New-Style Club Leader Training is Huge Success

by Jack White

It began last year when Jack White, then President-Elect of the Abingdon Kiwanis Club, drove 60 miles to Wise, Virginia for a CLE program presented for the 10 clubs of Division 8, in far Southwest Virginia.

Don Dudey, now Capital District Governor, was the trainer. He had driven 450 miles from his home near Baltimore to train the new club leaders. Yet only five people from four of those 10 clubs showed up.

White was embarrassed by the turnout and left that session saying we can do better.

Last March, when the clubs of Division 8 held a rare Council Meeting in Clintwood, with all but one of the clubs present, White made an impassioned plea for leadership training in which the clubs actually would participate.

Jon Rife, past Lt. Governor who organized the Clintwood session, soon was onboard and he and White contacted Jerry Jones, Lt. Governor of the adjoining Division 3. Jones, who will serve again next year as Lt. Governor, said his division had held no training sessions in recent years. But he was willing to be part of a joint effort this year.

It was quickly agreed that this year’s session would be in Abingdon and Jones said he would contact the Roanoke-based district training team about putting on the program.

When the district trainers delayed in approving a date, the organizers became anxious. Meeting places where meals can be served can be scarce on Saturdays in the summer when many weddings occupy those spaces.
Then, by chance, Jones, Rife and White, plus Lt. Governor-Elect Scotty Rose of Division 8, found themselves together in April at a Capital District TAG Team training session near Roanoke. The presenter was Rhonda Vrell, a staff trainer from Kiwanis International. When it was over, the four leaders huddled. They agreed Vrell was a great presenter and decided to ask her to present their training program. She agreed on the spot.

So Jones, Rife and White went home and began planning their own training event. White prepared the schedule, which Vrell approved with a few minor changes. It called for the four local leaders to spend the first hour discussing what Kiwanis leadership requires and how to prepare for your job in the club. Then, Vrell would take over and present six half-hour sessions on bread-and-butter Kiwanis topics. The local leaders would remain at their front tables to add personal comments and ask questions. Vrell’s topics were:

• Organizing and running the club
• Types of clubs and meetings; running good meetings
• SLPs
• Service and fund-raising projects
• Membership
• Communications

The organizers agreed their event would not be restricted to incoming club officers. All leaders and prospective leaders including committee and project chairs were welcome.

Jones and Rife set out to actively solicit attendance from each club in their divisions. In many cases, this meant personal visits to clubs, promoting the event and encouraging club leaders to participate.

Rife was helped by LTG-Elect Rose, while White was responsible for Abingdon, the host club and largest in the two divisions. White, now the Abingdon president, promoted the event to the leaders of that club and a dozen soon were registered.

The organizers hoped for attendance of 30-35 people and reserved a 40-seat meeting room at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon. As registrations rolled in, it became apparent more space was needed, so an adjoining room was reserved that, when joined with the original room, could accommodate 62 people.

Two breakout sessions were added to the Agenda, for club secretaries and treasurers. They were to be led by John Fox, twice Lt. Governor of Division 3 and long-time secretary-treasurer of the Radford Kiwanis Club.

Since this event was not using the district’s CLE format, a new name was chosen: Club Leader Training (or CLT). Final registration for this CLT was 50, a number larger than anyone could remember for a training event in this area.

When the day arrived, 46 people were present, a record turnout. And the response of those present was excellent. With a near-unanimous voice, they said let’s do it again.

One special feature of this CLT was video recording. The two divisions agreed to share the cost for a professional videographer to record the event and prepare DVDs for future training and other uses. The DVD, to be available in July, will have a menu with six individual programs, one for each of Vrell’s presentations. Thus, a club or division, or any other group that wants to present a program -- on SLPs or Membership, for example -- can use the half-hour program on this disk and supplement it with local presenters.

(Above) The expanded meeting room was filled for the two-division Club Leader Training

(Above) Rhonda Vrell, a staff trainer from Kiwanis International, was the main presenter.

(Above) Incoming Abingdon Vice-President Ben Hamby (blue shirt) and Director Bob Warren (front) were among the 11 leaders of the host club who attended.

(Above) The entire program was video recorded for later training and other uses. Here, the camera focuses on three of the four division leaders who sat at a front table to comment on the topics being discussed and ask questions of the presenter.