Lions Club of Honolulu Foundation
Past International Directors, District Governors and Presidents
Galleries
International Friendship Tree (QuickTime® Video)
80th Charter Anniversary Galleries
79th Charter Anniversary Gallery
2007 Installation Dinner & Galleries
2006 Installation Dinner & Galleries
2006 Hawaii Lions Foundation Fundraiser Gallery
2008-2009 Officers
Keoni Kealoha Devereaux, Jr
President
Kin M Ching
Immediate Past President
Donna P Tamasese
First Vice President
Kent Cotton
Second Vice President
Ramona Harris
Third Vice President
Sharon Yoshiura
Secretary
Kin M Ching
Treasurer
Masue Nakamura
Tail Twister
Nancy Soohoo
Lion Tamer
Donna P Tamasese
Bulletin Editor
Bernard A K S Ho
Membership Director
2008-2009 Directors
Al Hee
William Malone
2008-2010 Directors
Jack Schweigert
Edward S D Wong
Director Emeritus
Dorothea E Charlton
Lions Club of Honolulu
PO Box 184
Honolulu HI 96810-0184
+1.808.341.9895
District 50 Region IV Zone I
Honolulu • Hawaii • United States of America
Club Success Through F.U.N.
(Fellowship, Understanding, New Ideas)
Lions Club of Honolulu 79th Charter Anniversary Dinner
The Plaza Club, Honolulu
Friday, October 21, 2005
Check out the pictures
Is your Lions Club having fun? Are you having fun? When you think about going to your next Lions’ meeting, do you anticipate that it will be fun? What about that next committee meeting? Will it be Fun? I really suppose that depends on your definition of the letters “F.” “U.” “N.”
I want to take a few moments to explore three components of club success with you.
If an individual feels alone in a group, they will not return to the group. We all want Fellowship.
Fellowship is not about just being together. Being together does not really equate to fellowship. Really sharing in the spirit of fellowship takes more. It requires a club to take further steps to insure that you and all fellow members share in fellowship and are achieving together. Sometimes, that can take the form of learning together and doing things together. We can take our fellowship to the next level by sharing our knowledge and life experiences with each other and together. We need to create the opportunities to discuss things that each of us have learned with your fellow Lions. I am not talking only about subjects regarding Lionism but sharing our knowledge on other subjects and our other life experiences with each other. Many of our members are very talented individuals, we need to ask them to share a part of themselves, their knowledge and personal experience with us. Fellowship grows in our Clubs because we can learn and achieve together.
We have fun with our friends. The fellowship and fun in the good times, the support through the tough times, the mutual support when things aren’t always as clear or easy as they seemed when the project began. These are the things that bind us together in camaraderie and make us strong. Fellowship is the first component of club success.
The second component of club success is Understanding. If people are not listened to when they summon enough courage to stand up and offer an opinion or suggestion, they won’t soon do it again. If they don’t feel valued, they won’t show up again only to feel misunderstood. We all want understanding. Understanding comes from learning about Lionism together, from trading places with those we serve and learning how the world looks through their eyes. Understanding comes from knowledge and knowledge is power. We must be willing to listen and hear what others have to say. We all want to feel that we have some power in our lives and some worth in the lives of others. Let me ask you to think about this question: “How do the members in your club make your fellow Lions feel understood and valued?”
The third component of club success that Lions should strive for in their clubs is New Ideas and New Energy. If Lions are being told information they already know, they will tune out or wonder why they didn’t stay at home and learn something new watching television. I think you would agree, we all want to be stimulated and challenged. We need to ensure that we are not languishing in the land of the annual party, the annual fundraiser, and the annual projects of choice. Why do we need these New Ideas in our clubs?
First, we need new ideas to cure the ‘same-old-same-old’ sickness; secondly, to keep our club fresh; thirdly, to keep our members energized, and finally, to ensure that those who miss our meetings and projects really have missed something worthwhile.
Let’s take at these three components of club success and use them as our yardstick to evaluate our District and each of our clubs. Even experienced Lions sometimes cite reasons in such statements as “I got bored with the same old projects”, “No one listened to my ideas”, or “I felt I wasn’t contributing.” One thing that keeps a club fresh is a supply of fresh ideas.
Let me ask you to work on improving on Fellowship, Understanding, and New Ideas and New Energy. These three ingredients help bind us together with stronger bonds than some families share, if prospective new member and even we older members are to continue to come out to our Lions Club meetings, the meetings have to provide us with Fellowship, Understanding, and New Ideas and New Energy. So ask yourself, “Does your Club offer F. U. N.?”
Thank you for letting me share a few ideas with you.