t-o today, issue 2
DESCRIPTION
The second installment of the T-O Today!TRANSCRIPT
T-O TodayVolume 1 Issue 2
The offIcal PublIcaTIon of The Texas-oklahoma DIsTrIcT of cIrcle k InTernaTIonal
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In this issuePage 1: Fun for You!
Page 2: Governor’s WelcomePage 3: LSSP & ICON 2011 Wrap
UpPage 4: Chapter Spotlight; Alum-
ni Association AnnoucementPage 5: One Family|One LegacyPage 6-7: Connecting with K-Kids
& Builder’s Club SpecialPage 8: Dues & Reporting
Page 9: Fundraising Idea; Service Project Idea
Page 10: Leadership Academy Wrap Up
Page 11: A Look at Summer 2011Page 12: Fall Retreat Save the
Date; Board Contact Information
Heart of Darkness, Coat of Grain, Was once alive, Now feels no pain, Never walks, but Leaves a Trail. Circle head and pointed tail. Grows shorter as the day goes on- Its waistline is a hexagon. What am I? Click here for the answer!
I have no feet but I can run. I give you health and give you fun! What am I? Click here for the answer!
What is so fragile that when you say it’s name you break it?Click here for the answer!
Brain Teasers!Test Your Skills
Brain teasers taken from www.brainteasercentral.com.
If you would like to see something special or include your chapter’s accomplishments in the next issue of the T-O Today, please
email [email protected]!
Governor’s Corner A big howdy to everyone in Texas-Oklahoma,
I trust you all have had an excellent summer, and are gearing up for a fantastic school year of service, leadership, and fellowship. Thank you for reading our second issue of the “T-O Today” during the 2011-2012-service year. I hope that you find everything to your liking in this issue, and will use the information provided to help you have a successful year. We have information covering T-O’s involvement in Circle K International events, fellowship and service ideas, lead-ership lessons, and tips to get involved with our Kiwanis Family members. Your T-O District Board of Officers have provided you a newsletter full of resources, however, I would like to invite you to take part in updating our mighty district members with any tips, and tools you may have to contribute. The success of any organization lies within the collaboration of all of its members, so I encourage
you all to join together and make our district the best it has ever been. A true testament of a leader is their ability to collaborate with others to come up with the best possible solutions for their cause. Oftentimes when given the opportunity, we come up with our own plans and goals that we expect others to follow, and we lose sight of the opportunities to gain insight from others’ experiences, thus missing our chances to grow. We forget that each individual is a well of knowledge and creativity that could serve a greater purpose, yet, requires a collective experience to tap into those skills. As leaders in your club, school, and community, I challenge you to empower every member you can to take part in your greater purpose. Allow them to share you vision, build upon that vision, make it their own, and work to support the collaborative vision. Remember that leadership is a collective effort, and that people support what they help create, so give every person the opportunity to do so. Sure enough, your year will be full of success. On behalf of your District Board, we would like to extend our vision of strengthening our District to you. We feel the success of the Mighty Texas-Oklahoma District of CKI will be determined through the success of our District committees that work to produce and revamp many resources for you to practice our tenets of Service, Fellowship, and Leadership. Our committee chairs have been working this summer, gathering information, testing new practices, coming up with new ideas to intro-duce this year, but they cannot do it alone. They look to you to join their committees, and help them create objectives of which you could achieve. With your help, we can ensure that we leave our District better than when we first joined. I hope you all will consider this opportunity. For more information, and to apply you can go to www.surveymonkey.com/s/tocki_committees. We look forward to working with you this year to achieve our visions. Again, I hope you enjoy our second issue of the “T-O Today.”
T-Ogether in Service and a Smile,
Donnesh Amrollah
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Here’s a shout out to UTB for their out-standing work this summer! Keep up the
great work! -Governor DonneshTwe
et Corner Congrats to President Steven Spriggs & Sub-region
D Representative Lauren Perkins on their election to the International Board! You make us proud!
Congrats to Secretary-Treasurer, Sarah Hagaan, & K-Family Committee Co-Chair Neal Wright on their recent engagement!
We wish you both a joyous life together filled with service!
By Patra Kositchaiwat Day one at Vir-ginia Beach began with a twenty-min-ute car-ride from Norfolk Interna-tional Airport to the Virginia Beach Resort Hotel. In the ride, I had met Emma, a fellow CKI’er from New York, who was there for the same reason I was, to
enjoy Virginia Beach and make new friends while per-forming community service. Shortly after our arrival, I found two of my fellow Texas-Oklahoma girls, Allison Prisco and Lauren Perkins in their room along with other CKI’ers working hard completing last minute preparations for the annual Large Scale Service Project (LSSP). Day two included more time to chill and get to know you with other members in attendance. More people began to show up later that night, when LSSP officially begun. We were numbered off into nine groups of sea animals to prepare us for the following days of service. I was placed in the group called the “Mighty” Sea Turtles. LSSP facilitators gave us direc-tions of what to expect! Once the official business was taken care of, Detective Nyck enlisted our help to solve the murder of Immediate Past International President Amanda Marfisi. The murder mystery lasted through-out LSSP, as the clues were revealed to us individually. Day three was the official first day of communi-ty service began. My group was assigned to help clean up the gardens in front of the Virginia Beach Confer-ence Center. We cleaned and weeded the gardens sur-
rounding the parking lots. We later transferred to the Habitat for Humanity Restore center where we reorga-nized, cleaned, swept, and even shopped for souvenir items. The best part about service is everyone gets to show their leadership styles. A person who normally delegates will take this opportune moment to step back and allow others to step up and lead. One the fourth and last day of LSSP, we went to the Hilltop YMCA where we cleaned the pool deck, sidewalk, doors, walls and restrooms, organized and shred paperwork, and sanitized the infants’ and toddlers’ play area. Here, we had the opportunity to bond more as we sang songs, played games, and solved riddles as the day moved on. Towards the end, some people had to leave LSSP, but most stayed and many more showed up for Interna-tional Convention (ICON). ICON at Virginia Beach was a blur! I remem-ber being asked to serve as a flag bearer to represent one of the member countries at opening session and the next thing I knew, it was all over! The main pur-pose of ICON is to elect the new International Board and attend workshops for ideas to take back to our home chapters. In between the House of Delegates and workshops, people spent their free time at the pool, beach, or running around in the hallways, having the time of their lives! The most interesting part of ICON to me was the educational experience at the workshops. From recruitment and retention of new members to finding the new ways to serve the commu-nity to fundraising for the EliMiNaTe project, I have so many wonderful ideas to bring back to my chapter! In preparation for next year’s LSSP and ICON in New Orleans, I strongly suggest everyone to come up with new ideas, questions, and cheers so we can rock the house and show the Kiwanians what CKI is all about! I hope to see you there!
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by Sanjuana Zavala, UTB CKI President With the beginning of hurricane season, many local governments are working hard to prepare for the upcoming storms. In Brownsville, a city barely at sea level hurricane season is no laughing matter. Among other preparations the city is making the filling of sandbags is of great importance, but requires a lot of manual labor to fulfill. Lucky for Brownsville, their friendly local CKI chapter was there to help. On June 18, 2011, 17 CKI members grabbed their shovels and filled up sandbags for the effort. Over 300 sandbags were made in a span of just 3 hours, ultimately serving up to 40 families. Additionally, UTB CKI has also helped build a garden at Idea Frontier School, cleaning up Brownsville’s Parks, and contributing service hours at local events. This service-loving Circle K club reached 500 service hours by the month of July. The Club President, Sanjuana Zavala, challenged the club to acquire 500 service hours in six months, these members meet the challenge in three. As a gift from the president, she rewarded the member’s with a 500-hr pool social celebration that she wishes to continue to have again once they reach over 1,000 ser-vice hrs! Communication, friendship, and encouragement has kept UTB CKI as alive as it has beenthis summer. Together, they have picked up over 50 lbs of trash, finished building a bio-degradable greenhouse, made 345 sand bags, and recruited over 30 strong incoming college freshmen to join CKI.
You can also watch there general meetings and events via live stream! Follow them at www.ustream.tv/channel/ckiutb-tv.
Howdy T-O Members,
The establishment of a Texas-Oklahoma District of Circle K International Alumni Association has been a dream of many members of the K-Family for a number of years. I have the distinct privilege of announcing that the dream is now a reality. The T-O CKI Alumni Association has formed this summer and will continue the great legacy of serve built by Circle K Members. Driven by the passion of its membership, the alumni association will serve present CKI mem-bers and uphold the tenets which make the K-Family our world’s premier service and civic organization.
We need your help to continue our growth and establishment! Help us help you by reaching-out to your friends, neighbors, fellow K-Family members, current membership, and anyone and everyone you know associated with Kiwanis announcing our creation. If you know of any past members, we are accepting membership nominations and will contact them on your behalf.
Please feel free to contact our leadership team at [email protected]
Sincerely,Klint Neal
Click this to visit the Alumni
Associationwebsite!
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By Donnesh Amrollah In any organization it is important to stress a sense of community. A place where everyone feels they belong, a place where everyone works together for a common cause, and a place where everyone can make a dif-ference. There is no better place to feel a sense of community than that of Circle K International. However, our community grows when we begin to interact with the rest of the Kiwanis Family. We meet so many individuals, youthful, elderly, and every age in between, all wise, all caring, and all filled with the same conviction to make the world a better place, and after a while, our sense of community morphs into our sense of family. But, just as important as community (in our case, family), it is also important that our organization runs with a purpose. That every service project we do, every event we attend, every action we make has a lasting impact on someone, whether within our community, or among members of our Kiwanis Family. It’s what we do that will live after we are gone that matters in our organization. It is important to leave our legacy. These concepts are what the Texas-Oklahoma CKI District Board of Officers understand are important to our organization, and together they have created an initiative for every member to get involved with. “One Family, One Legacy” is our vision of improving Kiwanis Family relations, by creating more opportunities to serve together, and lead. By improving our relationships, we are not only improving the experience our mem-bers have within CKI, but we have the chance to make a longer lasting impact in our community. On the next page, are some of the possible ways for us to get involved in our initiative with the rest of the Kiwanis Family. There is no doubt that CKI can make a difference, but “T-Ogether,” the whole Kiwanis Family can change the world, one project, one person at a time.
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Working withfuture leaders
A T-O Today Special...
By Jace Venters One of the greatest qualities of Kiwanis International is its ability to empower people of all age groups to become capable and compas-sionate leaders through helping others. One of the goals established by the T-O CKI board for the upcoming year is to become more involved with the youngest branches of the K Family, K-Kids and Builder’s Club. K-Kids is the largest service organization for elemen-tary school students, with over 42,000 members worldwide. Similarly, Builder’s Club is the largest service organization available for middle school and junior high students, with over 40,000 members worldwide. With clubs expand-ing all over the globe in Jamaica, Korea, Malay-sia, Nigeria, Trinidad, and Aruba (plus many more), K-Kids and Builder’s Club members are service-oriented people devoted to “character building, caring, leadership, and inclusiveness.” Within their core values lies “service leader-ship”- the teaching that through helping others, one begins to personally grow as a leader. Two of their most popular service projects include Trick or Treat for UNICEF, which benefits the Opera-tion Uruguay: Protecting the Rights of Children project, and March for Dimes, which funds re-search to prevent premature births, birth defects,
and infant mortality. Be on the lookouts for these two big events and be sure to invite your K-Kids and Builder’s Club friends along.These young leaders are our Kiwanis of tomor-row—and on a lighter note, so much fun to be around! Throughout the school year, there are plenty of opportunities to mentor/tutor within the youth programs and guide them through
character and educational devel-opment. As members of Circle K International, it is not only im-portant to give back to our school environment, global issues, etc., but to our own community as well! Mentoring is a great way to lead by example while changing someone else’s world for the bet-
ter at the same time. Be sure to follow the Texas-Oklahoma K-Kids and Builder’s Club Facebook pages to keep up with the latest news and learn how you can get your CKI chapter more involved with a local K-Family youth program! Additionally, if you or your chapter is in-terested in sponsoring a youth program or want to learn how to better support other K-Family branches, sign up for the free webinar, “Great SLP Clubs Start with Great Kiwanis Sponsors,” at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, September 20. Registra-tion can be found at www.kiwanisone.org/webi-nars.
K-Kids and Builder’s Club members are service-ori-ented people devoted to
“character building, caring, leadership, and
inclusiveness.”
What is Builder’s Club & K-Kids really about?
connect with k-kids and builder’s club!
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by Neal WrightAs a previous Builder’s Club and K-Kids member I know how special it makes you feel when an older group of students actively wants to reach out to you. It is comparable to being invited to “hang out” with an older sibling and their friends. As CKI members we have the unique opportunity to create
that atmosphere with our K-Kids and Builder’s Club family. I would like to encourage you to embrace the T-O District’s “One Family, One Legacy” initiative by creating a unique service project involving
K-Kids and/or Builder’s Club members. The first step to establishing a connection to a K-Kids or Builder’s Club is to contact a local sponsor. It is the District K-Family Relations Committee’s goal to create and distribute a directory for our mighty
district clubs to use for this purpose. We aim to have it published by the start of the fall academic semester. Until then, each Kiwanis family organization has a website which contains this information. Once you have established a willing K-Kids and/or Builders Club sponsor, brainstorm a service activity
or social you would like to invite younger students to participate in. Below I have listed a few ideas I have for each category. Once you have found a functional activity, create a fun atmosphere for all ages
to enjoy in the name of service and fellowship!
Service Projects:1. Saturday park clean up2. After school grounds clean up 3. Increasing awareness via a school grounds sign (placing cups in a schools fencing with a message)(with school’s administrative permis-sion) ex. “Red Ribbon Week” anti-drug aware-ness3. Landscape elder’s home in the community4. Well supervised car wash fundraiser5. Washing dogs for the local animal shelter6. Assisting with local Special Olympics 7. Tutoring/homework after school club8. Invite them to help on campus recruitment by making posters/signage9. Visit local Hospital’s children centers to-gether10. Participate together in on campus clean up
Socials:1. Invite younger students to on campus ice cream or pizza socials your club may be hold-ing2. Encourage Kiwanians to invite younger students to their club meetings at least bian-nually. 3. Host an appreciation gathering at your local elementary or middle school4. Provide pizza after a service project 5. Host an after school gym activity in their school’s gymnasium 6. Dress in CKI gear and help the teacher’s get the students to their busses after school lets out (service/social)7. Host a teacher appreciation reception to-gether (service/social) 8. Invite younger students to a K-Family Putt-putt, Main Event outing sponsored by a fund-raising activity
connect with k-kids and builder’s club!
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How mucH are cKI dues?International Club FeeThe Circle K International club fee for 2010-11 is a flat rate, per club fee based on school en-rollment. Schools with less than 1000 enrolled students or clubs at a two-year institution pay a US$450 annual club fee; Schools with more than 1000 enrolled students pay a US$600 annual club fee. (For updated dues information, visit www.circlek.org.)District duesIndividual district dues are $12/memberwHen are dues due?International and district dues are due annually by on October 1 (but are not considered late until December 1) to the Kiwanis International office.How do we pay our member dues and update tHe club membersHIp roster?
(1) Each September, all clubs receive a unique password mailed to the club’s permanent address. If your club needs to get its password to access the online Membership Update Center, contact member services at 800-KIWANIS, ext. 411 (U.S. or Canada) or 317-875-8755, ext. 411 (worldwide).(2) Go to www.circlek.org and click on the Membership Update Center at on the home page. Your club’s unique password and club ID number allows access into the Center.(3) Follow the step-by-step online process to update advisor information, enter new members and delete members.(4) You will be prompted to submit your roster and you will need to print your dues invoice. At this point you can pay online with either PayPal or by credit card. If you choose to by check, see step 5.(5) Mail your printed invoice along with the check for International and district dues for all club members to:
CKI International Dues Processing 3636 Woodview Trace Indianapolis, Indiana 46268 USA
If you have any questions or need help, contact your Secretary-Treasurer, Sarah Haagan, at [email protected]
Top 5 Reasons to Report1. To show the District what you are up to as a chapter2. To brag a little about all of the wonderful service projects you are doing3. To express concerns or questions to the district board so they can help you find the answer4. To provide an organized system of what you do on a monthly basis5. To add service hours, fellowship hours, and K-Family relation hours to show that the Texas-Oklahoma District is the best out there!
***The President and Secretary of each chapter report. They are due by the 5th of each month and can be found at:
Presidents: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/tocki_aupmrfSecretaries: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/tocki_smrf
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Pop Tabs for the Ronald McDonald HouseHave people collect Pop tabs (the tops of canned sodas) throughout the week and bring them to the weekly meeting. Then have an offi-
cer donate them after a month to Ronald McDonald House.
Service in a Minute
WORDS OF WISDOM...i shall pass through this world but once. any good therefore that i can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for i shall not pass this way again.
-MAHATMA GANDHI
!ytirahC ruoY htiw gnikooC
Good Luck Fundraising!
gC !CThis is a fun and easy fundraiser that has endless possibilities. Create a “Cooking with your charity” cookbook to sell and raise money. Ask for recipe submissions from your group to include in your cookbook. Try to focus your recipes on a cen-tral them such as Italian food, quick cooking meals, desserts, recipes you can cook with your children, etc. Group all of the recipes into categories such as appetizers,
main courses, salads, and desserts. You will need to decide if you are going to enter all of the recipes into a word processing program for uniformity or copy them as they are submitted. Handwritten recipes can off
er a person touc
h. Some schools may have a binding machine you can use. You could use a professional printer.
Check to see if they offer a charity discount. You could print and staple your book together. Sell your cookbook at local events and perhaps have a dessert or appe-
tizer from the cookbook as a sample.
er a personal touc
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by Sanjuana Zavala, UTB CKICKI Leadership Academy (LA) is an investment in the members of CKI. The six-day event is intense and focuses on the E6 Framework—envision, enlist, embody, empower, evaluate, and encour-age. This program takes members of CKI through an adventure, starting with the CKI amazing race and ending with a plan in place to serve. The most unique part of the program—and what sets it apart from others—is that students and facilitators have an opportunity to do a service project during the program. This completely describes the “idea or purpose” of this event but it doesn’t explain to you the change one goes through during and after LA. When anyone asks me about how was leader-ship academy, I just take a deep breath and smile. Some life-changing experiences are just meant to be indescribable, but I’ll try to put it in words as bet as I can.Having the opportunity to attend this once in a lifetime leadership program was the best gift I have gotten. Thanks to the Kiwanis Interna-tional scholarship,the Texas-Oklahoma Circle K International and Kiwanis District that covered my registration and travel expenses I was able to attend. The offer of attending leadership academy was brought to me at the lowest points of my life. I was club President of the University of Texas at Brownsville CKI , but I was unsure of my abili-ties, stressed out if I can handle everything, and wasn’t getting reassurance from anyone. Leader-ship Academy truly was a blessing and a discovery within myself. It only took six days to re-invent myself, drain all my hidden emotions out, clear my vision and passion for Circle K International, and dance like no one is watching (there truly were watching, I met 50 plus people now friends that are incredible human beings) . During those days as LA students we went through team build-ing challenges, leadership workshops, and talked about personal and tough subjects throughout
the week. Leadership Academy led me to discover that I wasn’t alone, other people alike my age went through the same things I did and we all shared a common if not similar passion for Circle K International. As the week went by we all supported each other as we talked about our toughest milestones, conquered our fears and let our confidence shine bright. Its amazing to say and believe, but in less than a week we became a family. I personally grew as a leader and as an individual. I had more confidence in myself ,my abilites as a leader, and I learned to trust other’s abilities as well.I can honestly say that if I had not attended Leadership Academy I wouldn’t have had the strength/courage to accept the offer in becoming Lieutenant Governor of South Texas. We shared our most hidden secrets, seen each other cry more than once, helped each other up when one was down, and experienced incredible moments together. By the end of this experience I had never been so happy to be going home, I had never felt so alive, I felt re-born. More than a week has passed, and that feeling has not gone away. I am now a positive person, a person who encour-ages every one to reach there highest potential, and I am now a servant leader. After LA I now let my vision and passion known , I’m open about my emotions, praise anyone when they are doing an incredible job, and believe in myself . I encourage every Circle K International member in a leader-ship position to apply, it truly is an investment to better yourself and you will never forget this experience.
“After LA I now let my vision and passion known, I’m open about my emo-
tions, praise anyone when they are doing an incredible job, and believe in myself.”
LeaderShiP aCademY 2011
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[iCON] [LSSP] [Leadership academy] [international] [district] [Chapter]
#summerofservice2011
Executive OfficersGovernor Donnesh [email protected] Treasurer Sarah [email protected]. GovernorsHill Country LTG Valerie [email protected] OK-Pan LTG Patra [email protected] Red River/Metro LTG Donald [email protected] South Texas LTG [email protected] SE/Gulf Cost LTG Paul [email protected] Events Chair Denise [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] (primary)K-Family Relations Co-Chair Neal [email protected]; [email protected] Relations Co-Chair Jace [email protected]; [email protected] Membership Development/Laws & Regulations Chair Chris [email protected]; [email protected] Marketing & PR Chair [email protected] Scott [email protected]
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