District Secretary Report

2007

Some time ago, I received an e-mail, the substance of it was three young girls in school, and they were entering the school cafeteria for lunch. On the end of this long table as they entered was a basket of apples. There was a sign saying take only one. A second sign said, “Remember-God is watching. So they each took an apple and moved on. At the other end of the table, there was a big platter of cookies. Again, the sign says take only one. One of the girls changed the sign to read “take all you want – God is watching the apples”. Now on the surface this is cute and humorous. But on the flip side it really depicts greed and defiance and disobedience to the given rules. This is something that is becoming more and more prevalent each day and I am sure we have all encountered examples of this. In carrying out our mission in serving our communities, we must be aware that, not only is God watching us, but those all around us are also watching what we do.

The shake down or maiden year under the Regional District structure was completed in September 2006. The first year raised many issues to be confronted but they were met head on by the District Board. There are, and will continue to be, areas that need attention and ongoing adjustments to make them fit into this mode of operations. Even though the transition was complicated by these nuances, the level of service to our communities remained high. Through the completion of 20,336 projects, requiring 191,443 service hours, we were able to give 1,577,000 dollars back to support needs of our communities.

It is great to be able to report to you that, during this first year, under the direction of Past Governor Holley, the Capital District earned the outstanding Performance Award presented by Kiwanis International. She is to be congratulated by us all for her dedication and devotion to Kiwanis that brought this significant recognition to our District. I know that when she left office there were many more things she would have liked to have accomplished, but one cannot do it all. We thank her for her diligence in her performance as our Governor and for raising the bar for those to follow.

A significant step forward was taken last year with the building of four new Kiwanis clubs each with twenty-five or more members. To date this year we have added four more new clubs with continuing work being done on others. This is an activity that is a must for growth and one that has been on the back burner for too many years. The Membership Growth, the Tag Team, and New Club Building Committees have all been active cogs in this endeavor and we look forward to continued progress in growth through the efforts of this team.

There is an old Will Rogers quote that says, “If you are riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it is still there”. Well, fellow Kiwanians, we apparently failed to look back often enough because we have lost one third of the herd - meaning one third of our members. It is going to take some hard riding Kiwanis cowboys and cowgirls, throwing lots of accurate lassos, to bring our herd of members back up to our former levels. I believe we are structurally positioned, so that with a progressive approach in our membership recruiting program, we can muster the impetus to keep this growth on a continuing upward trend.

Each year we work with over fifteen thousand young people through our Leadership Service Program. The relatively new Key Leader Program opens up another avenue that provides personal leadership growth and development. Then there is the HOBY Program that is still supported by clubs even though Kiwanis International no longer supports it. Additionally, many clubs provide scholarship funds through which Kiwanis touches the lives of many more young people. Overall, I believe we do a very creditable job in helping them develop leadership skills and furthering their educational experiences. Yet we fall down drastically in attracting them in to our organization after college. I believe this in part can be attributed to a real problem within our clubs. Knowing full well that a college graduate is first of all looking for meaningful employment that will provide them with opportunities to move on and enhance their quality of life; we have taught them to seek the place where they can find that opportunity. I ask the question do we offer them that opportunity. To answer that I think we have to each look at our clubs and evaluate as to how we stack up in being able to offer what they are looking for. I believe that we will pretty much conclude that therein is the fundamental answer.

A huge progressive step was taken by the District on October 1, 2006 when we switched to the Kiwanis One Reporting System. While our District had been on the cutting edge in that we were the only District that operated on an electronic club reporting system, we took this step with an eye to the future. Our system was used as the prototype for the development of the reporting module for the Kiwanis One system. Kiwanis International then bought in to it and has become a partner in further development of the system that will expand the capability for broader interfacing for both ends of it. The Annual Report, which was the vehicle for determining Distinguished Clubs, and a bane for each Governor in trying to collect them, has now been abolished and replaced by capturing this information from the reporting system. The Club Election Reports are now being routed through this system for direct distribution to Kiwanis International and the District. Additional reports are also being generated that will be a great tool for the clubs and District Committee Chairman. Development is underway that will provide the capability for more direct input from the field into the International files. The adoption to the use of this system by our clubs has gone very well and all but two Capital District clubs are now reporting through this system. With the continuing development of the system in to a great club management tool, and the expanding capabilities for more direct interfacing with Kiwanis International data bases, we belief that it is prudent to encourage clubs to strongly consider purchasing the entire package.

Proof of changes taking place in Kiwanis was very evident during the recent International convention in San Antonio by the amendments that were adopted by the delegate body. Two hundred thirty District Kiwanians and guests were present for one of the best conventions and to share in a District Dinner on the famous River Walk. Now here at this convention we have ____ in attendance.

During the past two years I have had many questions from our members as to where we stand on the proposed change to a 501 (C-3) tax code status. At the International convention we were advised that the IRS agent that was working this case has recommended its approval to his boss, and his boss has recommended its approval. It is now resting in an IRS Assurance Department. We don’t know just what that means but it appears fairly favorable at this point.

Service organizations are unique in a way that is much different from other functional businesses. Each year we make a complete change in our elected leaders at club, division, district and many at the International level of the organization. A change as drastic as this demands a tremendous amount of training to properly prepare incoming leaders for the job they are undertaking. Another huge downside to this method is the relegating of many competent leaders to a lesser role or even to no role at all.

With an International objective of reaching one million members, we need to do a much better job of keeping more of our past leaders in the main stream and in harness, so to speak, in order to reach that goal. If the District Committees are to be active and contributory in achieving our objectives in service to our communities, then we must fill those positions with those past leaders that have demonstrated a talent and willingness to serve in this capacity. It has been proven over and over that just filling such positions with a name simply does not serve our District well nor does it get the required job done.

The mantle of leadership weighs heavily on the shoulders of those who assume it, and in too many cases, is assumed more as a concession to the club or Division rather than from strong desire to take the helm and actively guide the organization to new levels of accomplishment. To this end it is essential that long range plans be developed to assure the preparation of our present and future leaders. I believe we have taken a giant step in this direction through our newly devised training program. Maybe in our attempt to make Kiwanis life easier we are requiring too little. When less is required, less is given. What seems to be missing is commitment to Kiwanis principles and beliefs and the necessary determination to correct and redirect the course of our individual clubs. Members will only measure up to the marks we have set. When good members are summoned to the highest and best within them, they usually respond with the highest and best.

Looking at Kiwanis candidly and thoughtfully, it seems to me that the greatest single need of our organization today is a membership with a better understanding of the principles and the purpose of our organization. If you were asked today what the mission of Kiwanis is, a high percentage would probably say it is to reach one million members by 2015. That of course is wrong. The mission of Kiwanis is to serve the Children of the World. We need the one million members to do that. The principles of Kiwanis include the highest of moral law and will bear the test of any system of ethics or philosophy ever proclaimed for the improvement of man. But Philosophy alone will not retain our members; we have to provide more.

Two Things - high speed and rapid change – characterize society as we know it at the beginning of the twenty first century. What is the state of the art today will be obsolete tomorrow. I am not sure that either destination or the way to arrive at that destination is always clearly established. In this situation, we need something to guide us, something that will establish definite boundaries and set clearly defined limits for us. In a society, in a nation, or in our Kiwanis Organization, that is the function of landmarks, for they are the basic principles that have been established to guide us and keep us on the right course as we move forward. I believe that it is a well known fact that Kiwanis International was very slow to recognize the need for change but is now moving rapidly in that direction.

I recall a line in a song that says, “The only time that matters is the time between hello and goodbye”. When you apply that to your individual acquaintances, I believe you would agree that the only time that mattered between the two of you is just that. When we apply that phrase to many Kiwanians, the time between their joining our organization and their leaving it often is far too short. It is unfortunate that we loose many members before they really get to know what we are all about. Even though we don’t like to hear it or admit it, one of the greatest causes for this lies within many of our clubs. Some of the obvious reasons are poorly run meetings, lack of organization, poor or no programs, bad meeting locations and more importantly, lack of personal treatment. People will forget what you say, they will forget what you did, but they will always remember how you treated them. Most people are not prone to be tolerant with, nor do they fraternize with those individuals or organizations which they believe to be of little or no value. I believe a statement made by Governor Bob during one of his visits when he said, “We really don’t help them to become Kiwanians”, sums it up very well.

Our challenge then is to identify the needs of our members. It is not with Kiwanis; not with our ritual and ceremony and its teaching; not with usages and customs. Our challenge is personal; it lies within each of us as Kiwanians. We shall gain nothing by tinkering with the institution and arbitrary changes to render it acceptable to the uncertain whims of the public. But we can profit by focusing attention on service to the Kiwanis family and our cultivation of our role within. But in the institution of change, care must be given to the preservation of established principles and purposes, those foundation stones on which our very being depends. Enhancement of our performance as Kiwanians, I believe, will in due time cause membership trends to improve. It is the power of example that will make us grow as Kiwanians and as an organization.

Chief Executive Officer Rob Parker says, and I quote, “At Kiwanis, we are striving to build on a foundation of 91 years of good in an effort to become a truly great organization”. How do we judge just what great is and who determines when we have reached the level of greatness? Greatness must be connected with success in some way, and the best definition of “success” that I have ever seen was an old, framed document hanging on the wall of one of those restaurants decorated in old pictures, signs and tools of a bygone era. That document is simply titled as Success and the tenets are as follows:

To have laughed often and loved much:

To have won the respect of intelligent people and the affection of little Children;

To look an old dog in the eye and know that he likes you, just because you like him;

To have looked for the best people in the world instead of the worst;

To have withstood the betrayal of false friends, and won the approbation of honest critics;

To leave the world a little better, whether it is through a garden patch, a healthy child, a better business, a better association, or a redeemed social condition;

To know that even one life has breathed a little easier because you have lived.

That is to have succeeded. I believe that anyone whom we consider “great” we will recall in them many of the terms quoted. While we may think of individuals in these terms, they are just as applicable to an organization. When I reflect back through my years as a Kiwanian, I can recall great Kiwanians because they fit this mold and they made the Capital District great. The contributions they made live on in the freedoms we take for granted, the prosperity we enjoy and particularly the organization we love. I believe that for our organization to achieve the greatness Rob Parker envisions, we will all have to become great individuals as Kiwanians.

Lee Iacocca says in his book that we are the luckiest people in the world because we were born in America. Because of that we have won the greatest lottery that we will ever win. Now, as individuals and particularly as Kiwanians, we must do all we can to make this country, as well as countries all over the world, a better place in which to live.