Kiwanis

    The Mobile Kiwanis Club is at a cross roads.  The club has shrunk for various reasons which many of you know.  Last year has been frustrating as we have lost ground.  I am willing to give the club a second effort.  Dr Wertelecki has come up with an impressive plan to provide more publicity for the club.  This is very encouraging.  This club must change in order to survive.  The old and distinguished club which I and others knew no longer exists nor can it come back to life.  Times have changed and so must we.  I believe that this club can change.  The rest of this letter sets out an initial proposed road map.

    There is a huge information vacuum in Mobile with the loss of a true local paper.  I believe this club can provide a local forum for community efforts such as Three mile Creek, Delta Bike project, Medal of Honor Park, and other local volunteer efforts.  This forum should also include issues vital to the community and air all sides.  Properly done, this will create awareness for our club and help to attract younger members.  

    Dr. Wertelecki has correctly observed that we need to provide a megaphone for our speakers to get their message out.  If we provide this megaphone, it will help to attract good speakers by expanding the impact of their message.  This megaphone also increases our ability to attract good speakers.  Dr. Wertelecki has made arrangements with a local web site designer to create a web site that can be used to provide a megaphone.  Speakers can be invited to provide a short written synopsis of their proposed talk which can then be put on the web site.  We can video the programs and selectively put the videos on the site.  

    The programs should address local topics of importance.  All sides must be offered a chance to speak if there is controversy.  Non profit groups should be included.  These groups are trying to help Mobile and could be a source of new and younger members.

    Our club will soon face a meeting place decision.  The Marriott will probably raise our rates at the end of October.   We tried the morning meeting and it made no real difference.  We are exploring new options.  The traditional morning/lunch meeting sites in west Mobile are not attractive both in terms of cost and quality of the meeting room.  So we are looking at some non traditional sites.  These may actually lower our costs.  A decision to continue the breakfast time or move back to lunch must be made.  

    We need to consider a service project to provide something more than a meal club environment.  Many members that left the club that I talked to raised the issue of nothing to allow them to get involved.  We have been asked to assist in refurbishing the Medal of Honor Park playground off Hillcrest Road.   This is an interesting project which we should consider.  Other recommendations are welcome.

    I ask each member to respond if they are on board with the proposed meeting format.  We need the full support of all of our members to make this program work.  Comments on the breakfast/lunch meeting issue are welcome but we should not make a final decision until all potential meeting locations and costs have been obtained.  We are working on this now.