I held my first Division 14 Council Meeting on Saturday June 4, 2011. For those of you unfamiliar with a Division Council Meeting, or "DCM", it is when Key Club members from an entire division come together for a single meeting. They come together to network, plan division projects, and learn about District information. These meetings are very important because they give the clubs important information about District and Division events, but more importantly, they bring the people of the Division closer together.For whatever reason, Division 14 has not had a DCM in some time. A large number of people in Division 14 Key Clubs don't even know of the existence of a "Division" or a "District", so organizing a meeting for all these people to come together possessed some unique challenges. Contrary to what many people seem to think, I am very insecure about my public speaking skills, and I don't particularly enjoy standing in front of people. And, even though I LOVE PowerPoints, most people find them pretty boring. So understandably, I was very nervous going into this DCM. I have never organized a huge meeting like this before, and it could have ended up being a disaster. Fortunately, the meeting was a huge success, and I think I just helped ignite a fire in Division 14. A fire for service.
I talked about a variety of topics. Since many people in my Division are unfamiliar with the District Structure, I reviewed the purpose and structure of the Capital District, as well as my responsibilities as Lt. Governor. We went over important District Information, particularly the Governor's Project and the ELIMINATE Project. Equally important, I gave out dates for the Fall Rally and District Convention, which WILL have higher attendance from Division 14 this year.Two very important things happened at the DCM, both of which I am very happy and proud of the clubs for embracing them. The first is my love of cheers and energizers. Cheering is a large part of HOBY, and it's one of my favorite parts. It really helps people come out of their shell, and gets people to bond and become closer together. And more importantly, I got to teach people cheers, which I LOVE doing.
Did anybody know Key Club has official cheers? They did this cheer at the International Convention last year. What better cheer to teach to Key Clubbers than an official Key Club cheer. Needless to say, it was awesome. In spite of my fears and last-minute planning, everyone loved cheering, and it is going to be a Division 14 Trademark. New cheers at each DCM? Oh yeah.
One another thing happened at the DCM, something far more important than cheers. We selected our Division Project. A Division Project is a division-wide project, similar to a District Project. All the clubs in the Division work on the project, on a individual club basis, and in large division-wide projects. It allows for larger community impact, and helps build friendships between the Key Clubbers in the Division.
For the 2011-2012 year, we have decided to make our Division 14 Project "Ending Child Poverty". I wanted to make the Division Project poverty-related, since this is a very prevalant issue for my division. By focusing on child poverty, we put a face on the issue, which will help to raise awareness for this issue, as we aid those in our area who live beneath their needs.The response for the Division 14 Project has been overwhelmingly positive. Many people have told me about how excited they are to begin working on this project, and I believe it has kick-started our division. I am so excited for Key Club this year, and I can't wait to see all the great things all the Division 14 Clubs will be doing for the community this year.
In summary, the DCM was outstanding! As far as I can tell, everyone really enjoyed themselves, and came away with excitement for the year. I've always said that the Division 14 Clubs are doing great things, and with some guidance, we can be working together to make incredible change in our collective communities. People went to the DCM to learn about Capital District, but they left ready to take on the world.
I am so excited for this year, and beyond pleased to be the Division 14 Lt. Governor. It's about to be a great year for Key Club. Hey Division 14, HOW DO YOU FEEL??
