Joe Paronella is a would-be politician, but in Tolga Lions, he proved a poor leader who allowed a stalwart & hard worker to be expelled to cover his dirty tracks as the following letter reveals:
Dear DG Rod,
From attached letter to me from Lion Ralph, secretary, I am expected to attend a meeting, where I am to give reasons why I should not be expelled from LIONS INTERNATIONAL. I can give plenty of reasons but in doing so I will further inflame the situation because the accusatory finger will be pointed back at my accusers. This cannot possibly be of any good to the Club or to the benefit of Lions International. This is a situation that cannot be resolved peacefully in-house. Thus, I would prevail upon you to broker peace in the matter either personally or via your nominee. It is a peaceful resolution, where all benefit from it that my wife and I seek.
Tolga Lions has been on a downward spiral for some time now and the situation will get worse if my and my wifes legitimate complaints and criticism are not addressed. My wife Robin only recently resigned from the Club and was actively involved for nearly three years, ever since we migrated here from New Zealand in January. We are transferees from a very successful and sophisticated NZ Club, where the rules were scrupulously followed. Robin used the excuse of her study to get Queensland Qualifications as a midwife to resign her editorship of the Club Newsletter rather than stir things by giving her real reasons, and when complaints and criticisms continued to be unaddressed, she quit Lions once again using a diplomatic excuse to avoid conflict. Thus written and spoken criticism has come from two Lions: Robin and me. Im not the sort who quits, and my wife is the sort who continues to give her time to Lions projects although no longer a member.
Robins and my criticisms and complaints have been constructive, thus within the limits of the Lions Code of Ethics. And what are these complaints?
Almost from the moment that we transferred to Tolga Lions, we advocated:
The need for a membership drive since the average age of members was very high, very much higher than in our former NZ Club. More than three years down the track, there has been no membership drive despite our pressing for this, and thus we complained and criticized that no effort was being made to guarantee that the Club would exist even five years from now.
That means be found for reducing the number of totally inactive members of the Club. The membership dues per member is subsidized by the Club to the tune of $100. I wrote a letter to Pres. Joe with a cc to then Zone Chairman Ralph regarding this issue not long after transferring.in hindsight, the letter is too severe. Ralph had a duty to contact me privately to discuss the issue before the letter was read out at a business meeting but instead he launched a public attack on me at the business meeting. I followed the etiquette of cc ing the letter to him; he owed me the common courtesy of discussing the matter with me before the meeting. The issue of reducing membership was declared a matter never to be addressed. Robin and I were appalled at both the tactics and closed-minded attitude and made our feelings known. The whole way in which LIONS-at-LARGE is handled is totally unconstitutional.in our former club that never had less than 45 members, we never had more than one Lion-at-large, and a 6 month extension was rarely granted. The Tolga Club has at least two who have had this status for well over 3 years with no sign of either ever returning to active duty.
When President Joe continued to allow personal attacks at meetings, when we saw no progress being made on a raft of issues, we stopped attending Business Meetings in protest.
I took my job as Publicity Officer seriously and made sure notices of meeting and events were included in the TABLELANDERs Club News. I took every opportunity to publicise the Club, freely gave our e-mail address and phone number for the use of recruiting members, taking messages for possible catering contracts, etc. Robin quit as Newsletter Editor before we left for a 2 month trek through Vietnam in February, but I made it clear I would like to continue as publicity officer when we returned. To my amazement, Pres. Joe who allowed this important job to rot on the vine replaced me. This is a very bad business, and while Mareeba Lions got plenty of free publicity in the ADVERTISER, our 30th Anniversary received none from the TABLELANDER. Given my friendship with its editor and chief reporter, Id have had no trouble getting plenty of attention for the Club.
The last serious complaint and criticism was about the performance of Joe Paronella as President. During the last 17 business meetings, he was present and in the chair about 7 times. At least two meetings were aborted due to lack of a quorum. Attendance at meetings is much lower than when he first took up the reins of office. At the recent meeting to take nominations for Executive Officers, neither the President nor the nominee for President, the current Tail Twister, turned up, and the meeting was abandoned. This event speaks volumes about the current state of affairs of the Club. Joe and Wendy and the Greifs were once good friends, and it came as shock when he more and more pooh-poohed every last suggestion we made such as his need to talk to Lion Bob Taylor who was about to quit, to calm down a situation, where Bob had a legitimate grievance. Bob did quit, and he was a useful, hardworking member. Joe refused to listen to our complaints about the foul-mouthed Tail Twister who was embarrassing the Club in front of guests.
In truth, Ralph is a pleasure to work with on a project but once he preens his Zone Chairman feathers, hes another man entirely. I got into an e-mail row with him over this, and he went flying to Joe to complain. Joe was fool enough to visit us to investigate what was a private stouche between Ralph and me that had zero to do with the Club. It was this irritating, embarrassing business that prompted Robin to quit as editor.
When we first started to attend Tolga Lions meeting, we saw that human nature was at work full time in this Club in that people everywhere do gossip, put others down on a personal level. From the longest serving active Club member, I know a bit of the history of the Club, and it has been a fractious one. A number of people, including all of my critics, had a nasty word to say about the then acting President, Lion Linda, who had broken up the marriage of an earlier President while she was his secretary. Some attacked her; some attacked both of them. Harsh words were spoken by both Joe and Ralph publicly about DG Garth and the Yungaburra Club due to a clash at the Biggest Bar-B-Q, and more than once Robin and I were told the worst things about the Atherton Club, and Lion Ralph has never miss a chance to rubbish the Mareeba Club and some of its members. Now, none of this is constructive criticism, and all of it verbal. My activities and Robins have been verbal and in the form of e-mail. BUT ALL OF IT HAS BEEN CONSTRUCTIVE.
Well, as most people know, human nature is a funny old thing. Just as some members were apt to gossip, vilify, etc., they were very slow to show concern about the welfare of some members. Robin and I are very fond of the oldest member in the Club, Dawn Costa. Her health took a turn for the worst 18 months or so ago and she was hospitalised. We asked a number of other members about how she was doing, and no one seemed to know including the President. We pointed out to Joe that in a small club like this it really was not on to have this, and we suggested that a suitable member be asked to be the Welfare Officer, and Joe suggested Daphne Zipperer. Nothing came of it. Is it any wonder Robin and I have suffered acute frustration.
One last point, a few months ago I sent Pres. Joe what must be seen as a conciliatory but at the time a very concerned e-mail that you will find attached. Joe never replied to it. How has the good of the Club or interpersonal relations been enhanced by his refusal to reply? Robin and I were most concerned that the acting Catering Convener was about to quit, and with no one to organize our one source of revenue, the Club would soon be bankrupted. I also wanted an excellent transferee from Townsville, Fred Haines to be considered for President.
After a few weeks of silence, Robin tried to get Joes attention by writing to him but got nowhere. Previously when Robin raced to support me in a situation via e-mail, Joes response was to assert that I was writing Robins e-mails, the assumption being that Robin is just my ventriloquists dummy. To prove this assertion wrong, Robin insists on being physically present to give testimony in a meeting to resolve these issues. The only replies to Robins messages were from Joes wife who is not a member but does help out. The last race meeting I worked at (Robin could not due to work) was very seriously understaffed to the point that from 10am to 4:30pm I never left my post except to use the WC. I was irate that Joe preferred singing and MCing on behalf of the turf club to doing some real work for Lions, and I wrote to Ralph to this effect. I do not take it back.
As I wrote the Club has had a chequered career these last 30 years. At one point the Club split in two as a result of fallout between two factions. A couple now active in the Malanda Club were hounded out of the Tolga Club a few years before we arrived in Tolga. Linda was demonized when we arrived. Then it was Bobs turn, now its mine. Its time this nonsense came to an end. Had Robin and I been given a fair hearing, where all subjects can be discussed, debated without ridicule, had Joe deigned to answer the attached e-mail, this whole sorry business would never have happened.
The one concession I am prepared to make (and Robin as well) is that I will not continue to complain, criticize in writing or verbally. I will leave it over to others. We have only one vehicle, and Robin does casual shift work. Thus, it is difficult now to get to anything but catering projects. However, I will accept a ride from Frank Haines once there is some sign of positive change, and I will always try to get to any membership recruitment drive. As I wrote previously, Robin and I want a positive outcome where all enmity is put to one side and all Lions principles put first and foremost.
Thank you,
Lion Stuart
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