Dear Club Officers,
Do you know what to expect when your club succeeds in recruiting more women and young people as members?
Experience shows that your club will gain:- Energy
- Commitment
- Connections
- New ideas
- Enthusiasm and a spirit of fun, and
- Deep concern for the well-being of the community and a desire to make the world a better place for all.
Sound familiar? They should. These are attributes for which Lions Clubs International has been justly famous for more than 90 years. When we set a goal for increasing the diversity of our clubs, we are simply looking for old virtues in new places. It is our way of holding fast to our fundamental ideals while recognizing the ways in which society has changed over the recent decades. It is undeniable that women have empowered themselves and have become important participants in business, civic and cultural affairs. Their ever-growing numbers in Lions Clubs International has enriched our association and I am proud to say that women now make up 18.4 percent of our membership, up from 13.5 percent just four years ago.
Thanks largely to the technological revolution, the world no longer works on a “seniority system.” New ideas are more likely to be judged on their merits than by the age or experience of those who suggest them. Any organization that dismisses the contributions and wisdom of bright young people does so at great peril. Fortunately, Lions’ new student membership program provides your club with an unparalleled opportunity to include future leaders in your membership or to help form a student club at a nearby campus. Please see here for more details about this exciting program. Another important way for your club to capture the future is by doing everything possible to bring active Leos into full Lions Club membership. To learn more about making the transition from Leo to Lion, please see here. I urge you to embrace today’s reality by doing your best to meet your club’s goals for recruiting new members. Remember, there are tried-and-true methods that will enable your club to successfully meet this challenge.
- Target groups of potential members not individuals.
- Give new members special assignments that are uniquely suited to their talents
- Make sure that new members’ voices are heard within the club.
- Groom newcomers to assume leadership positions by giving them special responsibilities as assistants or “interns” to current leaders.
You never know what might happen when you put these “best practices” into effect. In the suburbs of Toronto, Canada, the newly formed, Ontario York Region Heritage Lions Club sponsored a video game tournament that involved parent-child teams from throughout the area. An event designed to bring families together was a natural project for the club which consists entirely of parents and their offspring. And it is not hard to imagine that the new club will add even more family groups because of the excitement generated by the tournament.
If we truly wish to live up to the motto, “We Serve,” we must serve our communities as they really are today, not as we might imagine them to be. Including more women and young people in our clubs is the best possible way to gain this insight and open up previously unimagined avenues of service.
As always I thank you for all you do for the members of your club, your community and all the people of our world.
Sincerely,
Mahendra Amarasuriya
International President
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