New Club Building

Membership growth is critical to our great Kiwanis organization, especially to the New York District. With rare exceptions, our membership has decreased steadily for the past 25 years. In 1987, when I was District Membership Growth Chair, we ended the year with 14,000 members. Today, we are about at half that amount. Kiwanians are well-intentioned, but we need to rekindle that passion for expanding our membership, not for banner patches, but to be able to have more members to do more community service and to raise funds for the communities that we live in.
One area that can jump-start membership is New Club Building. In those rare exceptions where we have had growth during the last 25 years, building new clubs have led to the positive membership. If we really believe that we have the BEST service organization in the world, then EVERY community deserves to have a Kiwanis Club active and contributing to the community's needs.
Kiwanis International requires ONLY 15 members to start a new club. The New York District has 9 Membership Zone Chairs to assist the lieutenant governors and interested division members to select a site, do a survey, conduct canvassing, do pre-organizational meetings and help organize the club. All are listed on the District web site and all have extensive experience in building membership form all aspects. Past Gov. Bill Risbrook and I are co-chairing the New Club Building Committee this year. The KEY is that the division develops a new club building team and commit to building a new club in the division. The SAME team can also be used to help rebuild a struggling club as well.
Congratulations to Lt. Gov. Ann Torcivia who built out FIRST club on Oct. 1 called the Nassau County Unity Kiwanis Club! If we build one club per division, we can add over 400 members alone!
If we are to reach the 1,000 new members goal set by Gov. Joe Aiello, New Club Building will be a critical part of the success.
It is TIME to make it happen and it starts with all of us! Let's spread Kiwanis in the NY District!
Feel free to contact me at (315) 449-3000 x358 or Pepster@aol.com. Past Gov. Bill Risbrook can be contacted at Wmajestic@aol.com or (917) 744-8899.
 

Column Posted on Web Site December 29, 2013