Lions Clubs - The Beginning In 1917, a Chicago insurance agent named Melvin Jones convinced his luncheon club, the Business Circle of Chicago, that it should ally itself with other independent clubs to form a national organization that would be dediciated not only to networking for business and social purposes, but to the improvement of the community as a whole. At its first national convention, Helen Keller challenged the Lions Clubs to make issues of poor vision and blindness its primary concern. Lions International Today, our community service has broadened widely, while at the same time Vision issues remain our key concern. Lions Clubs International has become the largest and most effective community service organization in the world, with more than 1.4 million members comprising over 40,000 clubs in over 180 countries. For a more detailed history of our local club please see A History of the Monocacy Lions Club.