January 24th Meeting Summary

Meeting Summary

We had a very good turnout for the first official meeting at First Congregational Church.

After the normal meeting beginnings, we had a presentation by Teri Evans from Freebirds Solution Center.  Teri told us about the program, and how the services that they are providing are affecting people in our own community.  The presentation lasted about 15 minutes, and a good question/answer session followed the presentation.  We then talked a little about how our club can help the Freebirds with some service events in the future.  More discussion is needed between Teri and myself before we can schedule a service event with them.

Mak Khoi gave an update about the Bug Club supplies that he ordered on January 16th.  New ordering processes do not allow for a pickup of supplies at the Kiwanis International building in Indianapolis.  The supplies were ordered, and will be sent to Mak's house.  Once received, Mak will take the supplies to Bill Lute's office at Terre Haute Nissan so that members can pick up the supplies from there.  I will also be sending out some additional information via email that Mak has put together to help with your BUG Club presentation.

The club voted that there will be no meeting on January 31st, 2012.

Board Meeting Summary

A quorum was present, and the board voted to approve the meeting notes as read by the club secretary.  The board also approved to accept the budget that was recommended by the budget committee.  Since the regular meeting ran late, the board meeting was short an sweet!

Bingo Update

Bill Lutes and I met at Terre Haute Nissan to do an inventory of our Bingo Supplies.  The financial reports from the last bingo have been completed and will be sent with our current bingo license application.  VFW has been confirmed, Bingo Equipment has been ordered, Tickets have been ordered.  We will need to get 2 rolls of tickets - red and blue.  Kevin will be printing and mailing the fliers for the Bingo/Fish Fry announcement very soon.   Dawn Carlson has donated 24 "Ball Jars" to the club for door prizes.  We will be looking for additional donations of items to fill the jars.  Dawn will be sending out suggestions for people to bring to help with this effort.  This change alone will save us $200 in bingo costs!

A reminder that we are looking for any financial support to "sponsor" baskets.  

All Basket Sponsorships will be listed on the bingo sheets distributed to every player.  Additional benefits are listed next to the sponsor levels.  A Basket Sponsorship can come in the following denominations:

$25 - Bingo Basket (20) - One Sponsor Announcement and Sponsor Tag on the Basket

$50 - Tip Board Basket (3) - Multiple Sponsor Announcements and Sponsor Tag on Basket and Sign on Basket

$100 - Raffle Basket (1) - Multiple Sponsor Announcements, Sign at the Sign Up Table and Sponsor Tag on Basket.

Ask your doctor, dentist, insurance agent, investment broker, etc.. people that normally don't get solicited for silent auction items.

Fish Fry Update

Fish Fry tickets have been ordered!  The tickets are numbered, and the club agreed that each member should be responsible to sell 10 tickets each.  That means that each member is responsible to turn in up to $80 (children are $6 each).  I will have to be very diligent with the accounting of the tickets, so please bear with me!  

Our club will keep the proceeds of all dessert sales.  We would like to request some desserts be donated by the kitchen staff at 14th and Chestnut.  It was also suggested that someone from the club contact former members at Westminster Village to see if they would like to donate some baked goods as well.  Jeff Jensen volunteered he and Mary Beth to be in charge of dessert sign-ups.  A sign-up sheet was passed around for members to sign up to bring specific items.  Members should keep in mind that items need to be able to be packaged up into sizes that can be sold for $1 and make a profit.

Valentines Day Update

Mary Beth Jensen has been busy (even though she has not been feeling well) working on the club's Valentines Dinner.  A quick show of hands counted at least 19 people will be at the dinner!

Date:  Tuesday, February 7th

Time:  6pm

Place:  Hilton Garden Inn - private room

Cost:  $20 per person

A menu will be distributed once it has been finalized.

Whew!  That's a pretty busy club!!!

Our First Service Event

We had a total of 5 members join us for our first service event that lasted about 2 hours.  Below is one picture that was taken.  The Farrington Grove principal Mr. Smith, expressed his gratitude multiple times while we were there.  Our project was to paint the walls of their gymnasium - involving 2 paint colors and a LOT of trim work! There was no need for ladders, as the all of the necessary painting was 5ft or lower.   We were unable to complete the entire job, so I will be working with Mr. Smith to establish another time for us to come and finish the job.

Thanks to the following members for helping in this project:  Dawn Carlson, Len Hathaway, Mark Jahn, Kevin Smith and Jeff Jensen.

A Kiwanian Adds Finishing Touches

January 13th Club Update

Bingo Info:

Unfortunately, our Bingo Date has changed (the calendar has already been updated).  There was a scheduling mix-up at the VFW, so we are re-scheduled for March 20th, 2012.  Tickets have been updated and proofs have been approved.

January 17th - Service Event at Farrington Grove Elementary School

I have been in contact with Bill Smith - The principal at Farrington Grove Elementary School.  He is looking forward to seeing some of our group at the school to help with painting their gymnasium.  He has stated that there will be no "ladder work" necessary, and that it can probably be accomplished with a "smaller group" of 4-8 members.  I have told him that we would be there anywhere from 5-7pm.  He has invited us to "stick around and shoot some hoops" after if we'd like!

BUG Club Supplies

I'd like to thank Mak Khoie for his recent efforts with the BUG Club.  Mak spent last week calling every school to find out how many suppllies they will need for the rest of the year.  He then took a road trip to Indianapolis to pick up our supplies.  Schools will be needing those supplies within the next week.  Mak has also noted that we need a member to sponsor one of our schools:  Franklin Elementary.  Please contact Mak if you'd like to be involved in one of our club's most important programs.  I will be getting  in touch with Mary Jensen this weekend to complete our grant request to Walmart.

January 27th Meeting - Program and Board Meeting

I have contacted two other charitable organizations in the last week to see if our members could be of service to their organization.  I've received emails back from both!  Teri Evans from Freebirds would like to meet with our club so that we can learn about the Freebirds Organization and how we can help them through service.  I'm going to see if we can have a short presentation before the board meeting on the 27th.

February 7th - Social Event - Valentines Dinner

Bit O' Britain Tea Room is officially closed...

Mary Beth Jensen has volunteered to contact the Hilton Garden Inn to see if we can reserve a group dinner for our valentines there this year.  There was a small group of us that met at the Hilton before last year's Valentines Dinner and had a very nice time.  The atmosphere is nice and they have plenty of room - including in the parking lot (or garage).

I'll see you at Farrington Grove Tuesday, January 17th!!

Our 50+ Year old club gets an overhaul

I have been a member of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Terre Haute for over 6 years.  Our club has done a lot of valuable things during that time, including maintaining "Distinguished Club" status for multiple years.  Our club has many people with over 20 years of perfect attendance, multiple former Lt. Governors, 10 Hixson medalists and multiple former presidents.

Over the last 3 years, we have seen steady decline in membership.  There are various reasons for this, but primarily, our club has seen many members retire.  We have been attracting some new members to the club.. in fact, I would say that our club is now 50/50 on members that have joined in the last 6 years vs. members that have been there for MANY years.  But the club membership is a little stagnant right now.

Beginnings of change - Look in the mirror
In talking with one of our newest members in a very open social environment, we started questioning what our club was doing and how we can make our club something of interest to new members.  I asked him why he joined Kiwanis - what sent him looking?  His answer was that he wanted to join a SERVICE club.  He wants to give something back to the community.  This prompted many, many discussions between us about what would make our club more attractive to members from 30-50 years old... members that have full time jobs and families with children still living at home.

Kiwanis Magazine Article
A few months passed since that talk with our newest member, before he brought an article in the Kiwanis Magazine to my attention.  The article was about an 87 year old club that folded, only to be reborn as a true service club and how it was continuing to grow... The article could have been written from some of our social conversations!  Here is that Bluefield article.

3-2-1 Clubs
Not too long after those discussions, and reading the article on Bluefield, our new secretary was going through the Kiwanis.org website looking for additional resources for herself - and for ideas for the club.  She stumbled upon something that none of us had heard of; a 3-2-1 Club.  This format was almost exactly what we had been discussing and it was yet ANOTHER validation of things that we had been feeling.  As a group we decided to alter the meeting schedule some, to fit the personality of our club.  Here is a link to more information about 3-2-1 Clubs.

The Decision
After a lengthy period that involved a lot of internal conversation as well as a LOT of open communication with the entire club, it was time to ask the club to decide.  We decided that we would take a full club vote on the changes and have the board meet immediately afterwards and make the vote official.

I'm happy to report that as of January 3rd, 2012 by a unanimous vote, our club has changed their meeting schedule focus of our club.  Our club is going to be focused on:

1. Service to our community (especially children)
2. Social Interaction within the club
3. Promotion of Leadership through our projects.

Our schedule is now comprised of:

1. First Tuesday - Optional - Social Meeting
2. Second Tuesday - Required - Standard Meeting
3. Third Tuesday - Optional - Service Event
4. Forth Tuesday - Required - Standard Meeting followed by Board Meeting.
5. Fifth Tuesday (where there is one) - Optional - Open for either Social or Service.

I've decided to start this blog, in case there are other clubs that are considering this kind of change in their meetings and focus.  I'll try to detail the effects of our decision - both good and bad - and I'll also provide some research that I've dug up along the way.


Kiwanis is doing a seminar on making your club younger... emphasis on 3-2-1 clubs, internet clubs, young professionals, etc.

An interesting blog that further validates that we've made the right decision is here:  http://sites.kiwanis.org/Kiwanis/en/Blog/11-06-11/It_s_a_matter_of_time.aspx

In the end... our club is banking on this last paragraph from the article:


"You can increase your club’s service impact in your community, increase member enthusiasm and involvement and attract more members to your club if you are willing to change."