LIONS CLUBS INTERNATIONAL
DISTRICT 105E
Minutes of the fourth Cabinet Meeting held on Sunday 22nd June 2014 at The
White Heather, Caenby Corner, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, LN8 2AT
The meeting was called to order at 09.35 by Sergeant at Arms Lion Stuart
Kitchen.
1.
Safety Procedures
Sergeant at Arms Lion Stuart Kitchen confirmed there was no proposed fire
alarm arranged for today but pointed out collection points and exits He
requested all mobile phones be turned to silent and for those having lunch in the
Orangery, money would be collected by Lion Paula. A contribution of £1.00 for
coffee/tea would be welcome.
2.
Welcome
District Governor Lion John took great pleasure in presenting Lion Tom Laking
with his birthday badge. He welcomed everybody to the meeting.
3.
Partners Leave the Meeting
Partners then left the meeting to visit a local garden centre.
4.
Apologies
PCC Lion Ken Morgan, PDG’s Lions Bill Ella, Brian Popple, Brian Willey, George
Leuty, Jack Smith, Paul Coleman, Keith Johnson, Malcolm Stirk, Mike Barron,
Nick Barron, Robin Duke, Harry Waller, Joe Prati, Ajit Virdi, Mike Johnson, Lions
Colin Morgan, John Bickley, Davinder Virdi, Gordon Davison, Anne Barker,
Katharine Stewart, Bob Bridge, Mike Gurr, Balvinder Sokhi, Jayesh Kotecha,
Andrew Alsop, Liz Riley.
5.
District Governor’s Report
District Governor John commenced his report with congratulations on behalf of
the District to Lion Ann Stafford of Lincoln Lions Club and Lion Bill Fryer of
Melton Mowbray Lions Club who had both been awarded the British Empire
Medal from The Queen.
He took the opportunity of welcoming Lion Charlotte Bond of Oadby & Wigston
Lions Club who was the Leo co-ordinator for that area. He had attended the
inaugural event of Nottingham West Leo’s Club and said we now had three new
Leo Clubs in the District and passed on his congratulations to all involved in this.
He said the highlight of the MD Convention in Manchester, for him, was when
Lion Alan Hall walked into the Centre to be confirmed as District Governor for
105E. The Convention itself was good but he felt there were not as many Clubs
in attendance as in previous years. Our International President Barry Palmer
was an excellent speaker. He urged everybody to try and attend at least one MD
Convention and said that next year it would be held in Birmingham.
DG John had previously circulated a list of main decisions made by COG. With
regard to item 9, he commented that each District had been requested to discuss
the prospect of redistricting. We did this at our Cabinet meeting in February.
Some Districts did not do this. It was decided by COG that we needed to look at
the structure of Multiple District not just from a redistricting point of view but to
include such things as: the use of technology, membership, communication and
locality of MD, as we are losing about 250 members a year. A small Group was
set up to draw together the terms of reference for this. They have already met
and a recommendation will be going forward to the July COG meeting that a
group of people be appointed who will then report at the October COG meeting
with a view to taking plans to individual District Conventions in the Spring and
then back to the MD Convention in May at Birmingham. He stressed it would
take 4/5 years for the plan to move through the system. We cannot afford to wait
any longer.
Lion Paul Stafford commented that it was alright having a structure but we also
needed a vision as to where we wanted to be in the next five years.
PDG Lion Elaine Kitchen said it was very important to look at budgets at the
same time and DG Lion John stated this would happen and would encompass a
‘zero budget’ concept.
PDG Lion Derek confirmed that the MD LRPC is looking for one officer to be
appointed for Corporate Sponsorship/Partnership and Grants Officer and this
would be part of the restructuring discussion.
DG Lion John had also circulated a list of new COG appointments for 2014/2015.
6.
Minutes of the last Meeting
The Minutes of the Cabinet Meeting of 9th February 2014 were agreed a true
record and were signed by the District Governor. Proposed by PDG Lion Michael
Phillips and seconded by Lion Reg Hunt. Agreed.
7.
Matters Arising
There were no matters arising.
8.
Correspondence
There were no items of correspondence that had not been previously circulated.
9.
District Secretary – PDG Lion Bob Coxhead
Report as stands. Report noted.
10.
District Treasurer – Lion Paula Mellows
Report as stands with an update that mileage for the next fiscal year would be
25p per mile and that she was in the process of completing the change of bank
account paperwork.
PDG Lion Derek Blow requested that it would be helpful if a summary of
spending could be provided prior to report completion. Lion Paula agreed to this.
Report noted.
11.
1st Vice District Governor – Lion Alan Hall
Report as stands. Lion Alan Hall thanked everyone for their support at the MD
Convention. Report noted.
12.
2nd Vice District Governor – Lion Paul Stafford
Report as stands. Report noted.
13.
Sergeant at Arms – Lion Stuart Kitchen
Report as stands with an update on 2014/2015 Cabinet Meeting dates and
venues:
17th August 2014
Best Western, Retford
16th November 2014
Admiral Rodney, Horncastle
st
1 February 2015
Novotel, Long Eaton
24th May 2015
Village Hall, Hibaldstow
Report noted.
14.
Reports from Zone Chairs
Zone A – PDG Lion Mike Johnson. Report as stands.
Zone B – Lion Bob Bridge. Report as stands. DG Lion John commented on the
Lincolnshire Show. He felt the position/location of our site was good as well as
our display boards. He said he felt the footfall was down on previous years.
PDG Lion Derek Blow commented that the car park was 90% used on the
Wednesday with only a 50% usage on the Thursday. This could possibly be
because schools couldn’t afford to bring children to the event. PDG Lion Elaine
Kitchen thanked everybody who had been involved especially Lion Alan Hall.
She reminded everybody that this event had been self-funding by Clubs in three
Zones by contributing £50.00 each. 110 MIAB were handed out and people had
been interested in the Plugsters. She requested that DG Lion John draw the
winning entry to the quiz. This was won by Wendy Barron, Scawby Brook, Brigg.
Zone C – Lion Anne Simons. Report as stands. Lion Anne confirmed that
Mablethorpe Sutton & District Club had voted and would be contributing to N.
Sea Lions in the future.
Zone D – Lion Paul Whitworth. Report as stands.
Zone E – Lion David Bower. Report as stands with an update that four Clubs
within the Zone were supporting the Bakewell Show being held on 7th/8th August.
DG Lion John thanked all Clubs within the Zone for their hard work on
Convention.
Zone F – Lion Mike Gurr. Report as stands.
Zone G – Lion Philip Moult. Report as stands. DG Lion John mentioned that the
football competition had been an excellent day and requested that information be
sent to our District Newsletter as well as the MD Newsletter.
Zone H – Lion Balvinder Sokhi. Report as stands.
Zone I – Lion Jayesh Kotecha. Report as stands.
All Reports noted.
15.
Administration Team – Team Leader – PDG Lion Derek Blow
PDG Lion Derek confirmed there were three decisions required of Cabinet.
1. To approve the District Convention accounts for Convention 2014.
Lion Paula Mellows confirmed she had settled an account for £189 and this
figure would need to be taken from the balance. Proposed by PDG Lion Michael
Philips and seconded by Lion Anne Simons. All agreed.
2. To approve the payment of outstanding Convention money to Lions Clubs
in Zone E.
Lion Paula confirmed the balance of money to be now paid was £514.24. PDG
Lion Michael Philips requested that it be placed on record our thanks to Clubs in
Zone E for not only the organisation but the supervision of the Convention and to
congratulate them on the fact that we made money and didn’t lose any.
Proposed by Lion Paula Mellows and seconded by PDG Lion Steve Bird. All
agreed. PDG Lion Derek Blow thanked all Clubs involved with the Convention.
3. Cabinet approval of the initial offer at Convention from Vale of Belvoir
Lions Club to host Convention 2016 at Belvoir Castle with the plan to
review overall cost of the Convention at a later Cabinet meeting.
PDG Lion Derek Blow, with assistance of Lion John Ronan, went on to confirm
some of the advantages and difficulties that would be encountered if Convention
was to go ahead at Belvoir Castle. However, on-going discussions were being
held with the Duchess of Rutland and it was felt that with minor adjustments all
difficulties could be accommodated. There were challenges to overcome but it
was felt these could be achieved.
It was agreed that further investigations be undertaken and details brought back
to the November Cabinet meeting. Proposed by DG Lion John Kyte and
seconded by PDG Lion Stefan Erentraut. All agreed.
All other reports as stand. DG Lion John asked members if the Scrap Book
competition should continue in view of the fact that most Clubs now had a
website. With shock and horror it was pointed out that Clubs that did do the
Scrap Book generally referred to this as the Presidents Year Book and was often
used as a good PR tool. PDG Lion Derek stated he would look at this and
possibly repackage this as The President’s Year. Lion David Bower requested
that the rules for all competitions should be checked to ensure that the correct
information was on the website.
Reports noted.
16.
Communications Team – Team Leader – PDG Lion Elaine Kitchen
Report as stands with updates as follows: Donations received from the
Lincolnshire Show were £23.24 and this money had been passed to the DG’s
Wife for her appeal. She was looking at getting a ‘QR’ for the website as well as
looking at the web mail and details would be circulated so people could access
this. PDG Lion Michael Phillips confirmed that MD now has cloud facilities. She
requested that all District Officers check the website to ensure that the
information contained therein was correct. She reported that she had put
together material and leaflets that can be placed on a desktop display stand and
this will cost £25. She would ensure details of this would be placed on the
website. She requested that Clubs pay the £10 voluntary contribution which will
go towards the cost of show events.
DG Lion John wished to record our thanks to Lion Gordon Davison for producing
the Newsletter.
PDG Lion Steve Bird related information concerning his visit to the Palace
Garden Party when Prince Charles had made good comments about the Lions
and the Morse bags. He passed around samples of the bag and one particular
one had been made from material received from Clarence House. He stated he
would like District to have our own logo on the bags.
DG Lion John updated members with regard to websites and said he thought all
Clubs now had one. He had also written 96 ‘blogs’ and urged people to read
these.
Report noted.
17.
Health & Community Team – Team Leader – DG Lion John Kyte
Report as stands with an update relating to MIAB. A questionnaire had been
circulated and only 26 Clubs had responded. A plea was made that Zone Chairs
should encourage Clubs to reply to any type of questionnaire that may be
circulated as there is a lack of responses. Lion Tom Laking said he had started
to keep a record of where the bottles were distributed.
Reports noted.
18.
International Relations Team – Team Leader – PDG Lion Ajit Virdi
Report as stands. As PDG Lion Ajit Virdi was not in attendance Lion Graham
Venables gave an update on the North Sea Lions project for the Chink Academy
project in Kenya. He stated there was no threat to the project and the Trustees
would be visiting Kenya again in the near future.
Report noted.
19.
LCIF Co-ordinator – PDG Lion Stefan Erentraut
Report as stands with an update that one Club has contributed to the Serbia and
Bosnia Herzegovina appeal. He understood that the Treasurer had received
£1600 for the appeal for the MD appeal. He expressed his concerns that he felt
MD were working against LCIF. PDG Lion Michael Phillips clarified that when
the Philippines disaster happened our International President asked if our MD
could get involved in providing the water purification cans as quickly as possible.
We eventually sent out 1,000 cans. LCIF stated that the initial grant they gave us
could be kept if MD was able to utilise the water purification cans for any other
disasters. Other countries have specific ways of helping and the water provision
is something we can ‘hang our hats’ on. The money will come from LCIF grants
and a MD (International) Disaster Fund. MD does have a disaster fund which
covers the UK but we are not able to claim LCIF money for this because of how
our Government system works.
Lion Tom Laking stated that his Club were ‘a little put out’ as each and every
member had received a letter of thanks from LCIF and he requested PDG Lion
Stefan to pass on that a one-off letter to the Club would have been sufficient.
Lion Paul Stafford requested that PDG Lion Stefan come on a teleconference
with the Zone Chairs to talk about grants that were available to Clubs. PDG Lion
Stefan agreed to this.
Report noted.
20.
Strategic Development Group – Team Leader – IPDG Lion Michael
Phillips
Report as stands. Report noted.
.
21.
Global Leadership Team – Team Leader – Lion Paul Stafford
Report as stands. Lion Paul wished to discuss the issues surrounding
Presidential Training. For this year around 30 people had attending the training
courses with a further 10 attending last year. We still can’t get everybody to come
on Presidential Training so what more can we do. All present felt it was
important to attend these sessions even if you had been President before. It was
also felt that maybe the presentation and packaging needed to be changed to let
people know that it wasn’t so much of a ‘training’ session but gaining leadership
skills and planning for the year as well as an opportunity of meeting the incoming District Governor and hearing of his/her plans for the coming year.
Report noted.
22.
Global Membership Team – Team Leader – Lion Davinder Virdi
Report as stands. As Lion Davinder was not in attendance this was covered by
DG Lion John and DGE Lion Alan Hall. DG Lion John drew members’ attention
to the report where it was indicated that we still had two Clubs who were not upto-date with the MMR Reports. We are now 100%. He also reported that from
1st July 2014 that we would be down to 56 Clubs within the District.
Unfortunately, Bradgate, Newark, Long Eaton and Nottingham City Clubs would
all be closing. However, we will not be losing all members as some are
transferring to other Clubs. One of the major issues is the age structure of these
Clubs. All Clubs must recruit younger members. We’ve got to look to change so
we reflect the needs of people who want to joint us.
Lioness Pam reported that the Sleaford Golf Day had been very successful and
they had made £3,700. There was also a possibility of two other areas interested
in forming a Lioness Club.
Report noted.
23.
Youth Team – Team Leader – Lion Graham Venables
Report as stands with an update from Lion Philip Moult on the Football
Competition. He stated the main winners were Brigg Town representing Brigg
District Lions Club with runners up Woodhall Spa. The winners of the Shield
were Barrowby representing Grantham Lions Club. 12 Clubs took part with 14
Teams. He thanked Lion Mark Thursby for all his organisation as well as Lion
Graham Venables for his admin work. He confirmed that next year’s tournament
would be held on Sunday 7th June 2015.
Lion Graham Venables commented on the Youth questionnaire and said that
there were only eight dedicated youth officers from the 22 Clubs who replied. It
was also found that many of the Clubs were doing other than Lions initiatives.
He requested that Zone Chairs encourage Clubs to have a dedicated youth
officer.
Report noted.
24.
Introduction of Cabinet Members 2014/2015
DGE Lion Alan Hall took the opportunity of thanking Cabinet of 2013/2014 as
well as PDG Lion Bob Coxhead for his role as District Secretary and Lion Sue
Denton for her role as District Minutes Secretary. He confirmed his theme for
2014/2015 was Together everyone achieves more (TEAM). He would
introduce each of his Team Leaders and then they would introduce their
individual members as follows:
District Governor Team – Team Leader DGE Lion Alan Hall
Zone Chairs – Team Co-ordinator – Lion Paul Stafford
Strategic Development Team – Team Leader PDG Lion Bob Coxhead
Membership Team – Team Leader Lion John Speyer
Community Team Services – Team Leader PDG Lion Steve Bird
Youth Team – Team Leader Lion Sue Denton
Communication Team – Team Leader PDG Lion Elaine Kitchen
Leadership Team – Team Leader Lion Ann Stafford
Administration Team – Team Leader Lion Derek Blow
International Team – Team Leader PDG Lion Ajit Virdi
Lion Graham Venables confirmed that his contact email for his role as District
Secretary was as follows:
Lioncgv@talktalk.net
25.
Discussion – ‘How can the District raise the public awareness of
Lions
DG Lion John stressed that this discussion was about how the District could help
Clubs and suggested it was not about telling Clubs how to go about raising public
awareness. We have attended Shows and PDG Lion Elaine Kitchen had done a
lot of work preparing material to use at these. The Rotary concept was
mentioned but they have a national publicity officer. We do publicise ourselves
within our MD but we’re not very good at telling the general public. We should be
utilising local TV and Radio as well as advertising in local shops and post offices.
Should we be spending so much time ‘tin rattling’ and more on specific
community projects? Comments were made that when there were ‘national
days’ Clubs were not being given sufficient time to try and organise things. DG
Lion John felt that we, as a District, should produce an annual calendar of events
which could be then circulated to Clubs. Lion Alan Hall stated that PR was all
about impact and if all Clubs pulled together we would have a greater impact. He
called upon Lion Keith Ford to explain what he had been doing with both North
Lincolnshire and Lincolnshire Authorities in trying to regularise the emergency
planning arrangements. Clubs were very keen to help when there were local
emergencies. He felt it wouldn’t take much organisation to call upon Lions Clubs
to help. He was looking at running a project involving Zones A and B and would
be bringing a proposal to a future Cabinet meeting. PDG Lion Michael Phillips
said that maybe the District should contact all Local Authorities to let them know
that we have a central point of contact where all Clubs could be contacted to
help/assist in certain circumstances. PDG Lion Elaine Kitchen felt that as Lions
we were slow to respond in emergency situations unlike Rotary Clubs who were
taking action within one week. We could implement systems whereby we
contacted all local supermarkets and whenever there was the need we could be
out collecting or whatever within a week. MD is in the process of producing a
colourful statistical magazine which would be sent to all members. Members
should then take this to where it would be read and displayed and people would
then read about Lions. It was felt that we might be able to do something as a
District for our Centennial Celebrations. DG Lion John requested that we have
an article in the Newsletter each month about our Centennial Celebrations.
26.
Tail Twister
The Tail Twister had his wicked way with all and everybody was fined.
27.
Closing Remarks
DG Lion John thanked everybody on Cabinet for 2014/2015 and felt that together
we had pushed the District forward. He made special mention of PDG Lion Bob
Coxhead and Lion Sue Denton for their roles over the last seven years. He
stated his Club, at their 40th Charter Anniversary had presented Lion Bob with a
Melvin Jones Fellowship.