About Multiple District 308

In 1957, Mr. Noshir Pundole, who then was deeply involved in the Lions movement in India and subsequently became an International Director, paid a visit to Singapore and had preliminary talks with Mr. Behram R. Vakil, Mr. Prem P. Ohri, Mr. Naresh Rastogi on Lionism and the possibility of forming Lion Clubs in Singapore. Soon after that an enthusiastic group of Singaporeans gathered together in 1958 to form the First Club in Singapore, The Lions Club of Singapore (later renamed as Lions Club of Singapore (Host).

Within 3 months of the charter of the first club in Singapore, the first club was chartered in Malaysia, the Lions Club of Kuala Lumpur (Host) in 1959 and thereafter expansion was fairly rapid. By the end of June 1981, our district had total of 2500 members in 73 Lions Clubs and 600 members in 24 Lioness Clubs with another 70 Leo Clubs. By 30 June 2004, the MD had a total of 294 Lions clubs and 7622 members.

One special feature of this district, given the number 308, and known as District 308 (later renamed Multiple District 308), is that it has three countries within the district (Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore). This came about in 1970 when the Lions Club of Brunei was chartered.

We had our first International Director (Eng Ah Koon) from 1978 80. The other International Directors were elected for 1990-92 (Dato Douglas K. K. Lee) and for 1997-99 (Peter Y. S. Fu).

In 1981 when our district attained a total membership of 2500 with 73 Lions Clubs, the District Governor John S. C. Loh proposed to bifurcate the district into two to form our Multiple District 308 with 2 subdistricts (308 A & 308 B). In the fiscal year 1982 83 under the late DG Dato Choong Ching Liang a proposal was sent to Lions Clubs International for the formation of our Multiple District 308. In 1983 84 Multiple District 308 was formed and the first MD 308 Council Chairman, Lion Peter Fu was elected together with DG 308 A, Alec Chin and DG 308 B, P. S. Rou.

For the next 15 years the MD 308 continued to grow until 1998-99 when it was big enough to further redistrict into 4 sub districts. It was in 1996 97 when the Council Chairman Dr. Chin Yoon Hiap and the DG Leong A Sam and DG S. G. Chin proposed that the multiple district be further sub divided into 4 sub-districts (A1, A2, B1, & B2). In 1997-98 under the Council Chairman Shiva P. Banerjee and DG Dr. Winston Koh and DG Allan Cheah, the proposal was sent to Lions Clubs International and the re-districting was approved. At the Johor Bahru Convention in 1998 99, Dr. Mario Yoong Foh Yan was elected as Council Chairman in the enlarged Multiple District 308 and the 4 District Governors elected were 308 A1 Han Thien Fong, 308 A2 Hjh Ellis Suriyati, 308 B1 Chee Boon Leong and 308 B2 Michael Tham.

Some Important Milestones of MD 308

Important Dates:

District 308 A and 308 B … 1982

Bifurcation proposed in 1982 Annual Convention at Genting Highlands & approved by LCI to become Multiple District 308 in 1983

MD 308: District 308 A1, 308 A2, 308 B1 & 308 B2

Second redistricting proposed in 1997 Annual Convention at Malacca & approved by Lions Clubs International in 1998.

At present…as of July 31, 2006