It's coming to the end of the fiscal year and a new set of people are going to sit in the leadership positions whether it is club, district or international. Every time such a transition occurs, the question of Experience versus Enthusiasm comes in to play.
For a healthy club playing by the rules, the norm would be the ascension of the 1st VP to presidency, 2nd VP to 1st VP and etc. The outgoing President does not really have a say (other than his/her one vote) as to who should succeed him/her. The incoming President also does not (and should not) dictate who should be elected into positions in the new Board. The general membership in nominating the Board are the ones who weigh the Experience of all the members, their past contributions and activeness and their potentials. They also weigh the Enthusiasm of new members, their freshness and new angles to service. Then after the nomination, the Board of Directors are duly elected by all members at the Election Meeting. In most cases of such a healthy club, the new Board would consists of a good representation of new Enthusiastic and old Experienced members. This time-tested method does not look at who serves as the president, it looks at who can best serve the club and help it achieve its goals.
However, in a weak club, the scenario is starkly different: a presidential candidate dictates who should be in his/her board, often filling it with his cronies who may be coerced into joining the club for the wrong reasons. This may result in a flood of megaprojects carried out by the cronies for the sake of pleasing the president though without support from the rest of the membership. Or no projects at all as the cronies and old members wage warfare over control of the club (especially the funds). Here is where some of my fellow Lions said this blog should be called "Experience versus Cronyism."
I am not against Enthusiasm, I embrace it wholeheartedly. Many new ideas and much life have been added to a club facing lethargy and dullness after years of doing the same thing. Not every new member is or will become enthusiastic. However, because of their newness, most new members are often the most active. It thus falls on the existing members to tap this enthusiasm to make it work. And Enthusiasm needs to be tempered with Experience so that past lessons learned can be passed on, successful methodology and projects are continued, and that the new Lions are guided correctly. Even LCI recognizes this when they included positions like the IPP and 2-year directors into the standard club constitution. This check and balance practice, proven since Lionism started 90 years ago, ensures continuity for existing club policies, goals and directions.
But I am against cronyism! Unlike the followers of a strong, visionary or charismatic leader, cronies are 'yes men (and women)' who do not think for themselves, but blindly do what their leader want in return for acceptance or favors. They are selfish and willingly perform the dirty work so that their smarter leader will appear clean. Does such lowlifes exist in our elite Lionistic circle? Oh yes they certainly do! History will testify to the many cases of cronies of failed presidents who leave their club when they finished filling their greedy pockets. What's the use of a boardful of cronies who would agree to everything the President desires with no consideration for the rest of the members or the club and its future?
The Lions club, because the membership remains mostly the same after every fiscal year, is fortunate. Errors in judgment could be quickly corrected as continuity ensures the survival of the club. At a higher level, it is a different story.
The District, unfortunately, does not elect its Cabinet Officers. Only the Governor and the Vice Governor are elected. The officers are then appointed by the Governor. The cabinet serves for one year and is dissolved. There is no continuity, no requirement for the next Governor to reappoint certain officers. The Governor is king.
The wise Governor would seek to put the best and most capable Lions (even if they are vocal in contending issues) in his/her cabinet to ensure LCI, District and club goals are met. This is because he values their contributions towards a common goal.
On the other hand, some Governors would fill the cabinet with their cronies to ensure his/her personal goals are achieved. No opposition is tolerated. So, with a constitutionally given right to about RM100,000 in membership dues plus whatever can be raised through 'charity' projects, all in the name of Lionism, a cabinet can be pretty powerful to dispense 'goodwill' and 'rewards' to justify its reign. There is no real check and balance to ensure fair play. And when grassroot members decided to question certain (mis)usage at the annual convention, it is already 10 months since the said Governor and his cabinet performed their final duty. A new cabinet (who would probably inherit the sh*t) is already ending its fiscal year.
And Lions do have such short and forgiving memories, sigh!
Sunday, May 27, 2007
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6 comments:
Why have I put on hold my plans to join the Lions Club for the last 2 years? One of the truth behind that is because I felt that I would be insignificant and brushed aside due to the politics happening. Let me state some real life examples I had as a Leo:
- While organizing an event, I've made my suggestions which was very well received by the committee and advisors. Only weeks later it got rejected with the reason "let's just do it this way because all the senior Lions wants it". Even the chief advisor who's a prominent Lion do not want to push the new ideas through because those rejected the ideas are of "higher positions". Isn't this killing innovations based on "we've done this for the last 10 years"? And why the prominent Lion do not want to push the new ideas through? Because he will not longer hold a significant position next year if he offended anyone up there.
- Once when I had some difference in opinions with a long serving Lions. While putting forward my ideas and arguing my points which I've logically analyzed, the respond I got was "A Leo is always a Leo, don't behave like a Lion". Does status really matters when it comes to providing ideas for success of a project?
Now I hope someone could look into topic of "Experience vs. Innovation". If we're gonna do things the same way the next 10 years the way we did it the last 10 years, nothing will change. As the saying goes - "Only idiots do the same thing over and over again hoping to achieve new results".
I understand that many Lions, especially the more established ones, does not agree with suggestions from young and probably less experienced person like me and would indeed feel frustrated with my outspoken character refusing to take orders without logical explanations. However, that will not stop me from getting my thoughts through. That goes back to the point above, I've got no place in the district matters as long as the current leadership is still in power considering the fact that I'm not ready to be a blind "yes-man". If a Leo blindly follows without opinions, the Leo Club will soon become a Foe Club (Follower, Opportunity, Experience).
Food for Thought.
While I agree that innovation and new ideas should be considered, I also urged you not to reject experience totally. There is wisdom in experience. Look what happened when experience already taught us not to hold a huge function like the Leo Forum in multiple locations? Yet enthusiasm won the argument and we received some serious complains about the logistics. Another example is holding seminars in the afternoon... experience says no, no, no! However enthusiastic, it's sleep, sleep, sleep!
I certainly disagree with any Lion, old or new, that a Leo does not have better ideas! My position as Leo Advisor or otherwise is to consider the merits yet playing devil's advocate. When tabling new ideas, I always give both sides of the story, the pros & cons. Then the majority decides... we are still a democracy. Whichever way the majority goes, we must support regardless of our earlier opinion. I have gone along with some creative ideas by my Leos, supporting them while other Lions criticize.
Dear Lion Anthony ,
Thank you for your comment on my blog in friendster; I am Leo Meng Zhen from Kota Bharu. I am an member that like to organizing event / project and in my mind, being committee is always better than being delegates / members because committee will learn a lot during the organizing journey. I am so jealous to all the committee because I really can’t feel (happy, proud, and sad) what they had felt from their hard work to this forum and the experience that they get will benefit them greatly in future life.
I could saw your love to Lions Club , sometime is really very hard to tell the truth, because some one will fell unhappy. For me ,I like to share bad thing than good thing , because I strongly felt that Malaysian only know how to share something that is good but , for those thing that not so good , they will forget about it , and repeat the same thing in future, this is what I learned from Leo.
Thankyou for organizing this forum for us , if you ask this question to leos “ Who really gain something useful via this forum” I will be one of them who put on my hand and said “ Yes , I had learn a lot.”
Meng Zhen
mengzhen89@gmail.com
Hi Leo Meng Zhen
Glad to know you have learned a lot during the forum. It is never easy to organize something this big. I first started organizing my first youth camp (300pax) when I was 17. I was from Penang and the camp was in Port Dickson. Over the years, through many camps, forums, conventions etc, I am still learning! If you are interested to be involved, talk to your Leo Advisor about organizing a camp. It can start small (maybe for a few Leo clubs) and expand over the years. Let me know, perhaps I can help.
Yea , I just organised a youth leadership conference 2 month ago which officiate by our Datuk Ong Tee Keat, Deputy Minister of higher Education . We are having problem that we din have enough member to activate the Omega Leo Club in Kota Bharu . Fot more info regarding the conference ,visit http://youthconference2007.blogspot.com
or
Get Youth Leadership Conference's Photo at http://picasaweb.google.com/mengzhen89/ !
I just organised this conference localy , 70 Youth join us , the idea come from the MD leo Conference that i attended last 3 year ago in KL . I hope to organise the conference again as i very enjoyed it. I would like to say thx first , because i will be have 1 more adviser to get advised in future project .
Meng Zhen
Good for you! I am sure you learned a lot from organizing the conference. Other than Leo clubs, there are many youth organizations that cater to the needs of young people. Many of these can even get sponsorship or grants from the government (usually Kementerian Belia & Sukan) to organize youth activities.
As for an Omega Leo Club, tap the school-leaving Leos. My Ipoh Nexwave Leo Club was formed by the leaders of a few Alpha Leo clubs who finished Form 5 two years ago and will again be visiting their former schools to recruit new members soon (before SPM).
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