Canterbury Lions Club

serving the community for over 40 years

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My year as President starts on 1 July 2009 and in planning for the year ahead, my aim is that in 12 months time, there will be general agreement that the club has made progress and has ‘made a difference' to the community we serve.

I hope that with the support of club members, we will be able to take active steps to expand our membership by approximately 50%, i.e. by ten new members. The size of the task is considerable but I believe that by planning a recruitment strategy we will make positive steps. Even if we fail to achieve our target, we will have learned much which will help us revise our plans for the future.

With regard to fundraising, the club has been very successful in the past but it cannot assume that past successes will continue indefinitely. New initiatives need to be identified and tested and this will take both time and energy. The merits of working in partnership with other service organisations has recently been ‘discovered' and I hope such initiatives will increase. I believe that the club, through its Fundraising Committee, needs to develop those events which work well, while moving on and pursuing new opportunities to maintain and grow our level of activity as much as possible. This is not a ‘quick fix' tactic and will only bring benefits in the years ahead; however, I hope that we can aim at increasing fundraising by 10% in the year ahead.

To enable the club to ‘make a difference', not only do we need more active members and increasing success with our fundraising, but we also need to support individuals and organisations for whom our involvement will result in some identifiable change or benefit, and not merely be an invisible ‘drop in the ocean'. This is not intended to exclude those larger scale projects undertaken in collaboration with other clubs so that our efforts are combined in order to ‘make a difference'.

In summary, I see the year ahead as being a challenge for me and for every member of the club, but I hope that at the same time it will prove to be enjoyable and rewarding in terms of the satisfaction that results from achievement.

If you are not a club member, why not contact us NOW, find out more about what we do and how you could become involved.