Ellis Suriyati is International Director 2008-2010 for Lions Clubs International

Ellis Suriyati is the first female International Director from Malaysia as well as OSEAL (Orient and South-East Asia Lions) constitutional area. In Malaysia, she was selected among 7 Past Officers of the Association, from 3 Sub-Districts. She was the only female candidate among the 7 candidates of International Director to represent Malaysia.
Ellis is someone who is approachable, good in appreciating people. She is good in saying the good words, the little compliments and praises at the right time.
When she visited our District Cabinet meeting as the International Director, she addressed the DG and his Cabinet. In her address, she mentioned my name and cabinet position and said something good. Gee…she really made my day.
At another Training event whereby she was the Guest-of-Honor, in her speech, she had again mentioned me being the District Trainer, the Leadership Development District Chairman, and the FDG (Future District Governor).
Wow…magnificent spokesmanship…so I am equally interested to blog about her in this blog.

Below is the official biodata of International Director, Ellis Suriyati Omar.

Ellis Suriyati Omar, from Kuching, Malaysia, was elected to serve a two-year term as a director of The International Association of Lions Clubs at the association’s 91st International Convention, held in Bangkok, Thailand, June 23-27, 2008.
Director Omar is a company director.
A member of the Kuching City Lions Club and a Lion since 1979, Director Omar has held many offices within the association, including club president, zone chairperson, region chairperson, district governor and council chairperson. She has also served as a national coordinator for Campaign SightFirst II.
In recognition of her service to the association, Director Omar has received numerous awards, including the 100% Club President Award, the District Governor Certificate of Appreciation, the International President’s Leadership Torch Extension Award and three International President’s medals. She is also a Progressive Melvin Jones Fellow.
In addition to her Lions activities, Director Omar has been active in numerous professional and community organizations. She is the chairperson of the Lions Nursing Home in Kuching, president of the Sarawak Netball Association and the recipient of the Sarawak Sate Award.
Director Omar and her husband, Zaidi, have three children.

Success of Lions Services

“WE SERVE” is the motto of Lions Clubs International (LCI). LCI is the world largest service organization with over 1.3 million members worldwide.
LCI prides itself with a very long history of services to communities all over the world. LCI was founded in 1917, which is 91 years ago.

Lions Clubs all over the world will key in the services and service categories that they have successfully completed. The administrative office of LCI gather and compute these data.
Below is the summary of the computed data for Lions services for fiscal year of 2007-2008.

The average Lions club donated US$13,375 to charitable causes. This represents an estimated worldwide total of US$601 million based on 44,997 Lions clubs as of June 30, 2008.
The average Lions club provided 739 volunteer service hours to the community. This represents an estimated worldwide total of 33 million volunteer service hours based on 44,997 Lions clubs as of June 30, 2008.

The most implemented service categories were:
1. Community Services 25%
2. Youth services 22%
3. Sight 17%
4. Health 11%
5. Environment 9%
6. International Relations 4%
7. Diabetes 3%
8. Hearing 2%
9. “Other services” 3%

Lions Clubs secretaries worldwide reported completing the following projects:
1. Aid to the elderly 39%
2. Youth recreation/sports 30%
3. Eyeglass collection 30%
4. Community clean-ups 30%
5. Recreation 27%
6. Blood donation 27%
7. Scholarships 26%
8. Citizenship 24%
9. Disaster relief 24%
10. Culture/the Arts 22%

http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/content/pdfs/activity_report_results_2007_08.pdf

Lions Vision and Sight Programs

Lions Clubs International is often named in short, LCI. The official name of LCI is actually The International Association of Lions Clubs.

LCI is an international service organization with a very broad spectrum of services. The permanent motto is "WE SERVE."
The most important categories of Lions services is the Vision and Sight Programs. Among Lions members, this is also generically known as Sight First Programs.

In 1925, Helen Keller challenged Lions to become "knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness" during the association's international convention. Today, Lions are recognized worldwide for their service to the blind and visually impaired. Lions demonstrate their commitment to sight conservation through eyeglass recycling, sight partnerships and countless other sight services.
The Lions ambitious SightFirst Program has restored sight through cataract surgeries, prevented serious vision loss and improved eye care services for hundreds of millions of adults and children. To continue and expand this effort, Lions have launched Campaign SightFirst II, with a goal of raising at least US$150 million.

Who is Albert Brandel? International President of LCI

Question: Who is Albert Brandel?

Answer: He is the International President.

Question: International President?? International President of what?

Answer: He is the International President of Lions Clubs International (LCI) for fiscal year of 2008-2009.

Question: What is LCI?

Answer: LCI is abbreviation for Lions Clubs International. The official name for LCI is actually The International Assocation of Lions Clubs.

It is the largest NGO in the world with over 1.3 million members in more than 200 countries. LCI has been a service-orientated NGO with the motto "We Serve."

Question: Wow...so it must be famous to be the International President of LCI?

Answer: Mmm...definitely. Being a one-year International President, he would be definitely be famous among the Lions member....1.3 million plus people. I think he would bask in fame and honour.

Question: What do you personally think of International President Albert Brandel.

Answer: I think he is cool. I had the opportunity to be in the same car with him (I was the co-driver,,,or was I?). He was a gentlemen. He was very nice, courteous, down-to-earth, approachable. I didn't hear him boasting or bragging. He is not snobbish.

In short, he is a great guy. I think he deserves to be the International President.

Question: What is his background?

Answer: Below is the official biography of IP Albert Brandel.

http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/content/lions_leaders_bio.shtml

Biography of Albert F. Brandel

Albert F. Brandel of Melville, New York, USA, was elected president of The International Association of Lions Clubs at the association’s 91st International Convention, held in Bangkok, Thailand, June 23-27, 2008.
He is a retired police detective. For many years he investigated child abuse and neglect, juvenile delinquency, domestic violence involving children and missing children.
A member of the West Hempstead Lions Club since 1975 and an associate member of the Melville Lions Club, International President Brandel has held many offices in the association, including club president, district governor and international director. He has also served as a presenter and panelist at USA/Canada Lions Leadership Forums. He worked with the Long Island Lions Eye Bank as a transporter and has been the Lions Representative to UNICEF in New York for 10 years. He helped coordinate Lions relief efforts at the World Trade Center following September 11, 2001.
In recognition of his contributions, he has received numerous awards, including the 100% Club President Award, the 100% District Governor Award, 15 International President's Awards and the Ambassador of Good Will Award, the highest award the association grants to its members. He is also a Progressive Melvin Jones Fellow.
In addition to his Lions activities, he has served as a Little League volunteer and as a Eucharistic minister. He is a former member of the board of directors of the United Nations Association of the USA.
International President Brandel's wife, Dr. Maureen Murphy, an anesthesiologist and a Lion, practices at a community hospital.

International President Albert Brandel

My photos with International President Albert Brandel. He loved to be called in short, Al....just Al. He is nice, friendly and rather down-to-earth type of guy.

My first photo: (left to right) DG Kenneth Saw, IP Albert Brandel, Maureen Brandel (IP's wife), Michael Yeap. [At the time the photo was taken, Albert Brandel was International 2VP, Kenneth was planning to contest for VDG....while I was planning to be the VDG after Kenneth.] Due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to and still want to postpone my intention.

My second photo: (left to right): Michael Yeap, IP Albert Brandel, PDG Jason Lee.

Benefits of Regional Lions Leadership Institute (RLLI)

RLLI is abbreviation for Regional Lions Leadership Institute. RLLI replaces the Emerging Lions Leadership Institute.

Concept of Regional Lions Leadership Instute is that it would be organised at Multiple District level. Lions Clubs International (LCI) sponsors about half the cost, up to maximum of USD10k.

Benefits of Regional Lions Leadership Institute are:
1) RLLI helps to enhance Leadership and Teamwork for the Lions movement.
2) RLLI is a systematic, student-centred training programme devised by Lions Clubs International.
3) RLLI enables Lions to meet old friends and make new friends among Lions from the entire Multiple District.
4) RLLI is a very good programme that is subsidised by LCI. Year after year, we pay Dues to LCI. This is one of the ways LCI pay back to us by subsidising/sponsoring training programmes such as SLLI (Senior Lions Leadership Institute) and RLLI.