The Cable News District 1-F Lions Newsletter

In doing so, you are probably already starting the process of forming your Club’s 2021-2022 Officers, Directors, Committee Chairs, etc. Best Wishes ! Please don’t forget to thank these Lions who have accepted these appointments.

Please remember to get all your Club Members “involved” as soon as possible.

As you may know by now, your District 1-F during late March had North and South Regional virtual Zoom Meetings primarily for Club Presidents, Secretaries, and District Zone Chairs; with reports. Attendance unfortunately was minimal.

However, those who did attend were very interactive. Great discussions and ideas for your District 1-F and its Clubs as well. My thanks to North Lions Zone Chair Maggie Jabeck and Regional Zone Chair Bill Stanley, and South Regional Zone Chair/ PDG Barb Lahtinen and Zone Chair Chuck Lansing for providing these virtual Zoom Meetings for you.

I want to take this time to “highlight” at least one of the lengthy and worthwhile discussions/topics from one of our Regional Zone Meetings — District 1-F areas “not covered” by a Lions Club; for prescription glasses, hearing aides, etc., by residents.

I believe the current procedure is to refer residents from an area without a Lions Club to the nearest Lion Club available. This is fine, but as Lions Clubs have been decreasing over the years it has taken on, in some cases, a significant financial burden to existing Clubs that have expanded beyond their local community.

Everybody realizes that in most cases to the public, such services are part of our Lions identity. We’re in agreement to continue on with this process, however, and as discussed at our District 1-F meetings, it’s becoming real cumbersome for many Clubs to cover these adjacent areas not covered by a Lions Club.

So, how do we resolve this issue in District 1-F, besides starting new Lions Clubs?

The discussion and thought was to have each District 1-F club contribute a set amount of money to perhaps establish a District 1-F fund to help cover the areas without a Lions Club. Maybe develop a District 1-F Budget line item(s), (revenue/ expenses) and Committee Chair to oversee this process. Maybe develop a District 1-F Foundation; we might already have one?

Anyway … the thought being that no one District 1-F Club has the burden to cover ever growing areas beyond their own communities. I believe this thought process has merit to discuss further in the near future. Bring this topic up for discussion at your next Club Meeting. Would your Club be willing to allocate annually a set amount of funds each year to District 1-F for this purpose? Think about it, and please get back to us!

Other Fundraising Thoughts

Based on informal discussions within District 1-F, and the topic of fundraising, an idea that’s been floated around is to replace the current series of District 1-F fundraising events held throughout each year with an annual donation from each club in the district.

As you know, your District 1-F has needed to have fundraisers every year, including District 1-F Convention related Proceedings Booklet, various auctions, etc. As we know, not all District 1-F Clubs participate/ commit to these various District 1-F fundraising efforts.

By requiring an annual club donation to District 1-F, there would be less energy and effort devoted to District 1-F fundraising events. We could still do some fundraising, but without as much pressure and more focus on fun.

So, how about an annual fee that each District 1-F Club contributes to replace the the lion's share of district fundraisers?

Example: remember your kids, or even yourself as a kid, growing up and doing fundraising for your school, sports, etc.? If you remember, it was required you sell a certain amount of candy bars, or whatever, to neighbors or the general public, unless your parents/guardians chose to just contribute a set fee so you didn't have to go door to door or solicit in public.

If the aforementioned process was to be implemented, each District 1-F Club would participate/commit by supplying their annual fee to District 1-F. Thus, we could curtail the deluge of District 1-F fundraising requests that we make each year, and help the district focus on service and fun.

Once again, please keep in mind that all District 1-F fundraisers are for your benefit. One way or another, we have to raise funds for the district just as we do for each of our clubs. Think about it, and please get back to us on this fundraising subject.

Campaign 100

Are you aware of the Lions Club International Foundation's (LCIF) Campaign 100?

With LCIF's three-year capital campaign, the foundation wants to raise $300 million to increase its commitment to communities and the service capacity of Lions. We have 15 months left of this three-year worldwide fundraising campaign.

Thank you to those in District 1-F who have already donated to this cause. I especially want to thank PDG Lion Bill Jordan who has made quite a personal commitment to Campaign 100. Did you realize Lion Bill has been challenging District 1-F Lions to contribute to Campaign 100 by offering to donate $5 for every $1 donated by other Lions in District 1-F — up to a maximum of $50,000.

I couldn’t pass that challenge up and neither should you. I jumped” at this opportunity and recently donated $500 to Campaign 100. Got that Lion Bill? ; )

Check with Lions Club International Foundation website for details on Campaign 100. They even have a Campaign 100 Newsletter.

OK, enough preaching … but I hope I got you thinking for our future. And, as always, the District 1-F Cabinet looks forward to hearing from you.

—Lion Tom Lippert

District 1-F Governor, 2020-2021

Official Call to the Virtual MD-1 State Convention

May 15, 2021 via Zoom

Hello Fellow Lions and Leos of MD-1,

Our 100th Annual MD-1 Convention will be held May 15, 2021. Because of the pandemic restrictions related to the size of gatherings, this year’s convention will be held virtually via ZOOM. All Lions and Leos are invited to attend.

This will be the first – and hopefully only – virtual state convention. The convention committee has spent a lot of time and effort working on this event. I want to thank State Convention Chair Lion Terri Pasternik for her efforts working through uncharted waters this year.

Agenda

Because this is a virtual event there will be no charge for attending so you don’t have to leave the comfort of your home. The agenda is still being finalized but we expect the first plenary session to run from 1:00 to 3:00, followed by district caucuses and voting, with the second and final plenary session running from 6:00 to around 8:15.

Some of the highlights include hearing from our International Guest, recognition of State and International Presidential award recipients, a necrology service, voting on 4 constitutional resolutions, the announcement of the LIF Sight-And-Sound Sweepstakes winners, the revealing of next year’s Council Chair and State Chairs, and six gift card giveaways.

International Guest

Our International Guest this year is Past International President Clem Kusiak. PIP Clem is excited to be visiting with the Lions of Illinois and we look forward to having him with us via Zoom on May 15th.

Registration

As stated earlier, registration is free this year but to attend or be a delegate you must register. Click here to register.

Voting Information

This year’s election will be held using Election Runner, an approved LCI electronic election program. All voting will occur between 3:00 PM and 5:45 PM on Saturday, May 15, 2021 using this software.

Delegates

Clubs will be entitled to the number of delegates based on their membership according to Lions International as of April 1, 2021. Each Club gets 1 delegate per 10 members or major fraction.

Example – a Club with 26-34 members gets 3 delegates. A Club with 35-44 members gets 4 delegates. PDGs should be listed as delegates and do not count toward the club’s number of allowed delegates.

Each Club will return their delegate form, to be received by their district Secretary by no later than May 5, 2021. Download Delegate Form here.

Then, each district Secretary will submit Club delegate forms to the State SST - to be received by the SST no later than May 10, 2021.

Your Club MUST be in Good Standing to be able to vote – that means the Club is current with their District and MD-1 State dues by April 30, 2021. This is 15 days prior to the convention in accordance with the MD-1 C&BL.

Once your Club’s delegate form is received by SST Mary and your Club is verified to be in good standing, CC Joe Vinyard will issue an email to each delegate with their unique Username and Password for the Election Runner software during the week of May 10, 2021.

Delegates MUST have an email address to be able to vote.

Delegates MUST be registered for the convention.

Resolutions

Attached to this email are the 4 constitutional Resolutions that will be on the ballot this year. Click here to download the resolutions.

Please bear with us as we work though some unprecedented circumstances to put on a successful convention for the Lions of Illinois. We look forward to “seeing” you on May 15th at our 100th state convention.

Thank you for all you are doing to serve your communities!!

—Joe Vinyard

MD-1 Council Chairperson

Grayslake Lions Club Coffee Fundraiser