Greetings Fellow Lions,

First, I want to thank IPDG Mayra McCloud for her hard work this past year as District Governor. She has been a ball of energy this past year and I appreciate what she has done.

Dawn and myself will be leaving July 6th for the Lions Club International Convention in Boston where I will be installed as District Governor. When we return from Boston, we will be celebrating the past year and installing the new officers on the 15th of July in New Bern. IPDG Mayra and myself look forward to everyonecoming to celebrate with us.

I am looking forward to serving you this new lion year for 2023-2024 as your District Governor. These past few months our team has been meeting and planning for this new year. The Lions of the District have helped me put together our goals and action plans. I could not have done it without them. Thank you to my NCLF, LCIF, District, Zone and Region chairs in the formation of our plans.

The goals are lofty but we believe it can be accomplished with hard work and having fun while we are serving our communities. I want to challenge each of you to do your best serving your communities. I believe that if we serve and have fun we can accomplish the goals that have been set.

We want to continue improving our service, leadership and membership in our district. The GST, GLT and GMT coordinators are excited about this upcoming year on improving what has been built.

Next is the Brighter Visions Campaign. Our goal for the year will be $125.00 per member. I would love it if we have 100% participation from each club. Some of you say that you would rather keep the money in your community. But did you know that by giving to Brighter Visions your county normally gets back at least 3 times what your club has given. So let’s really dig deep and work hard for this goal.

Next is Camp Dogwood Raffle Tickets. Southport Lions Club just won the grand prize of $15,000 as a club. Guess what, they are in our district! The goal is 5 books or more per member.

Leo’s are our future. This year I plan to have a Leo Liaison to be a part of the cabinet and also I am inviting the Leo’s to our cabinet meetings.

And last is LCIF. The goal for giving to LCIF as a district is to improve by 25% for individuals and by 60% of clubs giving to LCIF. This should be a no brainer as how LCIF has given back for disasters by grants for our district. Also, giving to LCIF you or your club can honor someone by giving them a Melvin Jones Fellowship. There will be more on how you or your club can honor someone throughout the year.

Once again, I look forward to representing my Lion friends of District 31N for the year 2023-2024.

Yours in Lionism,

Carlton “Carlie” Metts, II

District Governor