Last Lions year I was 105M PR Officer. Many of the Lions I met at meetings, Conventions and Forums made it clear that we need more PR because ‘Nobody’s heard of us and nobody knows what we do’. I tried to explain that the best way to get people to know about what we do is to keep telling them!
I was also my Club President last year and wanted to put into practice what I was preaching. Our Club PRO made sure that, whatever we did, a media release, with relevant photos, was sent to local press and our community radio station. My regular appearances in the local rag became a bit of a standing joke with my friends and neighbours – one said ‘I see you weren’t in the Mail this week’!
I wonder what impact this local PR initiative had?
A few weeks ago we heard that our Lions Club had been selected to benefit from our local Waitrose ‘green counter’ collection. This scheme operates by the cashier giving each shopper a green counter that they can ‘donate’ to one of three charities by choosing to drop it into the box of their choice. In July, customers could choose between a local mums and toddlers group, the local Brownies and Market Harborough Lions Club – so we had very stiff ‘competition’.
How did we do?
At the end of the month, the box containing the most counters was…Market Harborough Lions Club. Good news for our fund raising committee, of course, but pleasing that so many people clearly had heard of us, understood what we do and wanted to support our work.
We might sometimes think ‘nobody knows us’ but if we keep telling them, many do seem to get the message.
Graham Sharp
Market Harborough Lions Club