V O L U M E   I X   ~    I S S U E  7  ~   F E B R U A R Y  7 ,   2 0 2 3

District 16L held it’s third cabinet meeting of the Lions year at Ramblewood Country Club in Mt. Laurel, NJ, on Saturday, January 28, 2023.  A breakfast buffet was served, as the meeting took place early in the morning. 

Official business conducted at the meeting included the approval of the report to be sent to LCIF required to close out the 2018 Vision Screener grant that helped enable the district to purchase 10 vision screener devices. A motion was also approved to modify the 2022-23 district budget to include funds for the hospitality room at the MD 16 Convention in Atlantic City in May. In past years prior to the temporary suspension of “in-person” conventions due to Covid-19, District 16L included this as a line item in the budget. Including it in the budget eliminated the need for the incoming vice governors to come up with the funds on their own to pay for this convention activity. (As no outside food or beverages can be brought into the hotel, the cost can be substantial.) The cabinet wanted to see this line item added back into the budget, and expressed a desire that future budgets would include it too when they are created. The hospitality room is an opportunity for Lions to meet the candidates running for office and to socialize with Lions from throughout the state who attend the convention.

An entertaining and informative presentation was given by guest speaker Christopher C. Obropta, who is an Extension Specialist in Water Resources with Rutgers Cooperative Extension, and is a Professor of Environmental Sciences at the School of Environmental & Biological Sciences at Rutgers University. (DG Mateo, Doriann Kerber and  Professor Obropta are pictured at right). He provided an overview of New Jersey’s climate and terrain, and how storm water runoff, and the pollution and flooding it generates, is a quality of life challenge in New Jersey, especially in more urban areas, where a high density of impervious areas prevents water absorption back into the landscape. He discussed the Rutgers University Green Infrastructure program and gave examples of several environmentally friendly solutions to runoff including the use of rain barrels, rain gardens and permeable pavers. For more information.see http://www.water.rutgers.edu/Projects/Projects.htm#GI 

Lions Multiple District 16 Environmental Chairperson, Doriann Kerber also spoke at the meeting and encouraged Lions interested in environmental projects to reach out to her for ideas and advice. Lions can help in a variety of ways from planting trees, to encouraging the use of rain barrels in their neighborhoods, to working with a local school to create a rain garden on site that the students can plant. Lion Doriann can be reached at dkerber@usa.com. 

The 2022-23 Peace Poster Contest district winners and their families were guests of the district at the Cabinet meeting.  

DG Ely Mateo, and District Peace Poster Chairperson Min Elders recognized the first and second place winners, and presented them with plaques, certificates and checks at the meeting. The third-place winner was unable to attend, and her awards will be presented by the Stafford Lions Club at their club’s meeting on March 1, 2023. The District’s 1st place winner, Brooks Meyer’s poster, went on to the Multiple District competition, where he placed 2nd. 
 

This year six District 16L clubs sponsored Peace Poster contests and 169 children participated. Clubs are encouraged to promote the contest in their community schools. It is not too early to get a start on it for next year. Peace Posters kits for the 2023-24 contest ”Dare to Dream” are now available to be ordered from the Lions store at https://lionsclubsinternational.myshopify.com/collections/kits/Peace-Poster-Kit.

Kits cost $11.95 each, but postage can be expensive, so clubs may want to wait and order their kits when ordering other supplies to save on shipping. Several clubs may want to order the kits as a group, and split the cost of postage between them to save money.   

There were several updates about upcoming district and multiple district events provided at the meeting. 
 

ZC Bill Phillips spoke about the District 16L Charitable Foundation’s Murder Mystery fundraiser “Ding Dong the Don is Dead” slated for March 25, 2023. Besides attending, clubs can support the event by taking an ad in the program, or donating something for the basket auction to be held at the event. Information was mailed to each club, and can be viewed online at http://www.e-district.org/sites/16l/page-11.php

Pennsauken Lions Club president Matt McDevitt announced that those planning to attend the Testimonial Dinner for DG Ely Mateo at the Pennsauken Country Club on June 24, 2023, can order special Lions Hawaiian shirts to wear at the event. Please note that shirt orders ($35), must be received by May 1, 2023, and dinner reservations for the Testimonial ($75) are needed by May 19, 2023. Clubs can also place an ad in the program book. Prices range from $25 for a business card, to $100 for inside or back covers. Information about how to purchase tickets, order shirts or place an ad can be downloaded here.

The Flight for Sight Hot Air Balloon Festival to be held at the Flying W Airport in June, has 14 balloons lined up to participate, and Re/Max has paid $1500 to have their balloon on site as well. Vendor and Food Truck applications are now available. Antique planes will also be available to view at the event. See the webpage https://njlions.org/flightforsight/ for additional information and applications. Monies raised from this event are going to support the hosting costs for the USA/Canada Forum to be held in New Jersey in September 2025. 

There were many more announcements about individual club events and fundraisers which made for a very long meeting.  Watch your inbox for the next edition of the 16L Express, and check on the District 16L and Multiple District 16 websites and Facebook pages for more detailed information about these future events, as well as the upcoming MD 16 Convention in Atlantic City in May, and the International Convention in Boston in July.

Lions International is combining MyLion (service reporting), MyLCI (membership reporting) and Insights (statistics) into a unified experience called the Lion Portal. No longer will you need to switch between tools to access each function - everything will be accessible from the Portal. This will ensure a more consistent and efficient experience. Instead of using a bunch of independently created apps, going forward we will be using a new portal built on Salesforce, a commercially available platform used by 150,000 organizations including 40,000 nonprofits. Hopefully using a reliable commercial product will improve the completion rate of Lions administrative tasks and make it easier for Lions to quickly access and use the system for other functions as well - without the glitches many Lions have had to deal with in MyLion.

Here is a sneak peak at what the new portal will look like:

In preparation for the switch, clubs need to do two things to make sure all goes smoothly. The Club President and/or Club Secretary should check their membership data in MyLCI to be sure the member's current email is listed, and add any missing email addresses. Lions will no longer be able to use their cell phone number as their username to login. Only email addresses can be used. Additionally, each Lion must have a unique email address. In some instances where two Lions both use the same email account (usually two family members) one will need to remove their address from MyLCI and only the other can access the portal using the original email address. It is recommended that one set up a free email account (such as a Gmail account) so that both can access the portal.

Also, the Club President or Secretary needs to make sure that the member's correct date of birth is entered in MyLCI. Years ago, the data base only contained birth years for each member. When the data base was revised to also include fields for Birth date and Birth month, all the old records were automatically assigned a date of January 1. So if you have any members who have been Lions more than 10 years, you may need to change the date from January 1, to their actual birthday. The birthdate is needed when a Lion needs to verify their account (to set it up or retrieve a forgotten password). Additionally, Lions International needs an accurate date of birth for club functions, such as determining the age for student memberships, or when a Lion applies for a life membership.

Passwords from the old system will not be carried over to the new one, so everyone will need do an initial login and establish a new encrypted password.

For additional information and periodic updates visit: https://www.lionsclubs.org/en/resources-for-members/digital-products/portal-updates The link appears on the login page for the current Lions Account page (before you login). 

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On January 12, 2023, District Governor Ely Mateo and Zone Chairperson Tal Kramer visited with the Palmyra Riverton Cinnaminson Township Lions Club at their club meeting at the Cinnaminson Diner. 

    

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DISTRICT 16L MEMBERBSHIP
As of January 31, 2023: 1318
Added Members since July1 : 104
Dropped Members since July 1: 155

Congratulations to our newest members and their sponsors.

Atco Lions Club
April Kier ~ Sponsor:  John Shendock
Linda Schindler ~ Sponsor:  John Shendock

Colts Neck Lions Club
Lauren Viggiani ~ Sponsor:  Mark Viggiani

Colts Neck Lions Club
Lauren Viggiani ~ Sponsor:  Mark Viggiani

Haddonfield Lions Club
Ylvia Asal ~ Sponsor:  Larry Melton

Wenonah Lions Club
Jeffrey B Kenney ~ Sponsor:  Carl Hausman
David G Ritter ~ Sponsor:  Kevin Salvatore

Middletown Lions Club
Jonathan Caminiti ~ Sponsor:  Larry Caminiti
Andrew Vitkansas ~ Sponsor:  Michael A Vitkansas

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In Memorium

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The Albert J Carino Basketball Club of South Jersey

Volunteers for the All-Star Basketball Game

 

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Medford Lakes Lions Club - Meatball Throwdown  

Haddonfield Lions Club - Pennsauken Leo Club - HMHS Leo Club: 
Holiday Shopping Spree 

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Westville Lions Club - Two Sight Projects
 

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Gloucester City Lions Club - Donation for Historical Event

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Allentown Lions Club - Quilts for Kids Donation