July 2007 Newsletter & President's Corner

Meet the new boss… same as the old boss… The Who’s Roger Daltrey sang those words disappointedly – I’d feel proud if that was expressed of my coming tenure as President.

The men who’ve led our club the last couple years that I’ve witnessed have done an excellent job and I hope I can fill their shoes. I’d like to especially thank outgoing president Lion John Nogle for his vision in several areas. First, as leader of the Trout Derby two years ago he pushed us to think outside the box, had a great Derby in 2006 and really set the stage for the success of this year’s Derby. The second area of vision was to see us grow as a club. We were able to see a number of new members during the past year - unfortunately, we lost several great members during his term resulting in only modest overall growth.

Service organizations continue to lose membership (and increase in median age) across the country. It’s just not seen as a priority by the coming generation. I think we have an exceptional club that we can be proud to promote. Let’s be an example that goes against the norm – guys are not going to just wander into our meetings wanting to be part of us. It takes a personal invitation (and multiples thereof) to solicit new members. Look to Lion Dave Rotz as an example – there is rarely a week that he does not invite a guest to our meeting. The law of averages says that a few of the guests will join – as several of us have. Look around your circle of acquaintances and pick out a few quality leaders to invite. If each member brings just one new guest each quarter we’ll see some exciting growth. Lastly, our immediate past president had a vision for service to our community. Our Lions motto is ‘We Serve’ and we need to continue to find ways to do that. The Trout Derby is very successful and the resultant finances provide a great help to our community. I do think there are times we need to put our feet and hands into those needs also. Let’s look at ways we can be a visible presence in the community.

Do you already have a project that you volunteer for and support? Why not present it at a meeting, invite a few additional lions and make it one of our service projects? We don’t all have to do each project, just different groups working in different areas and pretty soon it appears the Noontime Lions are everywhere…  Where would you like to see us go as an organization? I’d love to hear your input. (717)552-3204 or dean@noonlions.com