Tuesday 23rd December: IC in place of Michael Gillon who has to go to a funeral. The route is my estate and there as loads of children as well as the usual party at the top of Lonsdale. We stop here for a load of Santa visits, as well as wine and mince pies.

We run out of time and have to miss out Harrington, Noel and the bottom of Braunston Road, but we do finish at 18 Glebe Way with more mulled wine and mince pies courtesy of Lorna.

My main impression this year is the number of "friends" that have come out to help get Santa round his routes. Some are potential members, others just keen to help us where they can.

Bart Taylor-Harris, Ian Canadine, David Couldwell, Keith Humphrey, Bob Wallace, Tim & Maggie Ellwood-Wade, Graham Charity, Adrian Rawlings, Anna Constable, and on Christmas Eve, a couple of friends of David Thompson's, sons of Mike Cropper and Paul Mills.

Sunday 21st December: On the sleigh as an elf tonight, MO in charge. Hilltop start down to Parkfield, plenty of children.

Saturday 20th December: The Furleys static, and although everyone thinks it is quiet, we collect over £500. James Tyers collects the sleigh to do a Lyddington tableau in the evening. I take a few photos and send them on to the mums, and am allowed to use one of them for publicity purposes.

Thursday 18th December: My first outing with the sleigh, and I'm IC for the Birdie Estate, Barmstedt, Queens and Willow Crescent. It seems a quiet evening with fewer children than expected around Willow. We manage to finish only five minutes late, better than in previous years.

Gordon is my excellent driver, and the set up at RPC is good and straightforward, well done Charles for getting it set up, and Lorna brings sustenance out which we take at the end of the Willow Crescent section of the route.

Two or three guests, and I have to keep them on their task more than usual, but a good result is achieved with £333.63 collected.

Monday 8th December: The sleigh has its first outing at late night shopping in Oakham and we have three guests helping Charles. A new Santa, Bob Wallace, Adrian Rawlings and Anna Constable. I take some photos and then have a stroll. I bump into Laurence Howard and ask if he has received my communication. He says he has but has been very busy, and I guess he doesn't like to commit too early, anyway he has to acknowledge now!

Nigel plays the child catcher and parades around with our sandwich boards.

Saturday 6th December: The Christmas bash at Normanton Park, and a disappointing 46 people attending, Mike Saywood's words not mine. Actually for those that attend it an enjoyable evening, although for a while we wonder if we will have a disco, as the usual guy breaks down, and the hotel have to call for a sub, who does a good job at short notice.

During the period between dinner and the disco starting, I initiate a game of "Just a Minute" which gets a few laughs, DL talks about boiling and egg, CR about life in Bradford (not the topic I gave him), BS does about 10 seconds on Austin Healey, and Julie tells us about trolley buses in Amsterdam.

A good chat with DL who suggests speakers, and I ask him to follow them up.

Which Members Attend:

Allan Grey, Bob Fisher, Nigel Campion, Martin Thompson, Mike Saywood, David Thompson, Rob Wilkinson, Brian Skevington, Mike & Margaret Owers, Gordon & Julie Rolland, Peter Jones, David Ford, David Lovering, Paul Brook, Charles Robertshaw.

Total: 17

Which Members Do Not Attend:

Robin Bickers, Monica Compton, Mike Cropper, Alf Dewis, Eddy Dorman, Michael Gillon, Margaret Heath, Peter Hems, Steve Jarvis, Graham Kent, David Kirtland, Bob Lucas, Paul Mills, Shane Reed, John Reid, Roger Rowell, Fred Stace, Chris Wallis, Verney Wood, Iain Reeves, Adam Lowe, Mike Crosland

Total: 22

Ten of 13 with under three years service do NOT attend, two of 13 them are married to longer service members, leaving David Ford as the only under three year member to attend.

If Rob Wilkinson is under 60, he is the only under 60 that attends!

Discuss!

Thursday 4th December: More angst over entertainment for our 40th bash when Mike Saywood informs everyone that we have ruled out music or singing due to the acoustics. The man just does not get the message and feels that a magician would be fascinating, entertaining and amusing.

My response is brief, and is supported by Mike & Charles.

Clem Johnson contacts me following my enquiry, and confirms that he could make 6th June. I also make an enquiry for Bill Callaghan as this would be MC's preference.

I decide that the best way to move this forward will be to have a draft programme for the evening prepared for the Officers meeting on 5th Jan, where we can make some final decisions.

Wednesday 3rd December: A good turnout of 27 members and one guest for the feedback from the recent questionnaire. It is presented by Michael Gillon, who does an excellent job. The atmosphere is good, and many good comments are made in the Q&A at the end. So none of the fears of upset are manifested, or so it appears; David Ford tells me on Saturday evening that David Thompson has written to him asking him not to change anything, ironic really as it was during David's presidency that we really began the long process that led us to this point.

Keith Humphrey is the guest, and he looks like he would make great addition to the club. I receive an email the following thanking everyone who has made him feel welcome.

My favourite comment from the evening is from John Reid, who talks about a refreshed programme with fewer Whipper meetings, since Allan gave us all a kick up the backside!!

Monday 1st December: The zone social and quiz evening, Gordon & Julie join us and it is beyond parody. The food is good, but it's unclear if the starter is a starter, or a main course given the variety and volume available.

Jayesh has decided he is the question master, and we have to raise our hands to answer his questions, Julie acts as score keeper. After an hour of of this knock about, we begin to wonder if the starter was the main course as well, Jayesh disappears to find the main course. It appears ten minutes later, brought in by a little Chinese man in his coat, bizarre.

I meet Aarti from Leicester Lionesses, DG Alan Hall is there and a lady called Madelaine recognises me from Petfoods, she used to be one of our nurses. MM Lions are well represented, but all by ladies, and they say that the male/female ratio at their club is around 50/50, mmmmm!

Not sure I would encourage our members to join this function again, but Jayesh collars me at the end and suggests that the next zone meeting is held at our club, not quite sure what he means, need to find out.

In the morning I deliver a food parcel to the young lady that contacted me via our new Facebook page, she has a 4 year old son with a rare genetic condition, and had asked whether they qualified. I tell them about our possible donation type support as well as Make-a-Wish.

Friday 28th November: Tonight I join the Social committee for further discussion regarding the 40th Anniversary event. Monica has to leave half way through, and I'm left with Mike Saywood & Bob Fisher. Needless to say I'm ready to slit my wrists at the end of the evening.

Bob wants home-grown entertainment, I do not, but as I don't like just blanking an idea, I say, "let's keep it our thinking at the moment".

I'm depressed again event writing about it. I take some sort of control of events, and in particular A&P, invites etc.

I've left Bob to think about entertainment with David Lovering & Brian Skevington, I need to get to Brian beforehand.

End of!

Thursday 27th November: An evening get together with David Ford & Mike Cropper, the aim being to discuss feedback of David's questionnaire. An excellent piece of work which Michael Gillon will present; we also agree that the SWAT analysis will not be included at this stage, and will be more appropriate as a guide for the next Officers meeting.

David tells us about the discussion at his committee meeting, which also included David Lovering. The knub of their discussion was the concept of "membership". The idea that there are "core members" maybe less than half the current membership that really drive the club and pay subscriptions to LI. The we could have "associate members", anyone who contributed any time voluntarily, for whom we would have a database, and effectively operate with them like a voluntary workforce.

Lastly we could have "friends of Lions", other organisations, partners, sponsors etc who support us in our good work.

The questionnaire clearly recognises that we have a spectrum of members, some for whom "fellowship" is the key ingredient, some for whom "service" is most important. The challenge will be to provide an environment for both groups and those between both ends of the spectrum.

David suggests that we need fewer Officers, and proposes seven, President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Head of Marketing & Membership, Head of Service and Head of Fellowship. Each would have a "second-in-command" who would become the next year's Officers.

We discuss how & when we might introduce this, and agree it should be for Mike's presidency, next year, which means we have to introduce the concept as early as April 2015. Our calendar has a meeting on 4th March where we would present proposals to the club, followed by an April business meeting.

I argue that this is a revolution; Mike wants to introduce many of the changes by stealth, but I'm not sure the new organisation can be done in that way. I also argue that we need a pretty compelling vision to hang this on, otherwise why go through all this upheaval, after all we typically donate £15,000 per year, and have a reasonable social calendar, why change.

The vision has to be to ensure the longevity and legacy of our club, by ensuring all members enjoy the experience and ambience the club provides, by providing the structure where many more people can serve the community alongside us, and by recognising that we can be more ambitious with our service provision.

So Wednesday is agreed, just questionnaire feedback, Q&A, no proposals at this stage, just let the findings sink in.

A long way to go yet, but quite an uplifting discussion, where David demonstrates his strengths.

PS! Charles has been looking at the service stats and one 33% of our membership has no more than three years service.