VOL. XI                                                                                                           No. 40

OFFICERS

Sandra K Dugan

President

William Frazier

Past President

Judith L Smith

President-Elect

David J. Drent

Vice President

Debra Usinger

Secretary

Jim Lange

Treasurer

DIRECTORS

2006-2007

David W. Lang

Brenda Mooney

Amy Brown

2007-2008

Erica Buckingham

Michael Derdzinski

Nancy McCoy

2008-2009

Joseph Trevino

Elizabeth Nicols

Barbara Smith

Newsletter of the Kiwanis Club of Milwaukee 

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

COMPACT MEETING

Wednesday	July 25	Debbie Knepke, Volunteer Milwaukee
Wednesday	August 1	Giacomo “Jack” Fallucca, Palermo Villa, Inc.
Wednesday	August 8	E. J. Brumder, “German Milwaukee, Its History, Its Recipes”
Wednesday	August 15	Superintendent, William Andrekopoulos, MPS
Wednesday	August 21	Board Meeting
Wednesday	August 22	Mark Repenshek, Medical Ethicist, Columbia St. Mary’s
Wednesday	August 29	Angela Mancuso, Sojourner Truth House
Wednesday	September 5	Sam LaMalfa, Samson Exhibit at Milwaukee Public Museum
Wednesday	September 12	Committee Meetings

CALLING ALL VOLUNTEERS

The Volunteer Center of Greater Milwaukee has been promoting volunteerism in Milwaukee for over 30 years with services for companies, agencies and individuals.  The volunteer Center has been a program of the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee, Inc. since 2003.  Today we welcome Debbie Knepke, Corporate and Events Manager.  Debbie has solidified her commitment to community involvement and her desire to build and grow corporate volunteer programs.  She has the heart of a volunteer and understands both the personal benefits and enhanced professional effectiveness that come through volunteering.  Bring a guest to hear her message on how and why the Volunteer Center is Milwaukee’s primary resource for volunteerism, offering services for nonprofits, individuals, companies, schools, and congregations.

By Judy Smith

92^nd Kiwanis International Convention – July 3-6, 2007 – was an experience everyone should have as a Kiwanian at least once in their lifetime.  What I extracted from this experience was the unmitigated appreciation for Club membership, soulful pride in the Club’s accomplishments, the occasion to encounter a mutual feeling of camaraderie and a rejuvenation of purposeful service to the club.  From the opening ceremony to the final vote of International Leadership, I have gained knowledge and understanding of club service, process and procedures, tools to help make me a better leader within our club and the resources to acknowledge and utilize for every effort this great Milwaukee Club intends to pursue.

Highlights of the Convention –

• We have a CEO.  Hired as the Executive Director to the Kiwanis International in August 2006, Rob Parker has already made significant impact to the organization working from the Indiana Office.  Without a Kiwanis background, Rob comes into this position with fresh ideas and a new perspective.  His remarks during the opening ceremony were well taken and even, funny.  He poked fun at our use of acronyms – words that no one else uses – what’s a Cal Neva – and phrases that are common to every Kiwanian – “in my year…” or “before there were the women…”  To create a better title to sustain the club’s perception of “taking us seriously” as we reinvent ourselves, the Convention voted to change the Executive Director title to CEO.
• While the campaign to attain 1,000,000 members by 2015 was announced at last year’s convention, it was illuminating (and humbling) to discover that, while the marketing materials all say 600,000 members “strong”, our President, announced we are at 260,000 members.  We have our work cut out for us.  And the message is clear – it isn’t as much a recruitment issue as a retaining issue.  “Are you the one?” Campaign – the sweet commercial that played over and over again during the 4 days on the “hotel” channel shows our vision and mission is truly “changing the world one child at a time” – and that “one person” can make a difference.
• Remember the commercial, “This is not your Father’s Oldsmobile”?  This can be replaced with “Tthis is not your father’s Kiwanis club.” Only that doesn’t work for me or Barbie Goldsmith Harmon.  An older member remembered when there was such a campaign many years ago called “4 over 40” – each member recruit 4 over 40 because they had more time, disposable income, etc.  Now it is 4 under 40 – unfortunately, if you look at the statistics and the target marketing materials, this means we need a new plan to reach this targeted group.

MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Don’t take a vacation from recruiting new members during the summer months!  We only have three months to meet our membership goals and MUCH WORK TO BE DONE.

E-mail any bulletin news to debrau@usinger.com

PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT www.kiwanismilwaukee.org