August 2020 President’s Message

Hi Hawaii Kai Lions, CIS’s and All,
Several times over the past few months, I have said to my wife Nancy, “I would hate to be in charge now during the COVID 19 pandemic. Every decision will be scrutinized and second guessed. Decisions to keep the virus at bay, affect normal life and the economy negatively. Decisions to try to bring the economy back run the risk of causing the spread of COVID”.

Now, I find myself president of the Hawaii Kai Lions Club, wanting to conduct business as usual without risking the health and safety of our members and the community we serve.

Here’s my self-evaluation of July 2020, balancing normalcy and safety in month one:

• Board Meeting 7-9-20 (Entire Board, zoom and in person at my house)
  • Normalcy grade A Good productive meeting, great start on the budget, great to see everyone, great to share pizza
  • Safety grade Social distancing OK, Masks pretty good, Hand sanitizing not readily available (room for improvement)
• Kaiser Lectern construction (Ken Nishibun and myself in my garage, David Iwana in the sales department)
  • Normalcy Good product, same as previous lecterns
  • Safety only two people, fresh air, but hard to social distance
• Regular meeting 7-16-20 (via Zoom)
  • Normalcy Good meeting, but I failed to get the zoom invite out in a timely manner
  • Safety No interaction
• Kaiser cafeteria table repairs (5 lions, see write up below)
  • Normalcy good job salvaging some nasty tables
  • Safety grade Social distancing OK, Masks pretty good, Hand sanitizing not readily available (room for improvement)
  • Entertainment grade A+. Nothing better than watching Lions roll around the cafeteria floor
• Board Activities (all month)
  • Normalcy A+. The board has been connecting with all committee chairs, verifying committees and adjusting budget to accommodate the loss of pancake revenue. The board will finalize the budget at the 8-13-20 board meeting. The board deserves extra credit for communicating via Slack, a great communication tool.
  • Safety
• My August goal is to improve in all categories especially safety (having hand sanitizer available at all in person events along with some safety reminder signage)
• Since COVID 19 numbers are going up the 8-13-20 Board meeting will be Zoom Only. This will be evaluated on a monthly basis.
• You will all receive an invite to the 8-20-20 regular Zoom meeting, I hope to see you all there.
• Please everyone, don’t hesitate to reach out to me with suggestions, comments, questions or concerns.
• Special Mention this month:
  • Lion Kendrick Chang for putting up with additional bulletin submissions and winning the first official recipe of the month
  • All Board members especially Lion David Iwana for coaching and putting up with a rookie president
  • Lion Ken Nishibun for being always available for projects
  • Lion Peggy Oyama for volunteering to be Historian as an associate member
  • CIS Joan Sindiong who gave me the honor of helping sort and distribute all of the assorted garage stuff Cindy accumulated over the years. Most went to Reuse Hawaii, but I kept a few hand tools for myself and I will fondly think of him when I use them.

All Lions, CIS’ and others ask yourself, how did it go last month go and where there is room for improvement. Don’t be too hard on yourselves. Most importantly ask yourself if YOU could use some help, always remember you are a member of the Hawaii Kai Lions Family. All you have to do is ask and I suspect you will receive all the help possible.

Stay safe and have a great month.

Eric