If you had the power to instantly change one thing about your local Kiwanis club, what would it be?
Rob, I have recently started looking at what is happening online at Kiwanis. I am excited to say that I have viewed your video whereby you are seeking "change agents". I tried to email you; however, the mail was bounced back. Could you please email me?
One thing that I think is important for Kiwanis meetings is fellowship. It seems that at times we get so wrapped up in the "business" or "speaker" that we miss the time to get to know each other and have a good time. I think meetings should be set up on a 20/20/20 basis. Assuming your club meets for one hour...20 minutes for club business and announcemnts, 20 minutes for fellowship and 20 minutes for the speaker. The most important part of the meeting is fellowship...so let's not discount that part.
Jamie,
Just sent you an e-mail. I agree that the fun and fellowship component will connect people in a relational way to the club...once you have relationships established, then people begin to look forward to attending and people start to notice if you are not there because they know you. I like the 20/20/20 idea...although 20 minutes for club business sounds a little high to me.
Rob
Rob, Recently we took the time to go around the room and share who we were, what we do, and our background. One of our Past President's had recently lost a son, we had attended his funeral as a club group, she cried as she shared. This simple experience brought the 'fellowship' home to me and made us all glad to be a member of a Kiwanis club that cared for us as persons. Darrell
Rob,
Not only for my club, but for many clubs, I would ask that people leave personality issues "at home". We are all there for a common purpose - to serve - yet sometimes we as Kiwanians seem to get sidetracked from the common goal. We let personality conflicts get in the way - sometimes to the point of a person leaving a club. It seems that if we follow our 2nd and 3rd objects - especially within our clubs - we would grow stronger and healthier. Just a thought.
Thank you, Pat Hawkins. I agree 100%. Keeping club objectives as a primary focus can often times get lost.
If I could change just ONE THING it would be to CLONE a few of our best members by multiplying them 10-fold. We have always had the 10-15% doing all the service work, so let's CLONE them 10 times and we'll have ample members to get all the service work done for our communities and the world. CLONING would work for all clubs.
But in reality we need to increase our membership which in turn will increase our "hands of service." Getting enthusiastic new members and increasing the enthusiasm of current members would be the best way to do this.
If I could change one thing, I would would have been a member in the "good old days","back then" or "some time ago." It seems that when I hear members speak about what they used t do as a club, it sounds so wonderful. I have actually seen members tear up about a project that was completed 20+ years ago. These truly were Kiwanis moments that we're talking about here.
Have we as a membership lost something we once had or are we just focusing on what was always there but it didn't bother us as much back then? As of now, when members talk about their club experience, its all about hard work, not enough time and not enough people.
Hard work was probably even harder: How'd they do it without a cell phone, mapquest and liability insurance?
Time hasn't gotten any longer or shorter: A day is still 24 hours.
And Kiwanis was pretty exclusive on their membership qualifications. As a whole, we have lots more people to draw from than they did back then. And our gross population wasn't near what it is today.
I don't get it?
As Secretary, I've been reviewing our 'billing statement' to return to KI. Probably like many of you, we have some dues payment laggers. We use this time to review the commitment with some of these people. If they really aren't going to participate, they should be invited to resign as an option. (Yes, there is a lot more to this discussion). But the issue is, a relatively new member who was/is a Professor at the local Naval Post Graduate School, has been called to the Pentagon to be the Asst. Sec. of Defense for .................., a very lofty, responsible position. He said yes and is now on an indefinite service situation. It may last into the next administration, depending on continuing events. He clearly will not be an 'active' member. It dawned on me that a reasonable policy might be to waive annual dues for the year in which a member is called into the service or a high office and continue that suspension, if on the annual date of dues payment, he/she continues in that service. Just a thought. Incidentally, he has elected to resign and will rejoin when he returns to his home and his commitment is completed. (This also is a situation where the transfer to a 'local' club is not possible.
I wish that enthusiasm were contagious and there were no pills or vaccines to cure it! I wish we could have a pandemic of pandemonium in participation with projects!
On a serious note, our club also has most of the work being done by a small portion of the members. Except the ratio is probably 90/10 rather than 80/20.
Some members are satisified with "meet, eat and speak(er)".
Thank you for all of your replies. I have asked posed this question again near the top of the blog in case you want to follow those responses as well.