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Keith's Komments As the end of a quarter nears, have you done you budgeting and planning for the year? Is your MyLCI up to date with
activities? It is hard to believe that 23 of the clubs have no activities in the first 2 months. Many of you have made your initial 100% contributions, and we thank you. IPDG Bill has recently sent out the form to make those through 2-X1 Charities, including the contributions to the Youth Contests. We are about to use up the Scholarship funds which have accumulated due to heavy participation and low donations over the last couple years. Give if you can! See page 110 in the District Directory for more information on these.
Much thanks to Lions John McGinnis and Roy Chirayil for coordinating the efforts for the Hurricane Harvey evacuees. I hear from my fellow VDG’s that efforts are underway in those impacted districts to aid those impacted. LCIF is providing a multi-district grant of $100,000 towards those
efforts. See the note from DG Henry on how you can help.
I enjoyed the visit to the Leader Dog campus in August. It is amazing what they do to train dogs to lead the blind folks through life. I can assure you that our donations go to a worthy cause. Ask Lion Ryan Jaquess to give you a program on them, or invite me to do so. The Council of Governors meeting in Kerrville in early August was a chance to see the new Texas Lions Camp officers be installed and to meet the new 2nd Vice Governors from around the state.
Don’t forget to register for the Centennial Meeting in October. Good attendance from out District is desired. We will have some Past International Presidents and the current LCI First Vice President in attendance. Come join us.
VINOD’S VIEWS
1VDG Keith Murray kdmurray@tx.rr.com
Attended my first Council of Governors meeting and 2nd VDG workshops in Kerrville. All the current DG’s, 1st VDG,s and 2nd VDG’s and PDG of Texas attended the meeting. Council Chairman Rick Talbert chaired the meeting. Some of the highlights. The State GMT reported a net gain of 41 members for MD-2. We dropped 4836 members this year. Suggested goals for 2017-2018 is a net gain for MD-2 of 2500 members (10%) and cut membership losses by 50% and form 32 new clubs. TLERC shipped 582,000 pairs of glasses to support 26 clinics in Mexico. Children eyeglass program is working well in providing eyeglasses to children in our communities at a very low cost. Texas lions have donated $232,095 to the LCIF which is $9.09 per member a 21% increase from last year. MD-2 GLT is promoting awareness of
leadership training workshops, forums. Texas leadership forum will be conducted Feb 16,17,18 in Austin. PDG association banquet was well attended, with International President Naresh Aggarwal as the key note speaker.
Clubs who are looking for service projects, now is the good time to do vision screenings. As the learning centers get new kids in August/September, they need to be vision screened. The district has five Spot devices and they are not being utilized to capacity. Several Lions have already been trained. Please contact PDG Kate Tyre, if you want use the machine at a nominal cost. This is one way of keeping the members engaged and attracting new members.
Our thoughts and prayers for those affected by Hurricane Harvey in Houston.
2VDG Vinod Mathur vmathur@tx.rr.com
VOLUME 28 ISSUE 3 / SEPTEMBER 2017
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