15 Four Links to Luminous Living in Lionism 2018

Four Links to Luminous Living in Lionism

Light is a big deal to folks everywhere. Light lets folks see where they are, what lies ahead, where they are going, and lets them see their objectives. There are many links to luminous Lionism. I am only focusing on four.

Let's start with labor. Generally, the most rewarding outcomes involve work: a purposeful expenditure of energy. Folks experience an uplifting sense of accomplishment after working for a satisfactory outcome. Their lives are so much better, lit with industry and happiness. Folks have lived without labor, in darkness of dependency and misery. Lions can add light to their own lives through voluntary service, and to the lives of folks that Lions help.

Then there is learning. Investigate and educate yourself about what you are about to do. If a project fails expectation, learn what happened, and how to resolve concerns. Same thing applies when a project meets or exceeds expectation. When laboring with learning, folks experience a sense of lightness. Working without knowing can lead to very dark frustration.

Liberty is the first letter in the acronym LIONS. Folks know how dark living with no liberty can be. Liberty is that respect that folks provide to the exercise of freedom by other folks. The light from labor and learning dims, down to darkness, without liberty. With liberty, anything seems possible.

Laboring with learning within liberty makes the light that love brings most likely. Robert Heinlein, in "Stranger in a Strange Land" defined love as a state of being in which the happiness of another is essential to one's own happiness. When Lions show, through their work, concern for the well-being of unfortunate folks they demonstrate love. Additionally, love is enthusiastic enjoyment of work that promotes well-being. Folks can live without love; they are the most miserable of any creature. Love, in whatever form, brings light into life.

Lions laboring with learning, promoting and living liberty, in a spirit of love can bring light into the darkest life, can luminate a better path, and can

Brighten where Lions are

14 No Club Without You 2017

No Club without you 2017

One hundred years ago on June 7, several visionary folks met for the first time to organise what became the life-enhancing experience that we know as Lionism. They saw that LIONS membership means participation, that:

There is no Club without you.

Ignorance of who and what LIONS are about, inaction in the presence of service opportunities, and indifference toward bonds of membership have no place in LIONS. This goes along with the reality that LIONS Club members' actions make the Club what it is to observers. Those Club-oriented actions resulting in praise for members enhance the good reputation of the Club.

There is no Club without you.

You, the brothers and sisters in LIONS, are the sovereigns of the Club. The Club Board Members report to you. I, as President, report to the Board Members, and to you. My job is to coordinate work by Club Members. I do this by coordinating events, such as meetings, fundraisers, service actions. I am responsible to you to help everybody work as LIONS.

There is no Club without you.

You, as members, have responsibilities to yourselves as LIONS, including

To pay up: your dues sooner than later

To show up: at meetings, and other Club events

To step up: as LIONS determine what you want to do, and participate in events

There is no Club without you.

Membership numbers declined from 57 in 1996 to 16 in 2016. At this rate, there may not be a LIONS Club of Acton CA within four years. We LIONS have our work cut out for us to continue the Club's existence as a service source.

We better sort out what we can do differently than currently, and change those actions/directions; quite clearly, now, efforts to grow the Club membership are not working.

There is no Club without you.

Understanding why you are a LION, what you want to see happen within LIONS, and how you want to help accomplish such objective(s) are the very basic beginnings toward growing Club membership. By growing Club membership, LIONS can continue to offer service opportunities to interested members, can continue to fund scholarships and other grants, and can offer a possibility of personal fulfillment through service.

There is no Club without you.

Please consider why you are a LION. Please think about what you see as the most pressing issue(s) regarding your LIONS Club (up to 3), how you want to address the issue(s), and what are you prepared to do?

There is no Club without you.