Gov. Don's Message: SLP Growth Vital to Kids and Communities
by Gov. Don Dudey
Did you know that November 2-6, 2009 is Key Club Week? What a great opportunity for your sponsored Key Clubs to share their experiences with your club!
Have your Key Club officers and members highlight their activities and the difference they are making in their community at one of your club meetings. If you sponsor a Key Club and do not celebrate your Key Club's importance and their activities, you miss out on a very exciting opportunity!
As you know, the support of our Service Leadership Programs is one of my six goals for this administrative year, and I am encourage all clubs to get involved (or get more involved) with any one of the five SLP programs. There are so many schools, from elementary schools to colleges, in our communities that are just waiting for your club's involvement. If your club is not involved today, visit with your Division LTG to see what you can do to make it happen! Once you start, you will never quit - these kids have so much energy and excitement, and they provide so much service to the community!
As of October 1st, the Capital District has 28 CKI club with 853 members; 234 Key Clubs with 14,107 members; 88 Builders Clubs with 284 members; 14 Aktion clubs with 358 members; and 40 K-Kids clubs with 250 members. These numbers are OK, but we as district could and should increase the number of clubs in each of these SLPs by 12% this year. That translates to one (1) new club for almost every existing Kiwanis club. If you do not have a club, seriously consider contacting a local elementary school in your community and see if they would be interested in beginning a Kiwanis Kids program - K-Kids, Terrific Kids or even a Bring Up Grades (BUGs) program. These are three programs from which any elementary school can benefit. These programs are there just waiting for a Kiwanis Club to promote and help implement within a school.
The District has a Club Support Committee with members in your region to help with the implementation of any one of these programs. The Service Leadership Programs set Kiwanis apart from all other community service organizations. We should be very proud of that fact. What better way to foster our premier youth programs than to build more clubs - one or more new club in every community where there is a Kiwanis club. In fact, we should have at least one SLP club in each and every Kiwanis community. Are you the Kiwanian in your club who will step forward and say "Yes, I want to build an SLP club in my community!"? If so, now is the time!
I look forward to visiting your Division or Region during the next eleven months, and I hope that when I visit you will highlight what your Service Leadership Programs are doing. These are our leaders of tomorrow, and we should help them become the best they can be as they go through their school years. Let's support our Service Leadership Programs to our fullest.
