Dear
Lion Watson,
Greetings.As we approach the final
weeks of 2009-10, I'm again very
pleased to report that Lions all
over the world have indeed "Moved
to Grow!" Our net membership
growth through May has reached plus
33,817. This compares to a net
positive growth of 23,729 for the
same period last year - making for
an unprecedented 42% improvement.
This is by far the best net
membership growth through May that
our association has experienced in
decades. My congratulations to all
of you who have helped produce these
remarkable, historic results.
While not every one of LCI's seven
constitutional areas are positive
(two - USA and Canada -- are
slightly down), all areas have
improved significantly over historic
trends. Our total worldwide
membership now stands at 1,352,136.
And we are now on track to realize
the best membership growth in LCI's
modern history if we can keep up the
momentum through June.
We know that June is when some clubs
drop members more than in other
months. Before you drop a member
who has not been active lately,
please reach out to them and let
them know you care. Ask them to
consider coming back and let them
know their presence is missed. I
know that all us as human beings
really appreciate it when someone
calls to say they miss us. You may
be surprised by the number of
positive responses you get.
In the
meantime, as we work toward the most
successful membership growth year in
Lions history, let me share two more
special success stories.
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New Country |
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I am proud to report the LCI will
soon be adding its 206th
country and geographic territory
to our international family. The
Kingdom of Bhutan, nestled between
India and China, will join our ranks
this month. The country's home
minister will be joining me on stage
in Sydney to celebrate this historic
event.
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Women at Lions
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The number of women members
continues to surge ahead this year.
We have a net gain of +23,233 women
members this year, bringing the
grand total of women members to
298,592. I sincerely hope we can
cross the 300,000 mark by the end of
the June.
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I am convinced that the continued
success of our association - and its
growth - will be based on the
dual strategy of forming new
clubs and bringing in new members on
the one side, and working to grow
the size of existing clubs to
control long-term retention. Our 51
new ginkgo winners (listed right)
have proven it can be done.
And to help us move even faster into
the future, I am also pleased to
report that the Joint Board
Committee working on a plan and
concept for restructuring MERL is
nearing completion. The new plan,
which will be reviewed at the
upcoming Sydney board meeting, will
result in the Global Membership Team
being expanded down to the district
level; in "retention" being
refashioned into a "club success"
function complete with new tools
such as the Club Excellence Process;
and with leadership being elevated
to its own platform under a new
structure and team to be called the
Global Leadership Team. This is
just one more example of how we have
worked on many levels to Move to
Grow our great association.
The continent of Africa will also be
helping us move to an even brighter
future. I traveled there last week
with our executive director to
discuss the LCI board's recent
decision to treat Africa as its own
distinct area similar to a
constitutional area. They are now
working to Move to Grow like never
before, and they wanted me to relay
their sincere thanks and gratitude
to all of you.
So my fellow Lions, let's all do
what we can in these final weeks to
bring our association to heights it
has never reached before.And thank
you again, from the bottom of my
heart, for all you have done to make
this a truly remarkable year.
With cordial regards,
Eberhard J. Wirfs
International President
MOVE TO GROW
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Ginkgo Leadership Winners
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The last of my special
Ginkgo membership growth
challenges - the Ginkgo
Leadership Award- has met
with great success.
Initially 51 District
Governors have preliminarily
met the requirements of
forming or restarting at
least two clubs while also
growing the average size of
existing clubs. Please join
me in congratulating these
governors. (more will be
recognized in the coming
days)
Julie A Crawford, 4 L6
Edgar E Roa, 35 A
Susan Lydon, 46
Luis FC Roig, LA 6
Marcos A Silva, LB 2
Aderlon F de Assis G, LB 3
Albio S Filho, LD 8
Dipl I G Langer, 111WR
Ender Canitez, 118 Y
Darko Angebrandt, 126
Angel Georgievski, 132
John L Tan, 301A1
Remigio L Alvarez, 301D1
Ho-Keun Cha, 354 C
Jian-Wei Lei, 381
Guopu Liu, 382
K A Ashfaque, 315A1
Mozammel H Lalu, 315A2
Shah M Hasan, 315B4
Madhu Aggarwal, 321A2
Bhupesh Bansal, 321B1
Raj K Agarwal, 321B2
Malkeet S Jassar, 321C1
Yogesh Kansal, 321C2
Rajiv Kukreja, 321 D
K Khandelwal, 322 B1
Gopi Dhuwalia, 322 B2
Dr Nanda Garg, 322 E
Dr R K Agarwal, 322 F
Parimal J Shah, 323A1
Umesh P Gandhi, 323A3
Sajji John, 323 C
P C Zapke, 323D1
Rajendra Agarwal, 323E2
T Bakthavathsalam, 324A1
K R Ramalingam, 324A2
Velsamy Thangiah, 324B3
Dr U Madhava Shetty, 324D2
T K Kisor, 324E2
Dinesh Paudyal, 325 A
Hossam M Khodeir, 352
Alwyn P Patrao, 324D5
H N Patel, 323 F2
Dr Jawahar Bihani, 323 G1
G S Arora, 323 G2
Dr V M Sankaran, 324A4
Roy Varghese, 324E4
K B D Thalattaniralalage,
306 B2
M B Rao, 324C7
V N Verma, 323 H1
Harrison Law, 307 A
To fully achieve this award,
a district also needs to
maintain its May net
membership results through
the end of June, and have no
clubs in status quo or
financial suspension as of
June 15, 2010.
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