Club Presidents, start putting on your thinking caps. During my District Governor’s Visit, I will be presenting, with you, a new award to one of your members. I call this a Club President/District Governor’s “Ironman” Award. The purpose of the award is to recognize one of your Club’s outstanding Lions that might NOT be a candidate for our International President Awards at District functions.
Approximately a month before my District Governor’s Visit, I will ask you for your nomination for this award to be presented during my visit. You will help me present the award and explain your rationale for the selection. I will present the award along with my District Governor’s Pin to your selection. I will also present a $1,000 prize with the award. Now I checked my budget and I don’t have $44,000 to present but I can afford to purchase a $1,000 scratch off ticket! So who knows, it may be a $1,000 prize.
The basis for the award comes from my trips to Baltimore Orioles games while we were living in PA before coming to AZ. It was my great pleasure to see Cal Ripkin Jr. play for the Orioles. He was called the “Ironman of Baseball” because he played over 2,200 games straight without missing a game. He was a team leader, but not a flashy player always pushing for recognition or publicity. He quietly played his position extremely well and fully supported his teammates. He could always be counted on to be there when needed. He was a very impressive individual whom I admired greatly.
So look among your Club members for the one Lion who is always there when you need him or her, is among the first to raise their hands to help with a project or a fund raiser, and can always be counted on to be there when needed. That is the Lion we want to recognize with this award. I do not have the award finalized to show you an example yet, but this is your heads-up to start your thought process and tentative selection!
We are trying about a dozen new initiatives this year – some will work and some will not, time will tell. One initiative is to eliminate the Region Chair positions and have the Zone Chairs report directly to the District Governor.
I am requesting more of the Zone Chairs than in previous years. To help them accomplish their jobs, I tried to assign no more than three Lions Clubs (home Club plus two more) to each Zone Chair tied to close proximity. I have two Zones with four Lions Clubs and one Zone with two Lions Clubs. The Zone Chair listing is provided in the MD21 Directory extract you have in your packages. They are numbered from 01 to 14 so that will take some getting used to vs. Region x, Zone x as in the past. We have a great group of Zone Chairs so give them your full support. They will be working closely with you to perhaps develop branch extension efforts and perhaps other joint zone projects or fund raisers. Again, these efforts are voluntary on your part but I hope you will work with them and develop a closer relationship with your fellow zone Lions Clubs. Thanks.