Happy New Year! Volume 1, Issue 7

January 2014

District Governor Gus Malmberg gajmalmberg@aol.com 1st District Governor Mike Brown lionhunter mikebrown@gmail.com 2nd District Governor Barb Durflinger comdac@comdac.com IPDG Lynne Jauss lcjauss2011@gmail.com Cabinet Secretary Mary Malmberg memalmberg1@aol,com Cabinet Treasurer Tom Otto toottom@gmail.com District Editor PDG Mitch Smith mitchs048@hughes.net

DG Gus Malmberg 1

2nd VDG Article 2

Club Activities 3

Lions Forum 4

Ski for Light

5

ID Esther LaMothe 8

GMT Report

8

Inside this issue:

District 11 E2 Distr ict Governor Gus Malmberg

. 2014, a new beginning. We hope you had a great Christmas and that Santa was very good to all of you.

With the New Year, many of us make resolutions to make us a bett- er person. Personally, my resolution for 2014 is to be a better Lion.

We all need to reflect on how we can better serve our community. This means getting involved to offer assistance to those in need. The need is great, and unfortunately, I believe that the need will continue to grow. There are a lot of chang-es coming in 2014, especially in the health care law. I don’t think we know what the impact will be on our work, but you can bet requests for assistance will increase.

Clubs should take a look at their communities needs and prepare a plan to best serve.

Now that the Holiday season is past, activity levels will be on the rise.

The next Cabinet meeting is on January 11th in Grayling at the Ramada Ho-tel & Conference Center. All clubs are encouraged to send a representative to attend.

The 2014 Michigan Lions Forum is on February 14-15th at the Ramada Inn in Lansing. Details and registration form are in the Lions Pride.

Early registration to the International Convention in Toronto ends on Janu-ary 10th. Save some money by sending in your registration now.

The District Convention Committee is working hard to finalize plans for a great convention. Packets should be going out shortly to the clubs along with the raf-fle tickets for the door prizes. Your support by selling these tickets help fund the con-vention and keep expenses at a minimum. We’re even trying to have a few surprises.

This is also the time that nominations are due to VDG Barb for the District Melvin Jones nominations. Forms are available on the District website.

1st VDG Mike is working hard to put together his Cabinet and committee assignments for next year. If you or someone in your club is interested in serving the District, please let VDG Mike know as soon as possible.

Just an FYI, CS Lion Mary will be sending out the District dues billing short-ly. Prompt payment is greatly appreciated. Also, please consider making your clubs donations to the District and State projects.

To all the Lions, Lioness, Leo’s, Military, and their families, we wish you a Happy and fruitful New Year and hope all your dreams will come true.

Thank you for what you do, and God Bless each and every one of us.

Yours in Service,

DG Lion Gus & CS Lion Mary

DG E-mail: gajmalmberg@aol.com CS E-mail: memalmberg1@aol.com Address: 3340 Birchwood Trail Rogers City, MI 49779

DG Gus’ Cell: 586-913-6487 CS Mary’s Cell: 586-770-8545

Wishing

CS Mary Malmberg a speedy recovery from recent back surgery. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Page 2 District 11 E2

Dear fellow Lions,

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I can’t believe that our Lion year is already half over. Now it is New Years and time for resolu-tions, so why not think about making some resolu-tions to improve your club? An easy place to start is

with the CEP forms available on the Lions International website-

http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/common/pdfs/me15b.pdf . Even if your club has not decided yet to participate in CEP, individual members can still down-load the forms and think about possible areas for im-provement in your club.

For example, if you think your club does not have in-teresting programs, why not think about what you would find interesting and suggest it to your program chair (or if your club doesn’t have a program chair, to one of the officers). Better yet, volunteer to take on the responsibility yourself. Or if you are unhappy with the meeting location, look around your community and investigate other available facilities. If you need more members, look around your family, church or other organizations you belong to, and ask someone to at-tend a meeting with you. Improving your club starts with YOU! The CEP forms provide a first step to make you think about the things that make a club successful.

We currently have at least 7 students who have been accepted into the Lions All State Band. There are a few more who participated last year that had not yet send

in applications, so we may have as many as 11. I want to commend the Tawas Area for their great participa-tion in this program. We enjoyed a presentation from one of last year’s students when we attended the Os-coda Lions Christmas party. Your clubs will be hearing from the students soon with requests for financial as-sistance for them to make the trip to Toronto, so please give generously. With so many of them coming from Tawas, it is tough for them to get all of the funds they need from local benefactors, and there is only so much money they can raise in special fundraisers when there are so many students to share the proceeds. I under-stand many clubs’ feelings that they only want to spon-sor local students, but remember that when your com-munity has a student in future years, that kid will be soliciting all of the District clubs for funds. Also, these students represent all of us at the International Con-vention. We should be proud that our band last year won second place in their category, so let’s do what we can to help them be first this year! And we should start thinking right now about what we can do to get a stu-dent from our own community to play in next year’s band. That trip will be to Hawaii, so it shouldn’t be too hard to sell!

I want to thank all of the clubs that Duane and I have visited so far this year for their hospitality. We had great visits and learned a lot about the interesting pro-jects in which clubs are participating. I still have a number of clubs to see in the second half of the year, so those not on my schedule yet, I will be contacting you. Or you can contact me- 989-742-2790, or comdac@comdac.com .

Have a great New Year!

2nd VDG Barb Durflinger

District 11 E2 Membership This Month This Year

Opening Balance 1,160 1,165

Added Members 10 57 Dropped Members 17 69 Closing Balance 1,153 1,153

Net Gain/Loss -7 -12

In memory of Lion Guerdon Schumacher longtime Beaverton community member and 64-year Lion member. Guerdon was a key member of the Bea-verton community.

Beaverton Lion since November 1,1949

Madonna University has awarded a $2,875 Lions & Lioness scholarship for the Deaf to a resident

from East Tawas. Marissa would like to thank all the Lions and Lioness for their consideration and generosity in granting her this scholarship. Her career and educational goals include being able to interpret in a school system one on one with a student. She also hopes to be able to take and successfully pass the National Interpreter Certifi-cation exam.

M

Volume 1, Issue 7 Page 3

Club Activities AU GRES: Paid for a week’s lodging for a woman and her two children who were victims of domestic abuse. Be-cause of Christmas the local shelter was full. The club will follow up on available shelters.

BOYNE VALLEY: Sent two cases of Lions mints to active duty troops, donated to our local Christmas basket pro-gram. This program provides a food basket and toys for each child for families in need during the holidays. The program will be serving over 600 kids and over 270 families. Members will be helping move food to the packing location and actively packing baskets for the families over two days.

CHEBOYGAN: Donated to three local food banks in the Cheboygan community, along with shipping 85 lbs of eye glasses for recycling.

EAST JORDAN: Sponsored the annual Christmas Village. Local businesses and individuals decorate a camp site at the Tourist Park in Christmas decorations. The Park is open for viewing the month of December from 5-9PM. Santa visits the Park on one Saturday.

FAIRVIEW-COMINS: Donated to the Comins ladies eagles Christmas basket project and to the Mio Dummy Club for Christmas gifts. The club helped people in our community purchase glasses, helped a citizen get an eye exam and eye glasses, donated to the together we can food pantry of Oscoda County. Wreath making project has been completed. The lions have a large trailer available in the community for recycling newspapers and phone books. Members of the club stack and sort out and make ready for shipping paper to an insulation factory.

GRAYLING: Donated clothing and toys to a child in need for the Christmas, also toys and clothing to a mother and child for Christmas. Assisted financially to obtain eyeglasses for two people. Made donations to American Can-cer Society, Student Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity, locally run baby closet provides items (clothes, diapers, formula, etc.) to mothers in financial need. Collected, sorted and shipped ink cartridges to recyclers.

HUBBARD LAKE: Annual gun raffle ticket sales netted funds for the club to make contributions to Michigan Eye Bank.

MIO: Paid for exams and glasses for three local individuals. Took in funds from ink cartridge recycling. Donated to St. Mary's food pantry and the Mio Church of God coats for kids. Also donated to four scout troops for their charter fees.

OSCODA: Donation to Madonna University. A student from this area is attending there. Our Santa Lion read to the children and talked to them. The Club donated funds to purchase books to give to the children. A Lion Santa talked to 240 children and gave them each a gift bag. Lunch was served to Children and their families. Fifteen Hon-or students were also helpers. A float built by Lions received the prize for the most Holiday Spirit. Candy was passed out to children at the parade. The club provided funds for the Girl Scouts to serve hot dogs at Christmas Pa-rade.

PETOSKEY: Lions brought household goods, paper products, and personal care items to the Christmas Dinner Meeting the items collected were donated to the Petoskey Women's Resource Center. Held the Annual Lions Christ-mas Dinner meeting at the Perry Hotel. Members, spouses & guests attended. Concord Academy Elementary music program students sang & played instruments for our entertainment. Lion John Ternes was honored with a plaque for his many contributions to the over the years.

ROGERS CITY: Breakfast with Santa was held in spite of the horrible weather conditions, there still was a great turnout!!

ROSE CITY: Prepared Christmas food baskets for 30 families, supplied a complete dinner with dessert. Also pa-

per and soap products were added. The elementary school kids helped the Rose City girl scouts collect canned food

that was also distributed with the baskets. Gifts and toys were included with some of the food baskets so families

with children would have presents on Christmas morning!

Page 4 District 11 E2

2014 Michigan Forum

“Follow Your Dream”

February 14-15, 2014

Returning to the RAMADA HOTEL, LANSING, MICHIGAN

It’s never too early to plan for the Michigan Forum! Save the date now and make plans to attend the 2014 Li-

ons Michigan Forum in Lansing. Bring your entire Club for this educational and informational, first-class event.

The MI Forum Planning Committee is working hard to bring you the latest hot-topics, sure to enhance your Li-

ons Club. Breakout sessions under consideration include:

Lions Quest

Running Effective Meetings

Roberts Rules of Order

Michigan Gaming Commission

Reading Action Program

Hearing Aid Assistance Programs

Women in Lions

Attracting Younger Members into your Club

Building Club Membership

Leader Dog Kennel Project

Entertainment at the Michigan Forum has always been a highlight, and the committee is planning to continue

this tradition in 2014. Selection will be made soon!

Due to the combination of Valentine’s Day and President’s Weekend, the hotel has advised us that space will

fill up quickly. Reservations should be made well in advance to guarantee overnight accommodations. Watch

for complete details on hotel reservations.

White Cane supplies will again be available for pick-up at the Forum. We are asking that you pay for your

White Cane supplies in advance. As always, you save on shipping by picking up supplies at the Forum. Com-

plete order form and instructions are located on the website.

The Oscoda Lions held their 32nd annual Children’s Christmas Party was held at the American Legion Hall on Saturday, December 7. Santa arrived right on schedule to the delight of children who had come to tell him their secret wish- es. Santa visited with 230 children who waited patiently to talk to him. Parents took photos and shared in the children’s enjoyment. Each child received a gift bag filled with games, hats, toys, candy and stuffed animals. Everyone enjoyed lunch provided by McDonald’s, Burger King and the Lions. They also enjoyed games, face painting and the many stuffed animals that were given out during the event. Santa was also in the parade.

Page 5 District 11 E2

The Beaverton Lions have had a busy December. The Lions are providing presents and food for more than 40 local families through their Adopt-a-Family for Christmas program. On December 7 Lions carried the Cookie Monster float in Gladwin's Festival of Lights Christmas Parade and their new Beaverton High School Leo Club marched with them. They also held their annual Wild Game Dinner to raise funds for their scholarships and other community projects.

Annual Poinsettia Sale

Poinsettia's filled the church basement awaiting pick-up and delivery from our holiday cus-tomers. Lion pre-sales totaled 220 in two sizes and two colors - red & white.

Lions Don Seman, Duane Drake, Norbert Kollin and Don Lukins unloaded and un-sleeved the the magnificent beauties.

Roscommon Higgins Lake Lions prepare for Ski for Light The annual Michigan Ski for Light event will take place on the weekend of January 18th, 2014 at the MacMullen Center on Higgins Lake. Pro-ject Coordinator Lion Gary Boushelle is expecting another great turnout of skiers and somehow Lion Gary always seems to provide snow for the event.

The event is based around guide/skier pairings. A visually- impaired skier will be paired with a guide for the weekend. Mobility- im-paired skiers will be provided with a sit ski and a guide for instructions. Then the skiers and their guides will navigate the different ski areas, depending on the ability of the skier.

The Roscommon Lions Club assists the Ski for Light group by providing a pizza reception on Friday evening, keeping the warming fires going all day Saturday at the various ski sites and providing the

transportation and assistance from the lodge to the ski sites and back to the lodge for all the skiers and their equipment.

For more information on Ski for Light please visit their website at: www.MSFL.org

If you are interested in joining us for this weekend, the best times would be Saturday morning from 9 to 11, or after lunch on Saturday from 1 to about 4 p.m. at the MacMullen Center. We can direct you to the ski sites from there.

Beaverton Leo Club

Bellaire Lions

Volume 1, Issue 7 Page 6

The Oscoda Lions recently held their annual Christmas party, and it was well attended with lots of laugh and fun. They in-stalled one new member Dustin Clare sponsored by Lion Yvonne Mallak with Lion Gary Rehberg doing the honors (L) They also we welcomed a new member Rick Ferrebee who transferred from a Lions Club in Florida. Pictured right.

Grayling Lion Dave Pratt donned his Santa suit and he and his five elves visited the Grayling Nursing and Rehabili-tation, Grayling Mercy Hospital, Mercy Manor Assisted Living, The Brook Assisted Living Cen-ter in Grayling, Northern Pines Assisted Living Center, and Wargo Assisted Living Center. They distributed Candy Canes, stuffed toys and season's greet-ing to all the patients, staff and

visitors. This is an annual event that the Grayling Lions Club has done for the past 15 years. Left to Right are Lions Jim Allman, Ward Parker, Dave Pratt (Santa) and Bob Gingerich

Oscoda Lions

Grayling Lions

Club Anniversaries

Santa visits a young patient at the Grayling Mercy Hospital

Ellsworth Lions Club—59 years Chartered January 7, 1954

Beaverton

Steve Asch—Sponsor: Michael Cingano

Boyne Valley

Jill Druggy

Peter Moss

East Jordan

Paul Nachazel—Sponsor: Daniel Miller

Darrin Podskalny—Sponsor: Daniel Miller

Houghton Lake

James Debo—Sponsor: Leo Snidesich

Lynne Debo—Sponsor: Gloria Snidersich

Oscoda

Dustin Clarke—Sponsor: Yvonne Mallak

Rogers City

Irene Faust—Sponsor: Karen Maher

District Mourns the loss of fellow Lions: Beaverton—Lion Guerdon Schumacher Hale—Lion James Carmichael

(Names will be shared as they get report-ed to LCI)

Page 7 District 11 E2

Why our Best Volunteers & Staff Leave By Stephen Brewster It hurts when people leave. It’s been said that people don’t quit organizations, they quit people. There are a million reasons why, over time, we can lose talented volunteers or staff members. Sometimes it’s cir-cumstantial. Other times, it’s just a natural pattern of growth and development. But not always, and probably not often. In reviewing a recent article in Forbes magazine on why top talent leaves business, here are some trends that tend to surface as common reasons people become disenfranchised.

We Stop Leading With Vision – Vision matters. It creates momentum and excitement. When we lead with vi-sion and with “why,” we’re doing something that makes people move from renters to owners. Vision births passion.

We Don’t Allow People to Unleash Their Passions – It’s vital to keep people engaged and to align their pas-sions with opportunities. When people are passionate about something, they not only want to do it…they have to do it. When we miss the chance to align passion and purpose, we fail our best people.

We Control Rather Than Trust – Great people want to be trusted. They won’t be capable of sticking around if they feel they need to be micro-managed. Will they mess up? Yes. Will they do things different than we think they should? Probably. But growth – for them and for our organization – requires sharing not just the respon-sibility but also the authority. This creates leaders that will learn from you and your systems and help lead and coach other leaders.

We Lack of Creative Engagement – Creative people want to make things better. Our best people want to add value to our organizations. They love to challenge and questions. They seek opportunities to engage and inno-vate. We have to free our best people to soar and do their best work.

We Don’t Coach – Learners are leaders. We’re all on a journey and all want to get better, smarter, and more valuable. Make sure we’re creating a culture that puts a premium on coaching and learning.

We Stop Challenging – We’re responsible to challenge our best people. Challenge them to be their best, do their best, and to engage using their skills, intelligence, and resource. If people become bored and aren’t given challenges, they will go find someplace where they can be pushed to be better.

We Don’t Create Venues for their Voice – Make sure we’re giving our best people room to have a voice. Leaders can’t make their best decisions if they only have one opinion or one set of data. Our best people have valuable information and opinions to share. If we don’t listen, we’ll miss this important information.

We Cared more about the Result than the Person – People Matter. When people feel we care more about their product than we do about their person, we’ll lose them. It’s messy and takes valuable time, but it’s the best in-vestment we can make. Put a premium on people and we won’t have to worry about the product…it will take care of itself.

We Never Shared the Love – Never take the credit, always take the responsibility. Sharing the credit and pro-moting the “team” builds value and trust. When we use people for our agenda, we destroy morale. When things are good, it’s all about the team. When things are off, it’s all about the leader.

We Over Promised / Under Delivered – Always. It helps people feel like they are winning and when we’re on winning streaks we’re much more content and engaged.

We Provided Responsibility, but not Authority – It never works. If quality people are held to a certain level of responsibility but do not have the necessary authority, they will vanish. People will gladly accept challenges when they feel they are empowered to lead.

We don’t have to pay attention to these opportunities. But if we don’t, someone else will and one day we’ll look around and wonder what happened to our most talented people and why they’re all working together, enjoying life, creating momentum, and changing the world in another organization. What would you add to the list?

January 11—Cabinet Meeting 10 AM, Ramada Inn, Grayling

February 14-15 - Lions of Michigan Forum—Lansing

May 2—Cabinet Meeting 4:30 PM, Ramada Inn, Grayling

REMEMBER THESE DATES

Volume 1, Issue 7 Page 8

The World’s Longest Lunch Relay - ID Esther LaMothe

At our Board Meeting in Australia, President Palmer announced a special world-

wide lunch that will take place during the April Family and Friend Month. He is asking each of our districts to plan a special event for one day in April. The tenta-

tive date is Friday, April 4, 2014.

Lions Longest Lunch Relay

The lunch will take place worldwide, a 24-hour, international event that brings

families and friends of Lions together in their local communities with families and

friends of Lions around the world. It is a great opportunity to share a meal and celebrate Lion success-es, service stories and the rewards of being a Lion.

Here’s how the Lions Longest Lunch Relay will work:

Participating clubs will schedule a lunch for their family and friends on April 4th. As clubs around the

world host lunches in different international time zones, the Lunch Relay will move from time zone to

time zone and steadily make its way around the globe, forming the Lions Longest Lunch Relay.

Here’s how Lions can join the Lions Longest Lunch Relay:

1. Plan a lunch event—Choose a time, location and menu

2. Register the lunch event - Share the time and location for the lunch (there will be a registration page on LCI’s website)

3. Celebrate the event—take photos and share the fun through social media.

This lunch provides a great opportunity for Lions and community members to feel they are a part of

something big, and can discuss and learn about what Lions do. This can be a women’s event, a family

and women’s event, or simply involve both Lion and non-Lions who want to participate. This will be up

to you to determine locally. The Lions Longest Lunch Relay is a day of food, fun and fellowship. It’s our chance to be part of some-

thing big---really big….so start thinking about the event today!

Esther LaMothe, ID

This past week I have been thinking over what I should write about for the district newsletter (I’m writing this on December 19th). My thoughts are of the Christmas season, the season of Love, Peace and Giving. I started listing all the things we Lions do to help others not just at this time of the year BUT throughout the year. The following is the list I came up with:

Food baskets for needy families at Thanksgiving and Christmas Food pantry, Backpack programs Helping families with rent, heat and medical bills which include helping families offset the cost of traveling to

Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor and the Mayo Clinic Eye exams and eye glasses, Loaning out readers to blind individuals, Photo Screening for children and provide

big print books to libraries. Reading programs for younger children. Helping the Boys and Girls scouts. Building Handicap ramps Helping our communities with various projects, first responders, School Scholarships, United Way and Fish Donations to Michigan Eye Bank, Lions Michigan Service Foundation, Leader Dog, Bear Lake Camp and All

State Band Donations to LCIF, (they just sent over $100,000 to the Philippines to help with their recovery from the Ty-

phoon they just experienced).

This is just a partial list of what we as Lions do, it shows WE DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Thank You for being a Lion! Be proud of what you do, stay involved and invite someone to join your Lions club.

Please check out the article titled, Why our best Volunteers and Staff Leave, by Stephen Brewster. It has some food for thought. You will find it else were in the newsletter.

Happy New Year to everyone and your Families.

Lewis Moeller, GMT Lmoeller70@hotmail.com

Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much - Helen Keller