Thursday 28th August: A visit from Brian Skevington to discuss fireworks; I commit to produce the tickets and posters again, but challenge the pricing. I suggest we raise the cost of entry on the night from £4 to £5 but leave the cost of pre-bought tickets at £3.50. This should do two things, firstly increase the incentive to purchase beforehand, and hence reduce our bad weather risk, and secondly, ease the handling of money on the gate. Not sure Brian is convinced, but ask him to confirm with Mike before tickets and posters go to print.

Brian also wants to introduce a Carol Concert for 2015 at Oakham School Chapel, and asks me to pen a letter to the Reverend Alex Aldous, which I commit to.

I also mention the need to communicate with Major Crouch as fireworks is only two months away. Brian will write the letter, I will sign it as President.

We then chew the fat over various stuff including the enigma Shane. Brian says he was quiet to start with at David Ford's meeting, but opened up gradually and contributed well at the end; all team members have actions from the meeting. Brian also thinks my proposal to move from apologies to confirmation of attendance at Wednesday meetings a sensible idea, we'll see.

Wednesday 27th August: The first wedding of two current Lions in the club's history........Gordon Rolland and Julie Hargreaves. They get married at Oakham Castle and I go down for their departure from the castle and take some photographs which are shared around the club; this gets the usual one comment on-line and one by word of mouth from Brian Skevington.

The other major contribution is the chaffer, one Peter Hems and his Bentley which conveys the bride and groom to and from the Castle.

Gordon & Julie

Tuesday 26th August: Early meet with the boys this week, including Paul Mills after I invite him along. It seems the lady from the Dogs Trust did a good job, as did Mike, standing in for me. My omission of apologies seems to have caused plenty of mirth, but what didn't was yet another poor meal, and surly service.

We conclude it is time to do something about it, but we cannot just go ahead without involving Robin, and so I have arranged a one-to-one session with him next week. I want to cover this issue as well as the shape of the 2015 programme.

Robin has sent out a slightly strange email, have just noticed that next year is our 40th anniversary, and had anyone got any ideas. Two or three responses, but this again needs to be something we establish a process for, and one that ideally involves all club members.

It seems that the Parent Carer BBQ went well, and albeit a Community Service event, we generated nearly £100 in donations, plus Charles was ably supported by Mike, Paul and several others, including Adam Lowe.

Friday 22nd August: Plenty of time to think about Shane's provocation. No change of heart about him being a prima donna, but what should we expect of members with regard to our Wednesday meetings.

We currently have Eddy who never attends, and Verney who rarely attends, yet they both get involved with events. Shane seems to have decided that until something appeals to him he will not attend Wednesday's either, although he also has involved himself in a number of events this year........is this OK or not. Should we be reviewing their membership, or are we happy for this state of affairs.

As far as Shane is concerned, he may well represent the type of member we are looking for, 30s/40s, family man, still working, and not turned on by a mediocre dinner, with a load of people a lot older than he is, with mediocre speakers. Hopefully, they are folk who can articulate this and not take their ball home, but with a similar viewpoint nonetheless.

I am beginning to think that Wednesdays should become entirely voluntary, after all the Mission of Lions is To Serve, and most, but not all Wednesdays are social, leaving only three business meetings and one AGM. If people choose not to attend these four, they forfeit the right to influence club matters.

However, maybe we need to be more specific just what obligations exist for members, i.e. a minimum number of events per annum, Charter, and AGM, maybe it's as simple as that. The concept of having to attend a minimum % of meetings is now old hat, and will not find us new members, in fact it will positively legislate against it. We do need however to be clear that members have an obligation to communicate, or at least respond to club communication, and if we get into the social media age then we increase the number of channels open for communication.

However, we should not just accept this state of affairs, but find alternatives that will attract the "Shanes and Sheilas" of this world, but what are they; they may be a simple as Pint & Pizza evenings, come if you please, no commitment, no apologies, just network with other Lion members, regular location, regular date. They may even be virtual, and for this we need to find a resource to develop our "social media" for us.

An idea:.....let's advertise a project to develop Rutland Lions social media for us, entirely voluntary, maybe from schools, sports clubs, colleges etc. This could be a bit of a Trojan Horse to involve further younger, like minded people, and identify further service/civic projects.

Dividing our programme up:

AGM (1)
Business Meetings (3)
Visits (eg, Rutland Plastics)
Speaker Meetings - (eg, Patagonia by Zeppelin)
Social (indoors) - (eg, quiz)
Social (outdoors) - (eg, petanque, local walk, speedway, dog racing)
Scatter Meetings - (1)
Networkers - (informal, unscripted, could include "bring a guest")
Joint Service Meeting; - (1)

Now let's develop on this!

Thursday 21st August: Well it transpires that four members omitted to send their apologies for the meeting last evening, and I was one of them. Managed to organise a stand-in, but not send my apologies to Rob Wilkinson, the new apologist!!

The others were Steve Jarvis, Shane Reed and Nigel Campion. It transpires that Nigel did apologise but the email was stuck in Rob's spam box. The more interesting response was Shane's, "I won't be paying, and I have already made my apologies pretty clear until something interesting appears on the calendar".

Shane has been seen as the role model new younger member, but he is fast losing that image and replacing it with a spoilt child one, sulking because he believes he is not getting his own way. Truth to tell Shane has done little or nothing to move Lions forward into a future he seems unable to articulate, and we will now have to deal with this bit of foot stamping.

A bit of work here for our membership officer.

A subsequent thought is the speed with which David Ford got stuck in, more food for thought!

Tuesday 13th August: Conversation with Julie Hargreaves; she is proposing an interview with Rutland Radio to promote Rutland Lions. I agree with the proposal but suggest we do it when we have a "Big Idea" to communicate. I think we agree we should go for two slots, one concurrent with Meet the President, and one later when the Marketing team have some proposals.

David Ford recognises that he has a team of only three, with the challenge of nailing Shane down. He asks who might make an additional team member. I suggest Brian Skevington, David Lovering and myself. David goes for Brian, who I believe will bring his 30 years to bear, plus a forward looking disposition, plus being closer to Shane than other members.

Monday 18th August: Following the Chinese earthquake, and a request to donate from LCIF, I ask Paul to seek approval from the Community Service committee for a donation. This gets approved, and Paul communicates this to Martin, asking him to raise the donation.

Friday 15th August: I call Steve Jarvis and wish him the best of luck with the Lands End BBQ, planned for tomorrow; he seems to be on top of the job, but I wouldn't have expected anything else.

Martin reports on Sunday a profit of very nearly £900, well done everyone!

Thursday 14th August: Melton Mowbray Lions are looking to disburse some funds and contact Lorna and ask her to come as a guest and tell them all about Make-a-Wish. I go along as a her guest, but also as President of The Lions Club of Rutland.

I decide that I will not wear my chain of office, but consider that I could be that very rare animal, a travelling Rutland Lion. I am disabused of that idea as it transpires from a conversation with Peter Simpson, immediate Past-President of MM Lions, that I should have downloaded a form and got it signed by the current President, oh dear, let the side down again, or have I maintained a proud record of insularity.

Lorna's talk is perfect, albeit a little rushed as she is only given 15 minutes, enough time however for one gentleman to have to leave the room sobbing. It transpires that he lost a daughter aged 7 to cancer and has never been able to talk about it until explaining all to Lorna, wow!

I meet a few old names from Pedigree days, Derek Whitehouse, Dave Robb and Ben Baretto. Ben ensures that I win a raffle prize, a bird-box and peanuts; it is a scheme to take them around to elderly single folks and then return regularly with additional peanuts, but more importantly to spend time with them and have a chat, a great idea.

MM Lions big event are their Golf Day/auction, plus ???

Wednesday 6th August: My second meeting as President, and Ted joins me for the evening. Everything seems to go well this time, and I keep it light-hearted with a slightly risque comment about Mike giving Margaret one, trophy for the petanque evening that is, before presenting two more to Mike Saywood and David Lovering as the other two members of the team.

Mike Cropper reminds members that there are still over 50% of them that have not replied to their invite to Meet the President. I concur with a general comment about people not replying at all to emails and requests for events.

it seems to do the trick as the projected turnout is much better within the following week and it seems we will have perhaps 45 attending, which is pretty good.

Folks wish us well for the weekend cycle, and a few more offers of sponsorship come in from Margaret Heath & Michael Gillon.

Wednesday 30th July: Usual Wednesday morning coffee with Charles & Mike, Roy Barnett joins us for a while. When asked how he is, Charles explains he is not too good, suffering from stress and on some strong medication, Beta Blockers and Tomazapan?? Need to keep a close eye, see what help we can offer.