Newly Elected Lions District Governor Shaukat Kahn

Shaukat Kahn was elected as District Governor of the Internal Association of Lions Clubs District 23A for the 2017-­‐2018 Lions year. Shaukat will assume his duties on July 2, 2017 when he is sworn in at the International Lions Convention in Chicago.

Below is the acceptance speech that he read on Saturday, May 6th at the Lions State Convention:

“I feel really humbled as I accept my position as the District Governor of District 23A. And I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the Lions of my district; because of your continued support, guidance and mentoring, I’m here today in-­‐front of you. I am especially grateful to my club members who inspired me, supported me all along in my journey as a Lion and helped me to grow. And I hope they will continue to support until the end of this journey. Thanks to my wife, who will always say ‘no’ to anything I propose but eventually support me in all possible ways; and my sons with whom I share my stories and sometimes my ‘not so funny’ jokes.

I have been given only five minutes time to talk about my 15 years of experience as a lion. Yes, 15 years ago I asked one to make me a Lion, nobody asked me to be a Lion. I’m an immigrant. After coming to this country, completing the education and training, and relatively settling down with my career and job, one of the first things that I did, I picked up the telephone and called Russ Vonburen of Bethany Lions Club, and asked him whether I could be a Lion. I was at the next club meeting and Lion George introduced me to the club as his guest. Yes, after 15 years of my journey, I’m now ready to start the next phase. Although I am proud to be a part of the largest service organization of the world for last 15 years, but my personal journey in this area began long time ago. Remember, I grew up in a third world country (I don’t know why they call third world, I know there is only one world, one life to live, one humanity to serve); however, growing up in a disaster prone country, I had ample opportunities to serve for humanitarian causes and I did. I respectfully remember one person who has direct contribution to my initial involvement in the service organization like the Lions club-­‐ he is my maternal uncle, Dr. A.R. Khan, a well-­‐known physician of his time. He was a longtime member of a Rotary Club. He asked me to help forming a service organization involving the younger people in the community and I did.

But that’s the story of my past. At present, as I take the responsibilities of the District Governor of 23A, I will do my best to help my organization and the communities it serves. My theme, this year is “diversity, collaboration, participation for service.” That’s exactly what I want to do. I want to see more diversity in membership, increase in reaching out to diverse and needy population in the community; increased collaboration with other clubs or even other organizations if needed and more active participation of the Lions members for service.

As you know, after the completion of successful journey of 100 years, LCI has a bigger goal now. Most of the time the Lions out-­‐performed their stated goals-­‐ think about our sight-­‐first program in 1994, our goal was to raise $ 130 million, over the years we raised more than 400 million; in 2012 we had planned to plant one million tree, we planted 10 million; or more recently, our centennial service challenge. Although we have a plan to serve 100 million people in four years, close to three years now and we have already served about 150 million people. But this time the goal is much more ambitious, we call it-­‐ LCI forward.

With gradual increase, from 2020 we want to serve 200 million people every year around the world. The

LCI will have to change in many ways. As the integral component of the association, as a district, we will have to do our part to prepare ourselves for that journey. We will have to attract more people, especially younger and more diverse population. We’ll have to use all the available man-­‐power and technological advances to achieve our, rather optimistic goals, at the district level. With the help of everybody, I think, we’ll able to do that-­‐ We’ll bring diversity, collaboration and participation to better serve our community. “