April
20-22, 2007
White
Oak Conference Center, S.C.
Attendees from Aktion Club of South Mecklenburg:
Pam and Alan Richardson, Peter Rieke – Advisor.
A full weekend of fun, learning and
fellowship.
“Alan and I will definitely go again.
We learned so much that we want to share with our club members.
There is so much to
do in the community. We
have not even started. Next
conference we should have at least 10 club members present.
Thank you for letting us attend.
We had a great time.” (Pam
Richardson, Aktion Clubber)
C.A.S.T. is
the Carolinas Actors with Special Talent.
Any Aktion Club can form a special actors group which can perform
for club members and for outside groups.
Some of the favorites are:
·
Acting out animals
·
TV Commercials
·
Pantomime
·
Act out opposites
·
Sell something
Is
there someone in your Aktion Club that has theatrical or dramatic flair?
Form a theatrical group around them.
Get them to perform at a Kiwanis Club function.
We saw some
of the Aktion Clubs honored for their service projects over the past
year:
·
Adopting a Family at
Christmas
·
Selling tickets to Pancake
breakfast
·
Help sell food at a
function
·
Ringing Salvation Army
bell
·
Help clean land near golf
course
·
Cleaning golf balls for a
country club
·
Planting garden in a park
·
Planting trees (Arbor
Day): One club planted 35 trees.
·
Painting birdhouses for
park
·
Clearing Trails at a park
·
Collecting keys for
“Children’s Chance” (Cancer).
10 large jars were collected.
Boards:
We heard of
Aktion Clubbers who were on their Aktion Club Board and not necessarily
officers in their club. Does
your Aktion Club have a full slate of Board members?
You can have up to 9 Board members which includes 4 or 5
officers. They should meet
regularly.
More ideas of
service projects:
·
Write letters to troops in
Iraq
·
Draw pictures for troops
·
Work with an Animal
Shelter for a day
·
Sing at a nursing home
·
Canned food drive.
Designate a meeting at which members must bring a can of food for
a family in need. That is
their ticket in the meeting and they get to be in raffle for prize.
·
Go to a Veterans event and
thank them with cards, etc.
·
Adopt a grandma or
grandpa.
·
Clean up a yard for
someone.
·
Hospitality – visit
someone who is not feeling well.
·
Participate in a walkathon
·
Do a fundraiser for
service dog in training in area. Find
out if someone knows of a service dog in area who is training and adopt
that dog.
Fun ideas for
meetings:
·
Bubble Gum blowing
contest. Start with teams
and then have winners of each team compete against each other. Have fun music in background playing. Winner gets bubble gum machine.
·
Give someone “sheriff”
badge at every meeting to keep order.
·
Aktion Clubbers love music
and love to dance. Bring a
“jam box” with CDs to every meeting and allow Aktion Clubbers to get
up during a break and move around to the music.
Do it in-between speakers or activities.
It really breaks up any kind of boredom.
·
Everyone gets a number at
beginning of meeting. Several
prizes are given away throughout the meeting (small prizes). Builds excitement. There
is a lesson in patience and sharing in this too. Get Kiwanis Clubs to donate to prizes inventory.
Find out:
·
How many members have
email? One club sends out
notices via email since many of members use email.
Is this the way to communicate?
·
Why members don’t attend
more meetings? If members
are only doing the “fun” stuff, then make ALL meetings more fun.
All meetings should be a mix of food, fellowship, music,
learning, raffle with prizes (get Kiwanis sponsor help), Kiwanians who
will interact (4-5 at every meeting). Pretty soon members will be talking ALL meetings up amongst
themselves.
·
Why more Aktion Clubbers
don’t attend Annual Conferences.
They are a blast and great learning experience.
Transportation should be no problem if Kiwanians get involved.
Cost should be no problem if Aktion Club or Kiwanis Club $$ are
used.
·
Are your Aktion Club
leaders truly leading their clubs with the club members in mind first?
Are they involved and attending all meetings?
Promoting service in the community?
New Aktion
Clubs.
There are 3
models to forming a new Aktion Club:
1.
Getting 4-5 Kiwanians from a Kiwanis Club together and spreading
the word in the community. Once
the word is out and meetings are held, Aktion Club is formed with
sponsorship of Kiwanis Club(s). Must
be strong commitment from the Kiwanis Club(s).
2.
Partnering with The ARC organization with Kiwanis Club(s).
Many times a self-Advocacy group has already been formed and can
be converted over to Aktion Club.
Risk is that Kiwanians are less involved than they should be.
3.
Combination of #1 and #2. Good example of this is in Moore County with Wendy Russell
who is a very active Kiwanian, very active ARC Executive and very active
Aktion Club Advisor to her Aktion Club in the area.