My Life as a Lion

So here I am about to start the next leg of the journey of my life as a Lion. On Monday 29th June the current Council Chairman will handover to me and so begins a year as the chairman of Lions Clubs International for the British Isles and Ireland. This handover will take place at the British Isles and Ireland Reception at the Lions Clubs International Convention in Hawaii which is where I am writing this from now at 4am local time. Unusually for me my body clock has not adjusted to the 11 hour time difference between here and the UK.

As you will know from my posts from Hamburg and Toronto, the international convention is where lions, from all of the 210 countries where there are lions clubs, come together to elect next year’s officers and vote on resolutions that affect the whole organisation. In addition there are presentations and seminars designed to inform lions of the latest projects being undertaken around the world and to help the lions leaders to be more effective in their roles. It is also where the 750 district governors for next year receive their last three days training and are officially installed into their positions. Around 30-40,000 lions will be in Honolulu for this convention.

It is worth emphasising at this point that the cost of the convention is borne entirely by the 1.4 million lions clubs members from their membership subscriptions so that all money raised by lions can be used for charitable and service activities.

At the end of the training for the new district governors there is a celebration banquet and Christine and I were honoured to be invited to this years as guests of next years council of governors for the British Isles and Ireland. The event was held outside with traditional Hawaiian entertainment and local food which was very nice. Unusually the dress code was Aloha formal rather than the normal black tie and white jackets which was entirely appropriate for the temperature.

Christine and I with Winster (centre)

Apart from attending the banquet last night, Christine and I visited the convention centre yesterday to register and look around the exhibitions. It was also an opportunity to meet up with some friends, in particular two of my fellow governors from 2013-14 Nancy, who was handing out leaflets as we came in, and Winster who was, as usual, installed in the social media area helping lions to come into the 21st century.

Later today is the international parade which takes place along a mile of the main street in Waikiki. We lions tend to think of this as a great thing and it is fantastic to take part in it. Spare a thought for the locals though for whom it largely means delays and diversions.

Hopefully this is the start of more frequent updates as I go through the year but for now I will sign off and try to get a couple of hours sleep before a very long day.

In the meantime you  can find out more about the convention at http://lcicon.lionsclubs.org/EN/index.php

Lion Simon Moss

@simonhmoss @MarstonGnLions @lions105m @lionsclubsorg @LionsClubsUKIRE