Lions Club of Tavistock
What's a Lion?
Tavistock Lions Club is part of Lions International, a worldwide voluntary service organisation with over 46,000 clubs in 193 countries, comprising of more than 1,400,000 members, making it the largest organisation of its kind in the world.
While every Lions Club gives priority to the needs of its local community the Association is truly international with no religious or political affiliations of any description. The effort contributed by a collection of men and women (and frequently their families too) for serving their local community provides a fellowship second to none - an important aspect of our Club life.
Find out more about Lions International here: www.lionsclubs.org/en
As with any organisation, Lions International has a mission statement to encapsulate what it is the organisation is trying to achieve:
Lions International Mission Statement
To empower volunteers to serve their communities, meet humanitarian needs, encourage peace and promote international understanding through Lions clubs
So, what exactly is a Lion?
The best way of describing Lions is probably to look at our Purposes and Ethics which really sum up what being a member of Lions is about:
Lions International Purposes
To organize, charter and supervise service clubs to be known as Lions clubs.
To coordinate the activities and standardize the administration of Lions clubs.
To create and foster a spirit of understanding among the peoples of the world.
To promote the principles of good government and good citizenship.
To take an active interest in the civic, cultural, social and moral welfare of the community.
To unite the clubs in the bonds of friendship, good fellowship and mutual understanding.
To provide a forum for the open discussion of all matters of public interest; provided, however, that partisan politics and sectarian religion shall not be debated by club members.
To encourage service-minded people to serve their community without personal financial reward, and to encourage efficiency and promote high ethical standards in commerce, industry, professions, public works and private endeavors.
Lions Code of Ethics
To show my faith in the worthiness of my vocation by industrious application to the end that I may merit a reputation for quality of service.
To seek success and to demand all fair remuneration or profit as my just due, but to accept no profit or success at the price of my own self-respect lost because of unfair advantage taken or because of questionable acts on my part.
To remember that in building up my business it is not necessary to tear down another's; to be loyal to my clients or customers and true to myself.
Whenever a doubt arises as to the right or ethics of my position or action towards others, to resolve such doubt against myself.
To hold friendship as an end and not a means. To hold that true friendship exists not on account of the service performed by one to another, but that true friendship demands nothing but accepts service in the spirit in which it is given.
always to bear in mind my obligations as a citizen to my nation, my state, and my community, and to give them my unswerving loyalty in word, act, and deed. To give them freely of my time, labor and means.
To aid others by giving my sympathy to those in distress, my aid to the weak, and my substance to the needy.
To be careful with my criticism and liberal with my praise; to build up and not destroy.