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VOL. XV

OCTOBER, 1939 No. 4

 

 

OUR CONSTITUTIONAL PURPOSES

Dear Lion President and Secretary:

“The Purposes of this association are: (a)
To organize, charter and supervise service
clubs to be known as Lions Clubs. (6) To co-
ordinate and standardize the activities of Lions

Clubs.”

In these words the highest authority of ‘Hs Inter-
national Association of Lions Clubs, the annual con-
ventions of accredited delegates from the clubs
comprising the Association, has directed what the
Association shall do. That quotation is Article II,
Section 1, of the International constitution.

For more than two decades these have been the
“marching orders” of the Association, and the wis-
dom of these orders has been proved. At the time
this constitutional provision was made there were
approximately 150 communities in the United States
being served by Lions Clubs of diverse character
and interests. Today more than 3,500 communities
in eight countries are being served by Lions Clubs.

Notice that the purposes of the International As-
sociation of Lions Clubs, as established by accred-
ited delegates at early conventions and concurred in
by delegates in all succeeding conventions, is not to
collect money to subsidize a certain type of boys’
work, a health camp, eye conservation work or any
other type of general welfare work.

The founders of this Association, as far back as
1917, were faced with the problem of whether or
not Lions International would be organized to carry
along a certain activity or many kinds of activities,
whether or not the Association would collect money
from member clubs to establish and maintain these
activities or whether it would simply collect dues
from member clubs for PURELY ADMINISTRA-
TIVE PURPOSES.

The founders believed that it was best to have
the individual clubs manage their own activities,
and that Lions International should make its chief
activity that of organizing, chartering and super-
vising Lions Clubs, and standardizing the activities
of member clubs.

From 1917 to 1922 there was a continual pres-
sure from certain groups to force on the Association

their favored form of activity; in other words, to
make of Lions International a collecting agency for
some other association which would administer the
funds and conduct this one activity. The constitu-
tional provision stopped this, and in 1922 the Ac-
tivities Committee recommended fourteen major
activities to be conducted by Lions Clubs. Later
these fourteen major activities were reduced to the
present eight fields of activity which form the basis
of Lions Club community service today.

No change, however, has ever been made in the
constitution which would empower Lions Interna-
tional to take the per capita tax collected for ad-
ministrative purposes and give it to clubs for activ-
ity purposes or give it to any association that
promotes a form of activity in which Lions Clubs
might be interested.

Had another policy been outlined for the Asso-
ciation, there would undoubtedly be nearly the same
number of clubs now in Lions International as there
were in 1917. It is of undeniably greater value to
mankind that 3,500 active Lions Clubs should zeal-
ously engage in all aspects of community work each
year, than that 150 Lions Clubs, as an associa-
tion, should raise funds to be spent by another
organization.

Therefore, the Association is financed to take
care of its own clubs which comprise the Associa-
tion, and the budget for each year is approved by
the Board of Directors and the retiring District
Governors.

Lion President and Secretary, your Lions Club
should be set up on an administrative basis similar
to that of Lions International.

Through its administrative budget, based 100%
on dues from members, your club provides for its
existence as a strong community institution, pre-
pared to undertake needed community activities,
whether charitable or patriotic.

TARY GENERAL

(This page copyrighted by the International Association of Lions Clubs, October, 1939. Lions Clubs
are permitted to use this material without securing permission provided cobyrignt notice is shown.)