District Governor’s Message - September, 2012

By the time that you receive this Newsletter, it will be September, and we would have visited 26 Clubs in our District, and have also attended our first Council Meeting in Sydney.

There is no doubt that all the Clubs are different, but is the unique style in our Lions Organization. Both Carol and I are really enjoying the hospitality that has been given to us at each Club that we have been to.

All of the Clubs do a outstanding job in their community, with the “Country Clubs” providing lots of special needs in the winter like; Fire Wood, Meals etc etc to the elderly in their community. We have both been imprested in what is happening in our Clubs.

We have also presented a number of “Alan J. Holding Awards” (8 so far), and one “James D. Richardson Award”.

I was pleased to read that the great work that was done by a group of Lions in the Geelong Region has been rewarded. The leader of this group was Lion Michael Harris from the Lions Club of Geelong South Barwon, who due to his efforts received an award from the “Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation”. The award was for “State Volunteer

f the Year Contribution”. o

The Lions from District V2 congratulate you and your hard working committee, Lions Maree Konieczka, Colin Brooker, Peter Johnson, Harvey Price and all the Lions who supported this event, making it a great success. Well done!

We also had our 1st Cabinet Meeting in Geelong, and this was well attended. At the same time we conducted our second Region Meeting like the one in Ararat. We had about 80+ attending at this meeting and once again we were addressed by a number of District Chairmen on their portfolios.

Thanks to the Lions Club of Geelong Breakfast or hosting. f

District Convention 2012, hosted by the Lions Club of Altona: The time is getting closer to once again look at the upcoming District Convention on November 9th, 10th and 11th. Registration papers are been sent to all the Clubs by the end of August. Please respond to them early, so that the Organizing Committee can plan and deliver a great Convention for your enjoyment. By now you would have seen that our theme for the Convention is;

“WE ARE THE WORLD”

Please consider dressing up with the Convention theme in mind.

There will be three great Forums on the Saturday, more on this at a later date. We also will have PCC Sheryl Jensen attending and PCC Sheryl will be our Key Note speaker on Sunday Morning.

We look forward in seeing as many Lions and Partners, Lionesses and Partners and Leos at our Convention in November.

Our Convention Organizing Committee has worked very hard in the past 18 months to bring you a great Convention, and I sure you will not be disappointed.

Lou Scholten, District Governor

We Serve

Carol’s Chatter

At the time of writing this, D.G. Lou and I will have visited 15 Clubs and Camp Koala, so you can see we have hit the ground running. It has been a very interesting and rewarding time for us both.

Lions Clubs International District 201V2 Newsletter – September, 2012 Page 2

We have travelled from the Ararat Changeover to Balmoral, Dimboola, Dunkeld, Home, Williamstown, Coleraine, City of Horsham, Home, Pt, Cook, Torquay, Camp Koala, Home, Pt. Fairy Belfast, Camperdown, Home, Rupanyup, Penshurst & District and back to Ararat, Leopold. Home, and then on to Murtoa. So you can tell we have been busy, but as I expected it has been a great experience so far. One could say it’s an impressive list.

We have approached it so far with a little bit of fear and trepidation, but that was a mistake on our part because all Clubs have been warm and friendly, we thank you all for that. But as you can understand we spend a lot of time together and the amazing thing to me is that we are still speaking to one another, Wonders will never cease!!!

As some of the lyrics in my Father’s favorite song John Denver’s “Some days are Diamonds, Some days are stones”, the evenings are the Diamonds and the travelling is the stones. The travelling is a tiring part, but we are learning. One day to waste time we drove all day to travel 120 kms. We certainly got to see everything in that area, got dressed in a public toilet, and after the meeting (which was a very good one} I drove 2 hours to get home, which was 185 kms, and we arrived home at 11.45 p.m. We won’t do that again! Next time we organize ourselves better.

All meetings have been different, but one thing is universal in all our visits - that is the welcome and the room full of smiling faces that greet us.

Lions Lady Carol Scholten

New Members

District Governor Lou and Members and Partners of District 201V2 welcome the following new Members, and thank their Sponsors for introducing them into the Lions family.

New Sponsor Lions Club of Heywood

Chris Oberlander Max Oberlander Jim Millard Ron Hoggan Pam Millard Thelma Hoggan

Lions Club of Leopold Ian Crocos Rhiannon Russell

Retention

Following on from what I wrote in the August District Newsletter I would like to continue to unpack some of the information to be found in “Member Retention a case of Routine Maintenance NOT Rocket Science”

eveloped by PDG Bill Duncanson. d

Commandment 2 – Give Lions tasks they will enjoy: One of the features of a Lions Club is the opportunity for us to make use of a very wide range of talents, skills and life experiences that Lions members bring into our organisation. We are wise to make good use of them.

At the same time do not assume that the local bank manager will be happy to be Club Treasurer as he or she may wish to take on a totally different challenge in the Club, nor to just allocate tasks so as to say the Club has everyone in the Club involved in a portfolio.

Seek out what the members wish to be involved it, have meaningful projects that reflect the needs of the community we serve and be aware of the skills, talents and interests of members to implement the projects.

Look at Committee structures within the Club and possibly use the guidance of the three vice Presidents as this will allow for orderly planning, implementing and reporting of projects, and ensures the overall program workload is fairly evenly distributed.

Strive for member ownership of Club projects and activities and members will want to be involved and keep coming back as they see themselves as serving the needs of their community.

Phillip Johnson 2nd Vice District Governor – Retention

Communications

A New Vision! The District Website has been off-line for some time now due to technical problems.

However, the notice of motion regarding the IT Officer setting up a new website for the District was approved at the Williamstown Cabinet Meeting.

The forthcoming new website will be much easier and friendly to edit. It will incorporate all the appropriate links to International, Multiple District and Club sites.

I am looking forward with confidence that the new site will be the final model that will take us into the future without any more hassles.

Jeff Cahn Communications Officer

Lions Hearing Dogs

My husband and I recently returned from a visit to South Australia where we visited the Lions Hearing Dog Training Centre at Verdun near Hahndorf.

The Training Centre was purpose built, and has a Quarantine area for the new dogs where they remain until the Vets give them the all clear. Dogs are aged between 6 months and 3 Years old, must be healthy, and must have a happy friendly nature. If they pass that they’re ready for training.

The majority of the time, there are 16 dogs in various stages of training at the Centre.

There are undercover pens/cages for individual night quarters, and day yards, play areas, also caged birds, 1 cat, 2 sheep, 1 goat, 2 horses and a donkey and they are all part of the training course. The dogs must be able to accept other animals. There are rooms set up as in a house, bedroom, kitchen, lounge and there are noise devices that buzz, ring, etc. even a recording of a baby crying that’s placed in a cot in the “bedroom”. The dogs are watched and their responses monitored, in fact everything that the dogs do or don’t do, is monitored. Part of the training is also done in public areas e.g. public transport, crossing roads, shops, cafes etc.

This Program is reliant on donations from Lions Districts and Clubs of Australia, so on behalf of the Hearing Impaired people of Australia, “Thank you” all for supporting this important and very necessary program. Your generosity provides us with a dog that gives quality of life and peace of mind that would not be there otherwise.

Maureen Capizzi District Chairperson Hearing, Hearing Dogs

Lions Club of Clifton Springs

Lions Clubs International District 201V2 Newsletter – September, 2012 Page 3

3 Course Charter Lunch Sunday 23rd September 2012

at the Clifton Springs Golf Club Clearwater Drive, Clifton Springs

12:00 for 12:30pm Cost - $32.00 per head

Dress - Jacket & Tie RSVP - 14th September

Names, Dietary Requirement and Payment To: The Secretary, PO BOX 656, Drysdale, 3222

Enquiries: Paul Taylor – 0407 502 071 (Secretary)

Joan Cook - 0409 387 221 (President)

Sponsored by The Lions Club of Portarlington Drysdale

District Convention 9th – 11th November, 2012

Your accommodation should be booked by now

Lion Val Bacon is waiting for your call on 9398 4635 if you need help with this.

Your Club Secretaries should have the Registration forms now, so if you haven’t heard let me know.

Please do not leave registering to the last minute as there is a lot to do by the Convention Committee, and early returns would be appreciated.

Your country you are coming as on the Saturday night should be well on the way. If not, you better get cracking!

There has been feed back that you are not allowed to dress up as an ‘Aussie’. That is not the case. We would like some but we did not want everyone to come as one.

We are having three Partners’ Tours. One will be an hour’s walk around Williamstown, another a Double Decker bus tour around Williamstown and Altona finishing at the Altona Homestead with a Devonshire afternoon tea, and the other a two hour cruise on the bay with afternoon tea. This is in a tram boat.

There will be three Forums on the Saturday afternoon with some interesting topics.

Please put this date in your diary to attend and let us show you some great hospitality.

Less than three months to go!

Faye Cook Convention Organizing Committee Chairman

Phone: 9369 3666

Friendships are like diamonds – If they are ignored and allowed to tarnish, they quickly lose their value, but if they are polished and maintained, they appreciate in value and bring joy to our lives.

Global Membership Team ReportI would like to commence my August report by saying that Lion Dennis Grant has put in an extraordinary effort in firstly getting himself trained in the Club Excellence Process as a facilitator and then by conducting a number of training sessions himself. Lion Dennis’ efforts have now resulted in a number of members being trained as CEP facilitators enabling the presentation and implementation of this project over our entire District. PCC Lion Bruce Hudgson tells me there are a number of “irons in the fire” in regards to the establishment of new Clubs with some moving toward Charter.

Lions Clubs International District 201V2 Newsletter – September, 2012 Page 4

I would like to encourage members to understand that as individuals, you are the single best instrument of recruiting we possess! We have different recruitment programs without doubt, but we tend to overlook the value of asking “Have you ever considered being a Lion?”

If you consider that the charter of two new Clubs in the past year (Point Cook and Corio/Norlane) has taken place and our Internet Membership Inquiry system has enabled me to channel approximately 30 new members into our District, it would appear we are doing things fairly well.

However, we can improve and we need to because despite these encouraging signs our District membership has increased by only 50 overall. Sadly, we are losing members, many with less than 3 years service. We need to address this loss and find out why it is happening and what we can do to prevent it. That’s where the Club Excellence Process comes into its own and now that we have facilitators trained by Lion Dennis, there is no need for Clubs to flounder in confusion. Help is just a phone call away and I am certain Lion Dennis would be excited to hear from you.

Visiting Clubs has provided me with the opportunity to meet some wonderful, experienced Lions and witness a number of Club Changeovers recently. What I have found to be very encouraging is the willingness of members to take on new roles and avoid the temptation of simply “re-cycling”. Keep up the good work, Lions, and remember your Cabinet is here to support.

Lion Wayne Oakes, Global Membership Team Co-ordinator

Camp Koala

PDG Max and Lion Chris Oberlander recently spent a week at Camp Koala in Queenscliff with 35 overseas youth exchangees. Everyone had a wonderful time with many fun activities and trips around the local area. New friends were made and everyone learned much about each other and the 15 countries represented at the camp. Pictures show a group photographed with a ‘Redcoat’ at Sovereign Hill, Ballarat, and the campers with Queenscliff/Point Lonsdale Lions. The Lions provided morning tea after an energetic bike ride. Congratulations to V2 Youth Camp Co-Ordinator, Adrian Miles, on another successful camp

Member Welfare

The sincerest sympathy of District Governor Lou, Lions and Partners of our District 201 V2 are with all those whose loved ones have passed away recently. To Lions Lady Rene Francis and the Lions Club of Natimuk on the passing of Lion Ray Francis; Lions Lady Kathy LeMatre and the Lions Club of Bannockburn & District on the passing of Lion Ian LeMatre (Charter Member); Lions Malcolm and PDG Mary Harlow (Altona) on the passing of their Brother-in Law in England; Lion John and Carmel Smitten, (Heywood) on the passing of John’s Mother; Lion Anthony and Jillian O’Connor, (Simpson & District) on the passing of Anthony’s Father; Russell and Val Hempill, (Rupanyup) on the passing of their Daughter; and to Lion Ted and Valerie Skinner (Sunshine) on the passing of Ted’s Mother.

To all Lions and Partners who are suffering ill health we wish you a speedy recovery.

Get well wishes to Lions Lady Gwenda Woodward (Hamilton) recovering from surgery; Lion Mary Clarke (Forrest & District); PDG Gordon Williams (Kaniva), Lion Helen Begley and Lion Tim De Jong (Simpson & District).

District Governor Lou and Lions Lady Carol will be undertaking Club visits during the coming year and I would like to be notified of any Lion who is unwell so that if time permits a visit by them to our sick members may be arranged.

Many Happy returns to all Lions who have had Birthdays this Month. Special Birthday wishes to Lion Yvonne Johnson (Altona) who celebrated her Birthday at District Changeover; Lion Deb Payton on her 60th Birthday; Lion Bob Brooks on his 70th Birthday (both are from Forrest & District). Lion Bev McCrohan (Leopold) on her 70th Birthday. Belated 70th Birthday wishes to Lion Sam Lochhead (Leopold). Congratulations to Lion Don and Jo Johns, (City of Horsham) who celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary recently.

Thank you to the Clubs that have contacted me to inform me of these events. Remember that it is important that our Lions and Partners are recognized in the appropriate way.

Mary Antonoff Welfare Chairman

maryantonoff@bigpond.com

Lions Village Licola.

This is my first report as your Licola Chairman for 2012-13. Thank you, DG Lou, for allowing me to serve on your Cabinet.

This is your Village, the same as all Lions in the 5 ‘V’ Districts, so I need your help to have a effective position on the Board of your village. If you have any concerns or ideas please feel free to contact me. We can discuss and present V2 ideas on Licola.

The first camp at Licola for 2013 is exclusive for V2 Clubs. This is because we contribute to the numbers for Camps. This is from Monday 7th to Friday 11th January, 2013.

Please when you receive the Application Forms, complete them immediately, send off with your Club’s cheque, to the address on the form. From this you will be sent forms and information to be completed by the parents or guardian. When completed get them back, go and talk with the family, answer their questions, complete any questions that have not been answered, make sure the Club details have been included, then return the forms. Keep in touch with the family, remind them a week before the Camp!

A bus will leave Geelong at 7:00am (Yes, 7 in the morning!) from Geelong City Hall and pick up at Corio and Werribee Caltex Service Station for children from Corio and Little River, then proceed to Licola.

Lion Brian Edward from Geelong Corio Bay Lions Club will co ordinate this. He will contact your Club. Any questions please contact Brian or me.

Ken Johnston Licola Chairman

Phone (03) 9749 3408 (Mobile) 0400 726 868

Any man who rests on his laurels is wearing them in the wrong place! Remember, more muscles are needed to make a frown than are needed to make a smile! Happiness is when you bring a smile to another’s face.

Lions Clubs International District 201V2 Newsletter – September, 2012 Page 5

Get those cameras clicking!

Lions Environmental Photo Contest is on in earnest. Have your members take a photo in one of the categories below: Animal Life Landscape (Urban or Rural) Plant Life Weather Phenomenon Protecting our future with trees (Artistic merit and portrayal of the environmental theme) Time for some fun with your members. Have your own Photo Contest and enter your winner’s photo in the LIONS ENVIRONMENTAL PHOTO CONTEST. Photo’s should be an original, unaltered black-and-white or colour photo (without people). Clubs should select one winning 8” x 10” (20.3 x 25.4cm) photo and send to the District Chairman or bring it to the Convention. Winning entries will be displayed, and judging will be done at the District Convention at Altona on 9th -11th November. District Winner will go onto Multiple District. This winner will then be entered into the International contest. Lions Clubs International will display Multiple District winners at the International Convention. Registered Convention attendees will then vote for their favorite photo. An award will be presented to the winning photo in each category, plus a “Best of the Show”. Winning photos will appear on the Lions Web site. Remember the size - 8” x 10” (20.3 x 25.4cm) - if it is not correct a possible winner could be disqualified.

Kevin Buck District Chairman

Environment Photo Competition

Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends! Life is too short and friends are too few.

Peace Posters

If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to order your Peace Poster kits.

Orders must be completed by 1st October 2012.

The Peace Poster competition has been promoted in the August edition of the Education Dept. Magazine “Inspire”, so Clubs may be approached by their local schools to participate.

If you don’t support this program you may want to have another think about doing so.

Remember the Zone Judging will be done at the Convention, so I will need entries either brought to the Convention 9th -11th November for display and judging, or sent to me by Wednesday 7th November, (not the 15th as advised in the kits).

Kevin Buck District Chairman

Peace Poster

Lions Best Iced Christmas Cake Competition

All Clubs are invited to enter an iced decorated cake at the District Convention in Altona. The winning Club will receive a carton of 1.5kg Christmas Cakes!!

Rules are simple. Clubs may enter both a 1kg and 1.5kg cake. The cakes are to be given to me at the Christmas Cake Stand either Friday Afternoon or by 9.00 a.m. Saturday Morning.

They can be decorated in a Christmas or Special Occasion Theme. e.g. Wedding, Birthday or Anniversary.

The cakes will be judged by District Governor Lou and the winner announced at Convention.

The aim of the competition is to promote our Lions Christmas Cake and to raise funds for Warringa Park Special School, Hoppers Crossing. This project is fully supported by District Governor Lou.

I am asking Clubs (not compulsory) if they would consider donating their cakes to support this project. The cakes that are donated will be auctioned at the Saturday Night Function at Convention. All funds raised will be given to Warringa Park Special School.

If you have any queries please call me on (H) 0352 641 505, (W) 0352 770 601 or email reeveaj@bigpond.com

I look forward to receiving your entries. PDG Allan Reeve

Christmas Cake Chairman

Lions Clubs International District 201V2 Newsletter – September, 2012 Page 6

D.G. Lou’s Visitation Schedule

September, 2012

Monday, 3rd Forrest & District Wednesday, 5th Merino Digby Thursday, 6th Heywood Tuesday, 11th Birregurra & District Wednesday, 12th Melbourne Vietnamese Tuesday, 18th Colac Thursday, 20th Geelong Corio Bay Sunday, 23rd Clifton Springs Charter Monday, 24th Apollo Bay Tuesday, 25th Geelong Hamlyn Heights Wednesday, 26th Portarlington Drysdale

October, 2012

Monday, 1st Macarthur & District Tuesday, 2nd Grovedale Waurn Ponds Thursday, 4th Geelong Saturday, 6th Cabinet Dinner, Altona Sunday, 7th Cabinet Meeting, Altona

District Awards 2011-2012

Lions Clubs International District 201V2 Newsletter – September, 2012 Page 7

Congratulations to all the Lions who received District Awards for the year 2011/2012 presented at the District Changeover at Ararat.

Star Award Donna Mathers. Wendy Hellebrand, Michael Harris,

Craig Simmonds, & Malcolm Smith

DG’s Appreciation Award John Mitchell, Terry Uniacke, John Bowles,

& Bruce Hudgson

DG’s Medal of Merit Bill Mathers & Adrian Miles

Melvin Jones Fellow Stewart Pyers, Norm Tosch & Geoff Handbury.

Best Club Bulletin Camperdown (PDG Bill Duncanson – Editor)

Best Mint Sales - City of Horsham

Best Christmas Cake Sales - Warrnambool

Bank of Ideas Award - Leopold

Activities Shield - Altona

Premier Club - Altona

Well Done! D.G. Lou Scholten

Club Excellence Process A roadmap to a Strong Membership

This report is following on from my article in last month’s Newsletter regarding the progress of the Club Excellence Process At Club and Zone presentations, a common question keeps popping up. That question is: “What is the best way to try to get new members?”

The Club Excellence Process (CEP) requires that participating Clubs carry out 2 reviews

1 Review of Community needs 2 Review of Club process and wellbeing

The reason that the community needs review is first is that the majority of Members join Lions to help their community and it gives the Club the opportunity to modify their successful programs to meet ever changing community needs.

If Clubs then go to the community seeking new Members, they will be armed with current relevant programs that community minded citizens would like to participate in, and feel they were making an important contribution to their community

There exist many practical examples of Clubs gaining new Members by presenting current relevant Club projects and being successful in inducting new Members. Two local examples of this are Corio-Norlane and the soon to be chartered Clifton Springs Club. Both these new Clubs approached their communities with relevant projects and achieved 27 Members within 5 -6 months.

Seeking new Members still requires the effort of going to the community and presenting their current and relevant programs. The end result is that the Club will be successful in introducing new Members

All stages of this process are supported by the commitment of independent facilitators and the District Global Membership team

Clubs wishing to learn more about this exciting process can contact me

Dennis Grant District Global Membership Chairman

A friend is the best thing to have and the best thing to be.

District Cabinet Secretary’s Report

I thought last month was a busy one but it looks like each one is going to be busy! Again this month I have had several enquiries about WMMR access which I have been able to answer. I thank 1st VDG Stewart for his assistance in answering some of the harder queries.

There are quite a few Clubs who haven’t registered their new Office Bearers on the website. I have listed the names of all Secretaries in their respective Clubs on the LCI WMMR Web page, for those who haven’t already done so, please logon.

The District has held two Region meetings since my last report, the first in Ararat after the District Changeover for Clubs in Regions 4 to 7 and the second in Geelong for Clubs in regions 1 to 3. Both of these were very well attended with 75 Club Officers in Ararat and 90 in Geelong. The Geelong meeting was preceded by the first District Cabinet Meeting, and for those Cabinet Officers who couldn’t make it because of illness, I hope you recovered quickly.

My thanks again to the Ararat and Geelong Breakfast Clubs for providing excellent venues for holding such a gathering, and of course, for the wonderful morning teas and lunches and looking after the Partners.

There were a few errors listed in the Multiple District directory. Please note: * The content detail of Coleraine and Corio-Norlane Lions Clubs has been transposed. * Lara Club address is PO Box 97 (not 197)

* Region Chairperson Kerry Cook - Delete home phone number (she hasn’t got one!) * Youth of the Year Chairperson Judi Oakes – Delete Mobile phone number * Newsletter Editor Valda Pritchard – No mobile phone and email is: valian1@iprimus.com.au * 2nd VDG Phillip Johnson – Phone number should be 5232 1858 * Leo Bull, Secretary, Dartmoor Club – Phone number should be 0409 094 802 * GMT Co-ordinator Wayne Oakes – Phone number should be 5593 3254 * Corio-Norlane meeting times 2nd and 4th Tuesday * Sunshine meeting times 2nd and 4th Thursday

These are some I have picked up or been notified about, if there any others please let me know.

Just a gentle reminder to Club Secretaries, please return the District Governor’s visitation confirmation and questionnaire sheets to me as early as possible, as it gives me time to prepare any certificates you might want him to present, and also gives the District Governor time to familiarise himself with your Club’s activities.

And, of course, the old perennial, please log on to your club WMMR site and submit your Monthly Membership Reports and Activity reports on time.

Bob Gilchrist Cabinet Secretary