There was a farmer who kept a lion on his farm. However, the lion developed a curious problem. Birds would nest in its mane! The farmer tried everything he could think of to make the birds leave. They refused to. (The lion couldn’t even succeed in catching them himself!) One day, the farmer was working out in his yard, when he saw an old man walking down the road. Out of courtesy, he said ‘hello’ to the old man. ‘Hello, how are you?’ he replied back. ‘Just fine’, the farmer replied, ‘Well, maybe not quite. Maybe the wisdom of your years can help me with a problem. I have a lion, and I have the problem of birds nesting in its mane’. The old man thought about it for just a moment, and replied’ ‘That’s a simple problem. Just take your lion out into your westernmost pasture and rub a cake of yeast into its mane. The birds will leave and never return’. The farmer, out of courtesy, thanked the old man for his bit of odd advice, and went back to what he was doing. Over the course of the next two months, the farmer stepped up his efforts to rid his lion of the troublesome birds. He tried bird repellants. He contacted experts at the University Extension. He read books, he researched the internet. But, nothing worked. The birds were still nesting in the lion’s mane. Finally, one day out of exasperation, he decided to try the old man’s trick. So, he took his lion out to the westernmost pasture on his farm, and rubbed a cake of yeast into it’s mane. Sure enough, the birds left and never returned. The farmer was happy that this crazy process worked, but never understood exactly why it worked. But, one day, the old man came walking down the road again. The farmer and the old man exchanged greetings. ‘By the way, I tried what you suggested on my lion to get rid of the birds. it worked’. ‘Works every time’, said the old man. ‘But, can you tell me why it works?’ ‘That’s simple’, replied the old man, ‘You see, yeast is yeast and west is west, and never the mane shall tweet’.
As you can see things are kind of slow these days. But slow can be a good thing. It can give us time to catch our breath. It can give us time to put things into perspective. Like what should our focus be for the rest of the year. Here are a few:
1. Membership- We have had a loss of 10 members since I started last July. Is it because I have bad breath? Should I change my deodorant? These are all solid questions but are number one focus must be on keeping the members we have and growing the club. I will be taking a 1 day seminar sponsored by the local building association to grow membership in the association have been told that this information can be used by other groups to grow their membership. The course will be held on Feb 21st and I hope to share what I have learned with the club. We have a Prospective Member Night on March the 5th. Let’s help our membership chair Lion Chris Fletcher
2. Fund raising- Or as I like to say “fun” raising. Everyone needs to be involved form ideas to selling to whatever it takes to get it done.her make this an event to remember.
3. Remember our lions who are ill or have had a loss. We are a tight knit community. Let’s try to stay in touch.
Our February board meeting will be held at the Wesley Grove UM meeting room behind the room where we normally meet. On the 19th we will have DG Don Beeson as our guest. As most of you might remember, DG Don and his wife ended up at Wesley Grove instead of Damascus UM for our Christmas party. It should be easy for him to find us this time.
My boss likes to end our meetings by saying “go out and sell something”. I would like to end this by saying ‘go out and find us some new members!”
Thanks all! Let’s have some fun!
Yours in Lionism,
KL John