Buchanan, Grand Bassa – Region 34 of Lions Club International- has concluded its 2020 Retreat in Buchanan City bringing together more than 150 members.
Report by Garmondeh Wremongar Blojay Joe II, Contributing Writer
The retreat which was held at a local hotel in Buchanan over the weekend brought together nearly 150 members of the regional group 34 which hosts clubs from Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Held under the theme under the theme “Growing Lionism through mutual collaboration and sensitization”, the 2020 retreat sought to better streamline, coordinate and organize its chapters as well as supervise clubs to be known as Lions clubs.
The Key note speaker of the event was Liberia and Sierra Leone Country Manager of Air Cote d’ioite, Mme. Micheline Yahot who made a special remark on the role leadership plays in charity and community organizations.
Yahot who spoke on the theme “Leadership” told the gathering that she believes Lions Liberia, have the huge role of raising the flags of the global standards of your club service very high for a brighter and better future of Liberia and Africa
Air Cote d’Ivoire executive stressed that it is necessary to promote leadership; “it is even a requirement in our current environment today”.
“But how can we promote result or empowerment without a sustainable training on team spirit and methodological action plan which give life to a global vision. How can we drive a team with knowledgeable ability to their best performance?” she asked.
In her message, she admonished members of Lions Liberia to implement some seven (7) standards of leadership in order to become a successful charity that fulfills its ambitions.
The seven steps she noted include: Humility, Learning Delagation, Motivation, Manage importantly or essentially not urgently and being of Recognition & Rewarding to those they serve.
Mme. Micheline Yahot in addition emphasized that leaders must allow their subordinates to make mistakes. “In your training part you have to give the KPI (key performance indicator) but when you sense a mistake coming stop the one which are not damageable not all of them”.
Mrs Yahot said people must be allowed to make mistakes from which they and their leaders can draw necessary a lesson that informs learning and growth in the institution.
She thanked Mr. Coulibaly Mamadou the CEO of orange Liberia for trusting her to represent him at “this important conference of the Lions” and in conclusion said “Lions serve as club with highest standards to promote good governance and good citizenship, cautioning them to do retrospection in a perspective of values to our corporate environment in LIBERIA and what are the correct action plan ahead” she added.
According to the retreat committee, it also sought to rebuild the principles of commitment in all clubs, strengthen functions of key club officials and explore concrete ways by which new clubs may be strengthened.
Retreat Chairman – Lion G. Moses Paegar stressed that the retreat was also focused on reflecting on problems impeding growth and development of clubs, review various strategies of membership requirements and to explore relevant strategies relating to resource generation.
Cllr Paegar said he was grateful that the Lions Club Liberia reposed such confidence in him coordinate activities for the 2020 retreat in his native Grand Bassa County.
He encouraged Liberian s of all worth of life to joint charitable organization to seen the good of those living at the margin of society.
“This is how he build a society, we must learn to contribute to uplifting the lives of people who are in need and because our government cannot do it all for us”, he remarked.
Lions Clubs International is the world’s largest service club organization with 1.35 million members in more than 46,000 clubs in over 206 countries and geographic areas.
Founded in1917, Lions Club prides itself as best known for fighting blindness, volunteering for many different kinds of community projects – including caring for the environment, feeding the hungry and aiding seniors and the disabled.
Since 1968, the Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) has awarded more than US$700 million in grants to support Lions humanitarian projects around the world. LCIF wasalso ranked the number one nongovernmental organization in a 2007 study by The Financial Times.