My Life as a Lion

Once again some time has passed since my last post but this time it’s more because the end of December and the beginning of January were fairly quiet.

New Year with my Club

As far as Lions activities are concerned the only one in December was New Year’s Eve when a group from my club went to the Marston Farm Hotel for a night of eating, drinking and dancing. At the beginning of January there were two club activities, an indoor duck race and a visit to the Panto, before Christine and I took a well deserved break in Lanzarote with a couple of friends.

Perhaps  a word of explanation is required about the duck race. Traditionally my club used to meet up on News Year’s Day where a small river runs through Marston Green to have a duck race. This involved paying to enter your plastic duck(s). All the entries are then thrown into the river and the first to reach the finishing line wins. A few years ago  the river was too high to be safe and, frankly, the people who used to wade into the river to retrieve the ducks at the finish line no longer wanted to. We therefore moved the race inside with a paper course laid out on the floor and dice used to move the ducks. To be honest it’s just an excuse to get together for some more food and drink and a bit of fun.

And so to, slightly, more serious things. Since returning from holiday I have attended three charter anniversary celebrations and the third Council of Governors meeting of the year. As far as the latter is concerned it was a little strange as it was the last time we will meet as a council at the St Johns Hotel in Solihull. Not my last time there however as I still have two more cabinet meetings and our district convention there.

The council of governors meeting was also a little unnerving as it was the first time that our successors join us. It certainly didn’t seem like a whole year since we were in their position and it brought home the fact that our year is nearly over. One of the activities during the weekend was the election of next years Chairman of Council. I was one of the four candidates and was unsuccessful this time but I will get another opportunity to stand next year. I think that next year’s council have made a good decision in electing Michael Phillips from 105E and I wish him every success for his year in office.

One of the primary bits of business at the meeting was the approval of the budget for next year for submission to the MD Convention in May. The most worrying aspect was that this year’s budget was based on 16,200 members whereas next years is based on only 15,500. In 105M we are just about holding our membership numbers steady but the national trend is definitely downwards. We need to find ways  to make Lions more relevant to younger people so that we can continue to provide the excellent humanitarian and community service that we are known for.

At Kenilworth Charter with Christione, the Mayor and club president Henry and his wife

Finally, going back to the charter anniversaries, all the clubs involved were celebrating 40+ years in existence. This made me think of the great changes that have happened in the world and in my life in the last 40 years. For me I had not seen a computer 40 years ago, a telephone was in your house if you were lucky and for many only existed in a red box on the street and taking photographs required film to be inserted in the camera and to be sent off to Boots for developing afterwards. Having just acquired an iPhone 5S which allows me to telephone from anywhere, and by video if I want to, to take photographs of a quality that would have required the most professional camera equipment around and which has enough computing power to have run a small company, things have definitely changed.

I also thought about how Lions has changed in the same period and while there have definitely been some changes for the better, the acceptance of women as members and greater use of technology for communication, much is probably very similar. The service we provide in this country and around the world is still phenomenal but we could do more and do it better with more younger members. We have to start behaving like members of the largest service organisation in the world and not just as members of our local clubs.

Coming up in February are more club visits, more charter anniversaries and the Lioness convention for which I am host governor. I also need to step up my training for the remaining runs I have to do, especially the Shakespeare half marathon in April.

Lion Simon Moss

@simonhmoss @MarstonGnLions @lions105m @lionsclubsorg @LionsClubsUKIRE

1820 miles travelled as 2nd VDG

1500 miles travelled as 1st VDG

3600 miles  and 25Km travelled as DG

At least 1550 hours since 1 July 2011 on Lions’ activities