Visit Report:

Mersea Island Lions Club – 2^nd June 2016:
Accompanying: Lion President Sanjib Dahal, Amik Shrestha

Contacts: President Christine Chamberlain, Lion John Gradwell, Lion Treasurer Alison Gradwell

Club Chartered: 1978

Mersea Island is situated in the River Blackwater estuary in Essex, a few miles from Colchester. In some ways it has a lot of similarities to Rutland, a small, rural, typically English community. The East Dharan Lions club in Nepal had made contact with Mersea Island Lions via Lion President Sanjib Dahal, and asked whether they would consider twinning. Already twinned with a Lions club in Germany, they were initially unsure, but through a local Gurkha family made contact with Sanjib's family in Nepal and verified his credentials.

Having been in contact with Sanjib for the last three years or so, I arranged the itinerary for his visit to the UK, providing a Letter of Invitation required for visas and arranging the club visits, and I had the pleasure of driving Sanjib and accompanying friend Amik Shrestha down to Mersea Island. As much as a visit from a Lion from Nepal, it was a chance for me to learn a little bit more about another Lions club.

Chartered in 1978, membership dwindled until it was only six members less than ten years ago. It is now a thriving club of 22 members generating nearly £25,000 each year. When I asked how many of those members were actively involved in the club, President Christine, who is now in her third consecutive year as president, said all of them. Treasurer Alison Gradwell, explained that they have quite a few husband/wife members, and this helps enormously to keep everyone involved. I strongly suspect that having reached a very low membership, that the majority of the current members are relatively new to the club, and to Lions, and would have joined with active participation in mind. Like a lot of clubs the majority of their funds are disbursed back into the local community, but of course they also support national and international appeals and projects, and were keen to learn about East Dharan's eye surgery project.

FRIENDSHIP BANNER PRESENTED BY CLUB PRESIDENT CHRISTINE CHAMBERLAIN

I asked what they did if a member started to disappear off the radar, and President Christine explained that, the member would receive a visit from her, to try to understand the reasons why, and try to explore how that individual could continue to make a positive contribution to the club's activities. An example was quoted about a young male member with additional needs who was finding he could not fulfil the required role within the club, and was feeling quite stressed. Over several visits and discussions President Christine explored what positive contributions could be undertaken by the young man. Finally he came to the decision himself that Lions was not for him, and made the decision to leave, but only after much effort was put in to try to find a niche for him. What they don't do is let things ride, they want everyone as involved as possible.

The club meets like most clubs, twice a month. The first meeting is a business meeting, the second meeting to discuss and plan the many events the club is involved in, either their own events, or the support of others events. Social events are organised most months. Recently introduced is a rota whereby every member in turn has the responsibility to organise the monthly social activity. Each activity is intended to be enjoyed by all members and to raise a small profit. The profit raised then goes into a separate account from the Charity account and is used for two specific things, firstly for costs associated with hosting visits from the German twin club, and secondly to subsidise their annual subscriptions which currently stand at £52, and which Treasurer Alison fears will need to rise by £1 next year.

With regard to events Mersea Lions organise two middle distance running events each year, and a classic car and transport show. Other events supported by the club are the annual Scooter Rally (redolent of the "Mod" era), island historic open days, Christmas Lights Up and Christmas dinners for the local elderly. They are sponsored significantly by Waldegraves, the local Family Holiday Park, as well as a local cafe and their equivalent of Rutland Living. The club has cultivated a large supporter base as well, numbering over 150 people, who are affectionately known as SMILEs, Supporters of Mersea Island Lions Efforts.

I asked how they managed disbursing their funds via donations which I found very interesting. Each year they have a presentation evening where they disburse around half of their annual donations. This evening is attended by all the recipients of donations along with the mayor and other local celebrities and the press. In order to decide who the recipients will be, each member is invited to nominate a deserving individual or organisation. These will be whittled down to the final recipients via discussion and decisions at a business meeting and then invited along to the evening. At the presentation, information about the recipients will be shared with everyone attending and cheques will be presented.

The other half of the funds to be disbursed will be via requests to the club, much as we do, although all requests will be brought to a business meeting. This gives everyone an opportunity to understand, discuss and decide on any given request. Quite neatly half of their donations are proactively decided and half reactively decided. President Christine felt that these two processes ensured all members were involved in the donation decision making process. Overall they have clearly established a culture where all members are involved in all aspects of the club, and I suspect this has been possible as they have recovered from their membership low point of just six members.

The visit by Sanjib and I was hosted at The Coast Inn on Mersea Island, and on arrival we were greeted by a dozen or more of the club members, so over 50% of their membership had turned out to meet and greet us. They were mostly smartly attired in light blue polo shirts and darker blue fleecy jackets, each with the club logo embroidered on them. Other guests were two brothers from local Gurkha family from Colchester.

Older brother Umesh Kumar Pun is a Gurkha veteran, having been a Captain in the Gurkha signals, serving with the British Army for over 30 years. With his brother Dan Garbuja they mobilise other Gurkha veterans in the Colchester area to undertake service activity for local elderly and less abled people. Umesh has also been back to Nepal several times since the earthquake and provided hands on help via Team Rubicon, a disaster relief organisation modelled on the US version set up by two marines after the Haiti earthquake. Together Mersea Island Lions and the Gurkha brothers are developing a relationship from which they hope a new Colchester Lions club will be born.

L to R: UMESH KUMAR PUN, SANJIB DAHAL, ALLAN GREY, AMIK SHRESTHA, DAN GARBUJA

After a good fish lunch we "enjoyed" a short boat ride around the estuary (it was very cold with a strong wind), a visit to a local country park and finishing at The Britannia, a pub/restaurant in Colchester run by Gurkha family.

Allan Grey
June 2016