Darien Illinois Lions Club News Non-Profit We Serve

Darien Lions Club
News -- September, 2005
From President Lion Bill O'Malley

Lion President Bill has come up with a new format for the monthly newletter. We are making his August and July issues available here. We are also printing Lion John Galan's June newsletter (his last).

Successful Night at the races, May 20, 2005 at Maywood Park! What a great event! Lion Frank Noverini delivered a great program that included track level window seating, a buffet dinner with steak and crab legs. We had about 95 Lions, friends and family enjoy the evening. If you are one of the “we don’t do enough as a club for fun” people and you didn’t participate, too bad. You missed a fantastic evening.

Inaugural Memorial Brick is Dedicated! After almost 2 years we have completed the installation of our Recognition Patio. It was dedicated with appropriate fanfare on Thursday, May 19 at 6 PM. Dignitaries from the City and the Park District as well as representatives of local newspapers were on hand.Wereceived a eat review in the press. I want to thank Lion Don Cozzolino and the brick laying skills of Greeney Landscaping for the hard work. Thanks to Lions Ray Krusinski and Rus Zitny for the successful direct marketing. Most of all, I want to thank the Lions and businesses that donated to our foundation. Thank You!

I know it’s early to be thinking about Darien Fest but: This fall Darien Fest is scheduled for September 9-11, 2005. The Lions Club will again be responsible for running the Beer and Water/Pop tents for the Darien Chamber of Commerce along with our own Corn tent. We will have sign-up sheets available for the Corn, Beer, and Water/Pop tents at the June Club meetings. If you would like to be scheduled for a different assignment or a different shift than last year, please sign the appropriate sheet. If we don’t hear from you we will most likely assign you at the same slot as last year. We also need volunteers. If your wife, children, or friends would like to help, please sign them up as well.

Beer Tent Chairs: Lion Rusty Littmann Chairman; Lion Ray Krusinski Co-Chair; Corn Tent: Lion Jim Kiser Chairman

Golf Outing June 2 -- Hope you got your foursomes registered! By the time you read this Lion Al Borowiak will have delivered an enjoyable Golf Outing. It will be a shotgun start. We anticipate a full house so don’t miss out! As always, beverages, snacks and food will be served on the course, followed by a great dinner after play.

To top things off, after dinner we will hold the big raffle. Someone will be the happy winner of $10,000. Be part of the fun!

June Installation dinner festivities -- Plan on staying after the dinner meeting June 10 for an evening of music and dancing. Lions Tom Weiland, Leo Gustas, Kevin Monagahan, Art Donner and Mike Overmann are graciously providing a band to perform for us that evening. Lion Tom will be sending you a separate flier outlining the program. Suffice to say there is no cost for Lions and their spouses. There will be a cash bar for your pleasure. Festivities begin immediately after the Lions program at approximately 9:30 PM. Feel free to invite friends. They will be charged a low price of $5 PP at the door.

The year is almost over and with it, my tenure. I had an interesting year learning about the ins and outs of leading a club this size. I learned about the personality mix we have in this club. I was taken aback by the petty complaints and stupid questions that I received in calls at home. “Is there a meeting this week? When is Candy Day? Why do we only get pizza at the Halloween party?” And my favorite, “My calling captain didn’t call me to ask what I wanted for this week's dinner.” My response was “This isn’t a dinner meeting week”.

I entered this year with high expectations of people in this club being willing to embrace change for the better, finding ways to do more with less so we can do more for the needy. I’m happy to say that 85 percent of the Club understand the need for change and embrace it. The other 15 percent don’t. I accept that as a fact of life. People disagreeing can be healthy. It is the fundamental driver of change.

I’m very satisfied that we have new members coming into this Club that are not intimidated by the “sacred cow” mentality and try to find ways to make things better. I for one am very proud of the changes I drove to success. For example, I worked with my special needs chairman to proactively seek out cases we could assist with. In the past, special needs cases were fed to us by community organizations, schools and the churches. That method brought in about 3 to 5 names a year. By proactively seeking cases while still working with the past process, we assisted twice as many people as we did over the last 3 years combined.

Yet that simple common sense change met with resistance from some older members. Why? I believe it’s because some people see change as an indictment of past performance.

This Club was founded by some very dedicated business people. They laid the foundation on which we build and grow. As a matter of human nature it is difficult for people to let go and hand over control of what they created. I understand that. I have confidence that those after me will understand as well.

Regardless of the disagreements we my have on issues, processes or functions, I’m proud to say that when the rubber meets the road, we walk on it together, united in the common bond dictated by our guiding motto “WE SERVE”.

I want to thank all of you for giving me the opportunity to represent this club. I tried to do it with dignity and professionalism. When I stood to speak at District, State and or community functions I always proudly opened with the statement that I represented the Darien Lions. That is the only introduction anyone of us needs. Our club, because of you, is the most recognized and well respected service organization in the state of Illinois. You should be proud. Very proud.

· Late July - Audit and Budget Review- Place and time to be set by Lion Don Cozzolino