DICTIONARIES define an optimist as somebody who feels hopeful about the future, the man or woman who looks at a glass and declares it not half empty, but half full.

But to John Mansfield of Ellicott City, optimists are something else, too. They are members of Optimist International - the Optimist Club parent organization.

Mansfield, 51, is governor of the Maryland and South Delaware District, which has about 1,900 Optimist Club members.

One might imagine the clubs as groups of people getting together to make rosy predictions about the future. But it's not quite like that. The organization, which was founded in 1919, is made up of volunteers who work to improve their communities.

"Every Optimist Club is in existence to provide service to the youth of their community in the manner they choose," Mansfield said.

"The whole concept of the organization is that we are trying to find ways to enhance the lives of the kids in our community," he said.

As club members help youngsters, they hope to impart the lesson that community service is important, "that we all have to help each other so the kids can grow up into the kinds of adults we'd all like to see," Mansfield said.

Thousands of clubs operate worldwide, with new ones continually being formed.

The organization's headquarters is in St. Louis, Mo., and the clubs are organized into districts, such as the one led by Mansfield. But each club is autonomous, with its president, board of directors and officers.

Conferences are held every three months for club presidents or their representatives.

Mansfield's district has 43 independent clubs. His role is to increase membership, support service projects, spread the word about the Optimists' mission, and help form new clubs - or in Mansfield's words, to "spread the effects of optimism throughout the Maryland area."

These days, Mansfield has two specific reasons to be optimistic about the local clubs. For one thing, William H. Teague, the international organization's president, is scheduled to attend the quarterly conference of the Maryland and South Delaware Optimists at the end of next month.

And Mansfield is hard at work creating a new Howard County club. If all goes according to plan, Teague will lead the meeting creating the club.

The club, which would be based in Ellicott City, probably will be called the Optimist Club of Howard County, Mansfield said.

To form a club, 25 members are needed. "We need eight more people to charter, so we're close," Mansfield said.

He expects about 200 Maryland Optimists to attend the district conference, Jan. 31 through Feb. 2 at the Clarion Hotel in Hagerstown.

Because the group has more than 50 districts nationwide, the president of Optimist International visits each district every other year, Mansfieldsaid. So having the organization's president there for the birth of the new club would be a big event.

Like all Optimist governors, Mansfield will serve a one-year term. He started his service Oct. 1 and will finish it Sept. 30. Before he was district governor, he served a year as lieutenant governor.

A field examiner for the National Labor Relations Board, Mansfield originally is from New Jersey, where he was governor of the New Jersey District of Optimist International in 1995 and 1996.

He moved to Maryland in 1997, and became a member of the Dundalk and Loch Raven clubs. He was president of the Dundalk club, then governor-elect for the Maryland and South Delaware District.

Mansfield first learned about the Optimists in 1985, through his brother, who was a member. "I learned simply by asking questions, by becoming a member, essentially trying it on for size," he said.

Seventeen years later, it is clear that the club is a good fit.

Information: www.optim ist.org.