Firstly let me apologise for the delay in posting this edition of my blog. I seem to have been busier than ever and a bout of man flu didn’t help. In my last post I told you all about the first training weekend for me and my fellow second Vice District Governors. So what have I been up to since then?
On the Tuesday after the training there was supposed to be a club fund-raising meeting. Unfortunately the chairman, Wim, forgot and didn’t turn up. The other members of the committee, Mick, Jonathan and me, did discuss the health and safety guidelines for litter picks and the sleigh run but then just watched the England v Wales football match.
On Wednesday I attended the first Leadership Committee meeting of the year. This committee is concerned with the development of leaders within the district and runs a number of training events throughout the year. The focus of this meeting was our Autumn Forum event in October, where the Membership, Leadership and Communications committees are doing a joint presentation (More of that later), and a planned Spring Forum to cover the training of incoming club and district officers for next year.
You will remember in my last post that I and a fellow 2nd VDG were going to try out video conferencing. This happened on the Friday using a fee web site, www.koowy.com. After some fiddling with settings we did get the one to one service working quite nicely but the group service kept losing sound. Nevertheless it was nice chatting to Paul from 105EA again.
On Sunday we were due to clean out the Lions’ garage so that the sleigh can get in and out. Fortunately one of our members, Angela, had already done much of the work so there was little for me, Wim and Tim to do. Did have a small load of rubbish to take to the tip though so not entirely unproductive.
And so to the week commencing Monday 12th September. It started with Zone C’s zone meeting with new Zone Chair Terry in charge. Terry did very well t manage a meeting where there were a number of strong personalities present at a well attended meeting.
Tuesday 13th was the first meeting of the MD Convention Host Night committee which I mentioned that I was chairing a couple of posts ago. A very productive meeting which set out a programme for the evening which I must keep to myself for the time being. Bookings for convention are going quite well at the moment and it looks as though we might expect to entertain over 500 lions at the event. The meeting was held at MDHQ, the only administrative office for lions in the British Isles and Ireland. We pay for three members of staff, out of our subs, and a building with a number of meetings rooms that can be used by lions.
Wednesday 14th was my club’s business meeting chaired once again by Pauline as President Tim had been called away to Monte Carlo on business. I set a new personal best for writing and distributing the minutes before I left the hotel.
On Thursday I attended a meeting of the Solihull 7. This is a group comprising the seven clubs that serve within the borough of Solihull (Balsall Common, Castle Bromwich, Birmingham Exhibition, Marston Green, Knowle and Dorridge, Solihull and Shirley). The aim of the group is to try and organise coordinated activities so that better publicity can be obtained and, of course, better service can be given.
Friday was a lions free day apart from preparing a presentation and materials for my bit at Autumn Forum and the usual mail distribution. However I made up for this by having two events on Saturday. The first was a meeting of the Multiple District IT Committee which I am a member of by virtue of being the district IT coordinator. We have a new chairman this year who is having to pick up a number of issues around the management of the MD website. We had a good meeting which included my demonstrating the use of QR codes to the rest of the committee.
And so finally to Saturday evening. I had been invited to attend Wolverhampton Lions Club’s 38th Charter Anniversary Dinner as the official representative of Lions Clubs International as DG Neil and 1st VDG Paul were both unavailable. This was my first Charter in this capacity and I have to confess to some nervousness. As well as me and Christine, the top table comprised Lion President Stephen and sisters Paddy and Marlene, the Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayoress of Wolverhampton. After an excellent meal with good conversation with the Deputy Mayoress it was time for the speeches. The first was Stephen who proposed the toast to Lions Clubs International. I was due to follow but initially the Toastmaster for the evening skipped past me until pointed in the right direction by a fellow club member. I gave a brief speech in response to the toast and toasted Wolverhampton Lions Club in return. The speech seemed to be well received and was followed by a member of the club toasting partners and guests with a response from the Deputy Mayor. The evening was rounded off by winning a bottle of gin in the raffle.
The next issue of the blog probably won’t be for a couple of weeks due to personal commitments but will include details of my club’s charter anniversary and Autumn Forum.
Lion Simon Moss
@simonhmoss @MarstonGnLions @lions105m @lionsclubsorg
332 miles travelled so far as 2nd VDG
105 hours since 1 July 2011 on Lions’ business
My Life as a Lion 
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