Key Facts About Lions International Directors

PCC Holly Rutherford-Allen, Candidate for Lions International Director

Holly@HollyForID.com

I’m Past Council Chair Holly Rutherford-Allen and I’m running for Lions International Director (“ID” for short). Here are some key things to know about Colorado's next ID, no matter who that may be. There's also a description of how ID candidates become ID nominees and then become ID's, including the less-known final step.

The most important things to know about an ID are: 

1. Colorado’s nominee for ID isn’t assured of making it onto the Lions International Board of Directors. Colorado needs a nominee with strong credentials who can compete at International Lions Conventions against strong nominees from other states. 

2. If Colorado’s ID nominee successfully reaches the International Board: 

   • He or she will perform important duties as an ID and then as a Past International Director (PID) for years to come. 

   • Colorado may not be able to place another ID on the International Board for a decade. 

There’s a saying, “Once an ID, always an ID.” When you nominate an ID you’re nominating someone to serve for many years, first as an ID, then as a PID. A nominee who becomes an ID serves for 2 years on the Lions International Board of Directors and then serves for years as a PID, with continuing substantial Lions responsibilities to the world, to the United States, and to Colorado. You’re probably aware of some of the many things Colorado’s current PID continues to do.

Because of the long-term importance of an ID/PID, I believe the selection of an ID nominee at the 2024 state convention in Akron is among the most important decisions that Colorado Lions will make this year and for years to come. 

Becoming an ID is a multi-stage process: 

1. District ID vote: Any Past District Governor can become an ID candidate by submitting his or her name to compete in an election at the District level where the District’s ID nominee (also called the District’s “endorsed” candidate) is chosen. The voters in this and later elections are the delegates selected by clubs who attend the convention. Clubs get one delegate for each 10 members.

2. Multiple District ID vote: District nominees compete in an election at the Multiple District convention (i.e. the State convention) where the state’s nominee (also called the State’s endorsed candidate) is chosen. The State’s nominee is eligible to be elected an ID at 3 consecutive International Lions conventions, starting 60 days after nomination at the State convention. Colorado’s 2024 state convention is on May 4 and the International Convention is 48 days later on June 21, so Colorado’s nominee will be eligible to run for ID in July 2025 at the International Convention in Mexico City and will remain eligible until the July 2027 International Convention in Washington, D.C. 

3. International Convention vote: The Lions International Constitution divides the world into eight regions called “constitutional areas” and allocates the 34 seats on the International Board of Directors among those areas. ID’s elected to the Board serve for 2 years with half elected each year. The U.S. has 11 seats with 5 ID’s elected in even years and 6 in odd years. Europe has 6 seats with 3 ID’s elected every year. India has 6 seats with 4 elected in even years and 2 in odd years, and so forth.
   
   At the International Convention, ID nominees (i.e. endorsed candidates) from around the world are grouped by the area from which they were nominated and compete against other nominees from that area on a separate section of the overall ballot devoted to that area. The European section of the ballot, for example, instructs delegates to vote for 3 nominees. Because ID’s represent Lions around the world, the delegates at the Convention cast votes for all open seats in all areas. Thus a delegate from Europe votes for the nominees from (1) Europe, who are competing for the 3 open European seats, (2) the U.S., who are competing for the 5 or 6 open American seats, (3) India, who are competing for the 2 or 4 open Indian seats, and so forth.

A nominee for ID is eligible to be elected at three consecutive International Conventions, but the nominee can voluntarily “step back” and agree to have his or her name omitted from the ballot in one, two, or even all three of those years. This step-back possibility allows top Lions leaders to select which nominees appear on each regional section of the world-wide ballot by asking other nominees from that region to voluntarily step back. The top leaders make these choices based on nominee quality, the needs of the Board, and so forth. In most cases the result is an exact match of the number of open seats in a region and the number of nominees on the ballot for that region’s seats. 

This year, 2024, is the first time in 18 years that Colorado has been able to nominate (or “run”) an ID. After Colorado’s current PID Ken Schwols became an ID in 2006, Colorado’s Lions membership and the number of Colorado Lions clubs slipped below the minimum required by the International Constitution to run an ID. A similar thing happened in a number of other states. A 2023 change to the international constitution removed the minimum requirements and allowed Colorado and those other states to run an ID for the first time in years. As a consequence, an unusually large number of ID candidates are likely to be nominated this year and next, many highly qualified. If the number of U.S. nominees exceeds the 11 seats Colorado is allocated every two years, some may be asked to repeatedly step back and might never appear on the U.S. section of the ballot at an International Convention. Thus Colorado needs an ID nominee with strong credentials who can successfully compete against what is likely to be an unusually large number of very strong nominees from other states. 

Colorado may not be able to place another ID nominee on the International Board of Directors for a decade. From the 1950’s to 2006, when our current PID became an ID, Colorado had 2 ID’s on the International Board in every decade. Unfortunately, we’ll never have that many ID’s again because the number of U.S. seats on the Board has declined -- from 15 in recent decades to 11 today. That decline is due to the shrinking share of the world’s Lions who live in the U.S. Here’s the math: There are 50 states and the U.S. has 5 or 6 ID seats to fill in alternate years. That means

In year one, 5 states get an ID. 

In year two, 6 six more states get an ID, 

In year three, 5 more states get an ID. 

After 3 years, 16 states have had an ID and there are 34 more states to go. It takes 10 years to place 50 IDs on the Board for 50 states and that 10 year period will increase if the U.S. loses more ID seats.

Colorado has always punched above its weight in the ID selection process. For 60 years, we have had two ID’s per decade while some other states had fewer. We may continue to punch above our weight, but we’re surely going to have fewer ID’s in the future than we had in the past.