District 30-M NAMI Results

The primary goal of the Lions Club International (LCI) North American Membership Initiative (NAMI) is to have a membership increase. After one month, how did District 30-M fare in achieving the NAMI goal?

During the month of July, District 30-M added six new Lions. The Horn Lake Lions Club added two Lions. The Aberdeen Lions Club, East Columbus Lions Club, Grenada Lions Club and Olive Branch each added a new Lion. That’s the good news.

The East Columbus and Tupelo Evening Lions Clubs each dropped two Lions. The Batesville Lions Club and Tunica Lions Club each dropped a member.

That means the net was no July membership gain. The District has a NAMI goal to add 100 Lions this year. Adding six Lions falls below the membership trend line to achieve the goal. The District can sustain a 36 drops this year. Having six drops in one month is twice the NAMI forecast amount.

The early reporting is just that. It’s early. There is still nearly a year to change the direction of membership. There are still 11 months to achieve the NAMI club and district goals. There are a number of ways to do exactly that.

The six new Lions say something important. It is possible and very practical to find new Lions during a pandemic. Five different clubs demonstrated the possibility. Let’s see if there are any common factors.

Horn Lake and Olive Branch are in a county with a growing population. That makes finding a new Lion easier. Columbus and Grenada are in medium size cities with fewer than 25,000 residents. Aberdeen is a smaller city with fewer than 15,000 people. The bottom line is that location does not really matter. Every community can find new a Lion without regard to population.

During the weekend webinar, Past International Director Jerome Thompson made a very accurate statement. “If a town is large enough to have a Dollar General, it’s large enough to have a Lions Club.” There are two keys to membership growth. One is having meaningful service projects. Almost everyone wants to serve the less fortunate. The other is making it a priority to ask others to join Lions. The worst thing a prospect can say is “No.” But they might give you the response you really want.

The District has plenty of free resources available to clubs. Just ask. These resources are how to find potential members and then convert them into new Lions. We have strategies on how to limit the number of drops. We have ideas on meaningful service.

Together we can grow our LCI membership. Together we can achieve our NAMI goal.


We Serve because Kindness Matters 

Lion Andy Kalinowski (Andy K) 
District Governor
662.549.3421 

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