter, it was nevertheless a productive meeting with some actions to take forward to help get the district on board and working within the plan. Many thanks to my committee for their time and input.

I‘ve already mentioned Wednesday’s revamp of the website but I also had to spend some time writing and submitting my reports to Cabinet for the four roles I am holding this year. Last night, Thursday 4th August, was the first Finance and Administration Committee meeting of the lions’ year. Some interesting discussions mainly around the finances of the district and an excellent job by 1st VDG Paul as chairman. 

A Lions free weekend now follows although it will still be busy as we catch up with a few friends. Next week there’s a club fund raising meeting, club business meeting and another zone meeting to go to. Busy busy busy…but loving it, so far. 

Lion Simon Moss
@simonhmoss @MarstonGnLions @lions105m @lionsclubsorg

120 miles travelled so far as 2nd VDG
50 hours since 1 July 2011 on Lions’ business