Re-emergence of the Leo Club

The City of Burnie Lions Club welcomes the return of the Leo's

What an eventful past few months by some of the members of our Lions Club. In particular Lion Melissa Bell who has at last managed to bring together a group of young people to float the idea of reforming the Burnie Leo Club.

The club was originally chartered in 1986 and because of various reasons folded in 1995 after years of valuable service to the community. Sadly the age limit caught up with them, and the recruitment of new young members was never pursued either by the members or the Leo Club's advisers. Hopefully this will not be replicated this time around.
The first meeting held in April had five youths, mainly girls and subsequent meetings have attracted more till the last meeting had eighteen plus three visiting Leo's from Penguin, Lion Melissa, and myself as the Burnie Leo Club Adviser. It was also time for the original gavel and gong to re-emerge which the new President Amy Bryan tested thoroughly because my ears are still ringing.
Members were noted examining the original Charter, also a few other items of memorabilia that is hanging on the walls of the den from the previous Leo Club.

So who are these Leo's who will be the charter members?

President: Amy Bryan.

Vice President: Zac Raspin.

Secretary: Hanna Spurr.

Ass. Secretary: Hayley Knott.

Treasurer:  Melissa Weldon.
Publicity Officer: Alexandra Bell.
Tail Twister: Storm Walker.
Members: Sian Borgatz, Monique Bunton, Grady Cohen, Tanner Medwin, Jacklyn Rogers, Tahlia Strempel, and two new members who arrived last week. A warm welcome to them also.
So the Charter members will be those who's paper work has been received by an agreed date.
As soon as the required paper work has been filed with Lions Clubs International and approved, the club will then plan its charter night, or day, which ever is preferred.
A few basic rules of conduct were adopted and also the decision was made to organise a social night at the Lion's Den at Cooee, Tuesday 5th June to raise some funds for their Administration account. Music and games with no alcohol or smoking as the club is basically an Alpha Leo club. That is membership is between the ages of 12 and 18 with two who are above that age bracket.
Members are encouraged to visit the City of Burnie Lions Club at dinner meetings any time, and also participate in inter-club visits and outings by other Leo Clubs.

So what is coming up for them:

Saturday 9th June, 2012. The Charter dinner of the new Smithton Leo Club at the Smithton Golf Club. 17 Mella Road, Smithton. Sit down at 7:00pm. Those attending would need to leave Burnie by 5:45pm.
Saturday 16th June, 2012. Penguin Leo Club change over. Details as per the newsletter.
Tuesday 26th June, 2012. City of Burnie Lions Club change over night at the Burnie Arts and Function Centre. 6:00pm for 6:30pm seated. Leo's invited to attend if they wish to.
Friday 27th June, 2012. Penguin Leo's annual migration to Cradle Mountain. Refer to newsletter for details.
Friday 6th July, 2012. City of Burnie Lions Club will be catering for the Spinners and Weavers Guild. Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea. The Lions would welcome Leo's to participate.

Lions Youth of The Year 2012

While the City of Burnie Lions Club is not involved this year, I must say that my old school The Launceston Church Grammar School has pulled off a unique double.

Quoted from Alumni E-news March 2012

"Lion's Youth of the Year Two Youths of the Year. Grammar has not just one, but two winners of the prestigious Lions Club Youth of the Year competition. Sarah Norris and Nick Connelley both won not only the public speaking section of their respective Club finals, but they also were both the outright winners. Each progresses to the next level, the Regional finals, to be held very soon. To even have a single winner at club level is a wonderful achievement, as competition is always fierce, and it seems amazing that a small state like Tasmania can produce so many eloquent and concerned students to reach the level of Regional competition. Youths of the Year are judged not just for academic, sporting and public speaking achievements, but also for leadership, cultural ability and social concern. They are, as their title suggests, true youths of outstanding merit, who usually continue to be leaders in their chosen fields later in life. Congratulations to our ambassadors, Sarah and Nick, and good luck in the next round of competition.
Dr Louise Fairfax Senior Coach of Debating"

I am pleased to report that Nick Connelley won the Northern Region section hosted by the City of Launceston Lions Club. He then contested the State Final at Kings Meadows Sunday the 15th April winning the District final and Public Speaking section as well.
Nick will now go to the Lions Multiple District Convention in Perth W.A. in May for the Na6tional Final. We wish him every success.

North West Coast Relay For Life. Penguin 2012

Congratulations must go to Lion Brian Smith who was our club's represenative on the organising committee. His report back to the Lions club just showed what can be done. Yes there was preparations for the event by our members with some memorable moments along the way. The first of these was supposed to be a "howling" success. The howling didn't eventuate as the 10kgs of onions that had to be peeled were done outside on the trays of two utility vehicles with the breeze coming from behind us.

You have to be cunning. A large plastic tub three parts full of water kept the "stinkers" in chech as well until one rather smart Lion decided to act like Taliban guerilla and started lobbing missiles that landed in the tub and drenched the front of the writer's pants. Needless to say I was accussed of wetting my pants. I can assure readers it was wet but not warm.

As the sun sank gently in the west all the stinkers were peeled and sliced into rings ready for the weekend four buckets of them.

Now our lady members arrived all smelling sweet and fragrant with their perfumes wafting around the worksite. By the time they left the combination of perfumes and onions left a lot to be desired and may I suggest that it would be a day or so before the onion odour departed and I'm speaking from experience with them in the past.

Now Pancake mixture, oh dear, oh dear, four by two litre containers filled in the time it took to peel and slice ten Kgs of Onions? One person commented that at this rate we would still be there at midnight.

Not a chance. Out of the back of my car came a large mixing bowl used for making the family Christmas puddings and a beater mix Lion Christine and I soon worked out the quickest and easiest method of production that saw a full bag and half turned into many two and three litre containers full. In the meantine the food blender was still churning away with 375grams mix add 380mls water beat the crap out of it, add a bit of mix and a bit of water, beat it again, then fill a container to hald full and start the process all over again.

Well what the heck, we all had a ball at each others expense and that was what it was meant to be, a fun night. The worst part was cleaning up afterwards. However by 9:30pm all had left for home.

Relay for Life on Saurday 24th and Sunday 25th March was yet another experience. The moment the onions went onto the hot plates to cook and caramellise was the moment the hungry hordes decended on us. Hamburgers, Sausages, Savaloys, Steaks and Pancakes were in hot demand and at one stage there was a que fifty metres long. It was just too bad that Lion Sue Perry-Keene had boiled the kettle ten times to make coffees for us all. Nine times she failed due to customer demands. The tenth she just turned her back and did what she had tried to do an hour or so earlier. Sue that was a most welcome cup of coffee I can tell you.

Anyone who knows greek mythology will recall the story of the Argonauts and the Sirens whose melodious voices lured sailors to their deaths. Now would you believe me if I told you that the Sirens are still alive and well in the form of the young female adults who became some of our best customers. Talk about wrapping some of us around their fingers with their sense of humour and dare I say it, exceptionally good manners that little extras were not a problem. What surprised me most was the fact that the girls would ask for and get what they wanted while the boys stood back urging the girls to get what they wanted, the lazy beggers.

The resulting figure as of the count Sunday was $263,627.00 with more to come in. Add the $80,000.00 from the Smithton event and the figure becomes absolutely outstanding. Well done North Western Tasmania. You have again raised the bar to new heights with over $2.4 million raised since the events inception twelve years ago with less than one third of the population base of the state.


To all the Lions members, partners, and volunteers, thank you for a job well done. Our contribution has been estimated to be $2,200.00 for this year. Congratulations also applies to those Lions clubs and Leo's who walked the event from start to finish, well done all.


I will add images as soon as they become available from our club photographer Lion Sheree Archer.

Orientation of New Lions of 18 months or less membership

To my fellow Lions of the City of Burnie Lions club, and all Lions in District 201T1 (Tasmania)

As District Coordinator of the Global Leadership Team (GLT) I invite you to attend the various venues offering the new training workshops.

Our Cabinet Secretary Lion Maurice Jones prepared some 150 personal invitatations to our newer member in the District just prior to Christmas 2011. The response wasn't what I anticipated due to many factors, like the festive season, family holidays away from home and a myriad of other reasons. However, reminders were printed in the District Governor's newsletter of December 2011 and January 2012 and still the message hadn't sunk in.

You can imagine the disappointment of Regional Chairperson (South) Sue Johns and her presenters when only three new Lions accepted the invitation and the decission was made to cancel the workshop at Howrah on the Eastern Shore of Hobart.

The next workshop was held at Kings Meadows, Launceston. 4th February 2012 and attracted nine new members with presenters PDG Helen Moir, RC Derek Fellows (North), and Zone Chairperson Amanda Olson fresh back from the Lions Development Faculty in Adelaide. Although they did experience problems with the presentation package due to lighting, they were able to use the notes to deliver the message we wished to deliver.

Now we come to the lucky last Region based on the North West Coast. For those who read this posting, no matter be you a new Lion or an longer term Lion, you are welcome to attend. Our workshop will be held at the Penguin Lions Centre, Ironcliffe Road, Penguin at 10:00am Saturday 11th February 2012. Fortunately our numbers are in excess of 15 at the time of writing this post, and we have room for more.

The presenters are Regional Chairperson Anne Fagg (Rocky Cape), Nigel Sheahen Graduate of the Leadership Skills course (Wynyard) and myself from the City of Burnie Lions Club. It is interesting to note that the following are going to be in attendance. 2nd VDG George Bugeja, and 2nd VDG Elect Michael MacLaren, both Lions expressing that they are still "Learning About Lions" despite their longer term membership. . . . . . . . hint, hint!

May I also pay tribute to those good Lions who assisted me in producing the PowerPoint presentation. The final finished product was at 11:15pm 6th February (last night) Thank you Anne, and partner Chris Fagg, and Nigel. Now the proof of the puding will be the eating there of.

5th March 2012.

I am pleased to report that there were 25 people in all attended the training session at Penguin including the presenters and also several Cabinet officers. All learnt something and many a lot. So good was the session that we ran out of time due to the discussion topics that were raised. It was then necessary to run a second session 3rd March to complete the orientation process. Some who were at the first day were unable to attend the second which was unfortunate.

So where to next? The Orientation process hasn't finished here in the 201T1 District. There are clubs and members that need to be brought up to speed and it will be up to all the Regional and Zone Chair persons to identify them and provide the necessary training. I encourage them to do so. The tools and material is available available all you need are participants.

THE END OF AN ERA, AND A NEW BEGINNING.

Every story has a beginning and an ending. Sadly the ending in this case is the start of the story, and I'm not Irish. We have had numerous years of being on the receiving end of Lion John Matic's fine sessions. His research and humour are unmatched, and there are precious few who have managed to escape his grip on our pockets. His dalliance with the DG Elect Lion Dale Crawford didn't save his pocket either, so I don't know why he has such a wide smile on his face unless he was dobbing me in for some caper I was involved in. John chastised me when I stated that he was a "lousy" Tail Twister, nothing could be further from the truth, I was just giving him more ammunition to get his teeth into. Lion John you have set a bench mark that is going to be difficult to surpass. Now it is your turn to be on the receiving end of "Leonora's" gaping mouth.

2011 - 2012 and we "welcome?" a new Tail Twister. This Lion with divine help from above will try to reek havoc upon us lesser souls. So why don't we welcome him with a little verse to mark the occasion.
Old King Cole Poem.

Old King Cole was a merry old soul, and a merry old soul was he;
He called for his pipe in the middle of the night
And he called for his fiddlers three.
Every fiddler had a fine fiddle, and a very fine fiddle was he;
Oh there's none so rare as can compare
With King Cole and his fiddlers three.

In Humour: In the 1970's, the American comedian George Carlin offered this alternative, and now somewhat altered to suit the occasion.

Old Lion Brian Cole was a merry old soul, and a merry old soul was he; He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl - I guess we all know about Old Lion Brian Cole.

Any guesses as to who gets tuned up over this? Maybe we should all welcome him with a rendition of the well known rhyme.

LEARNING ABOUT LIONS

After the Information seminar in Melbourne in May, those who attended received two CD's. One was relative to training with tutorials and information for presenters. The second one was for the use of Membership Chair persons and also, new members for orientation with excercises that they can do in their own time on a Laptop or PC.

This disk is not limited to just the afore mentioned people. It is available to the long term club members as well and could well surprise many with what they don't know about the organisation they have been a member of for many years. To this end I hope to carry out a litmus test on my fellow club members to assess the value of the information that Past District Governor Russ Connelly has gone to great trouble to produce for the Lions of the Multiple Districts use.

I must admit to being a long term friend of Lion Russ after we first met in Darwin in July 1989 when he was DG of the NT, and part of SA. I was surprised to learn that he had been part of the old MERL training group and is associated with "Swiftsoft" who package the disks.

For more information regarding these disks, please feel free to contact me training@lionstasmania.org 201T1 Lions only other district contact your District GLT Co-ordinator.

For Tasmanian Lions the disks will be available from your Regional representatives.

North West: RC Lion Anne Fagg.

North: RC Lion Derek Fellows, or ZC Lion Amanda Olson.

South: RC Lion Sue Johns.

These Lions will have available a copy of both disks that can either be copied and burnt to CD, or downloaded direct to your laptop or PC after the District Governors Change over and Cabinet meeting 24th July 2011.

LIFE MEMBERSHIP FOR CLUB STALWARTS

At the last dinner meeting in May 2011 two of our number were to receive the honour of Life Membership of the City of Burnie Lions Club. Both have given valuable service over more than thirty years.

Lion John Matic has had numerous years as a member of the board serving with distinction as a Secretary and also as Treasurer, Bulletin Editor, and a "lousy" Tail Twister. Not to mention his outstanding management of the Mint and Christmas cake committee. John also has been awarded a Melvin Jones Fellowship. Strangely, he has never aspired to become the President of the club and shies away from the idea. His history in brief: 34 years in total as a member, nine of those years as a member of the Renmark, South Australia, Lions Club before his employer transferred him to Burnie. A club board member 16 years, 15 years consecutive. Secretary 6 years followed by Treasurer 7 years. Tail Twister 6 years. and Bulletin editor 5 years.

Lion Ian Lancaster on the other hand has been around the traps as the saying goes for thirty two years. He first joined Lions as a member of the Ulverstone Club, then transfered to St Mary's, later he was transfered again in his employment and joined the City of Burnie Lions Club. Ian has been involved for a number of years with Youth projects including Youth of The Year quests, Youth Exchange on two occassions (I think). In recent times he has devoted a lot of time to the Tasmanian Cystic Fibrosis organisation that has no Government assistance and was instrumental in District 201T1 conducting the tin rattle project at the end of May each year for the past few years. When time allows you will invariabley find Ian and partner Aileen assisting with catering in the food van.
Congratulations Lions John and Ian on a job well done. They both now join Lions PDG Roger Groom, and PP John Packham as Life members.