The Illinois State government in USA on Friday announced a stay-at-home order starting at 5 p.m. Saturday through at least April 7, marking Illinois’ most aggressive step yet to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The measures included the requirement to cease all non-essential services in the state. Lions Clubs International is identified as non-essential. To comply with the state mandate, the Lions Clubs International Headquarters in Oak Brook will be closed at least until April 7, 2020.
While staff will not physically be in the building, staff teams will be working remotely and available during business hours to respond to the needs of Lions. You may contact LCI staff or LCIF staff as needed.
Performance of systems may be impacted due to the increased number of people working remotely, and response time may be affected. Some of our business operations that require physical interaction will likely be limited.
More details will be provided early next week, but here is some preliminary guidance:
- For information on district and multiple district conventions, please check our coronavirus updates webpage after March 24, 2020.
- Regarding payment of outstanding dues, we recommend that districts allow clubs that are able to demonstrate they have sent or submitted payment to participate in voting. This could be via a bank statement, copy of demand draft, etc. Clubs will not be cancelled during this time, based on the challenges related to receiving and processing physical cheques and electronic payments.
- For LCI payments, please utilize online payment options via MyLCI or any other electronic payment method (ACH, SEPA, Boleto, NEFT, etc.) instead of sending checks to the office.
- Please submit LCIF donations via the website instead of sending checks to the office. Please also note that grant disbursements and recognition will be delayed while the office is closed.
- There will be delays in shipping LCI awards and recognitions, club supplies orders, as well as delays in processing reimbursements.
We appreciate your patience during these extraordinary times and wish for the health and safety of all our Lions and staff around the world.
In kindness,
PIP Frank Moore
Executive Administrator and Secretary