- Mission
- Meetings
- Membership
- Club History
- Club Creed
- Virginia District 24-L
- Lions Clubs International
Mission
Through membership in a Lions Club, people not only help those in need, but have the opportunity to develop personal friendships and gain valuable leadership skills.
The Springfield-Franconia Host Lions Club serves the Springfield and Franconia areas of Northern Virginia. The club currently has 23 members and is always looking for dedicated men and women willing to contribute time and energy to making their community a better place to live.
Meetings
The club holds bi-monthly dinner meetings on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month. The meetings are held at the Springfield Golf and Country Club located at 8301 Old Keene Mill Road, Springfield, VA. Meetings start at 6:30 p.m. and consist of social time followed by the club meeting at 7:00 p.m. The club meeting includes dinner and a discussion of club activities usually followed by an invited speaker. Speakers may present local issues of interest to the members such as the I-95 Springfield Interchange Project or Lions-related programs such as the Virginia Lions Youth Camp. Several special meetings are held throughout the year for which members are encouraged to bring spouses and/or other guests. These special events may include a Holiday Party, Mystery Night (?), and Fall Picnic.
Anyone interested in learning more about our club is invited to attend several club meetings, free of charge.
Please join us!
Membership
Membership is attained through nomination and is based upon demonstrated good citizenship, community awareness, and a commitment to community betterment. Through membership in a Lions club, people not only help those in need, but have opportunities to develop personal friendships and gain valuable leadership skills.
All members are expected to participate in the following at a level that is comfortable to them:
- Fund raising activities
- Service committees and projects
- District, state, and international conferences/conventions
- Serve as club officers and board members
Active Members pay quarterly dues that cover the following:
- Initiation fee
- Lions Magazine subscription
- State and International dues
- Monthly dinner meetings
Club History
Springfield-Franconia Lions Club was chartered on July 28, 1954, with 30 members. The late James C. (Jack) Hill, Past International Director, served as the organizer, and Edwin Lynch was Charter President. Annandale, Mount Vernon District, and South Arlington Lions Clubs were sponsors.
The club became a host club when it was proud to sponsor the Springfield-Franconia Mid-Day Lions club, and later to sponsor the Burke Lions club and co-sponsor the Springfield-Franconia 76 Lions Club. The club is proud to have had members Bob Hemm and Dennis Kelly serve as District Governor for District 24-A (now District 24-L). The club also sponsored the Kingstowne Lions Club and the Ft. Belvoir Lions Clubs.
The club proudly celebrated its 50th Charter Night Anniversary in a celebration held on 19 Sep 2004 at the Springfield Golf and Country Club. The celebration included presentation of awards, introduction of Official Club Creed “Service to Man,” slide show detailing club’s 50 year history, and a wonderful entertainment from the Vienna-Falls Chorus.
Club Creed
At the club's 50th Charter Night Anniversary celebration held on19 Sep 2004, the club presented its official "Club Creed." This poem, published in Our Paper, was voted on by the membership as defining the spirit of service that the Springfield-Franconia Lions Club members strive to achive.
You may grow to great riches and glory
You may toil for yourself through the day
You may write in your record the story
The struggles you have met on the way
But vain is the fame that you boast of
And wasted the years you can scan
Your strength you have not made the most of
If you’ve rendered no service to man
If something of you isn’t living
Long after your spirit has fled
If your hand ceases toiling and giving
The minute your body is dead
You have quitted this world as a debtor
And failed in the Infinite Plan
If you leave not one roadway that’s better
You have rendered no service to man!
Our Paper, Vol 31
By Massachusetts Reformatory
July 17, 1915
Page 343
Virginia District 24-L
Goals and Objectives
We are men, women and youth who reside in your community and volunteer our time and efforts to humanitarian causes through our district, the State of Virginia and the world. By conducting service projects and raising funds we strive to help indigent people locally and throughout the world community. Please visit the District 24-L website to find out more.
District Governor's 2018 Goals:
1. Grow your Club Members
2. Train your Leaders
3. Start a New Lions Club
4. Increase the Percent of Women and Family Members
5. Complete a Legacy Project by 30 June 2018
6. Mentor your Lions
7. Complete a Diabetes Project
8. Appoint a Global Service Team (GDT) Chair
9. Report all Activities
10. Have Fun!
Goals and Objectives
To be the global leader in community and humanitarian service.
Mission Statement
To empower volunteers to serve their communities, meet humanitarian needs, encourage peace and promote international understanding through Lions clubs.
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.
