Goldfish and Hot Dogs and Pies

by Paul Palazzolo, Kiwanis International President

What do cream pies, goldfish and hot dogs have in common?  They can all be elements of a successful effort to increase your club's membership strength!  The answer seems peculiar, but I'll explain.

 

As we highlight MAY as MEMBERSHIP MONTH, I hope your club is already planning something special that encourages Kiwanians to sponsor new members.  Anyone in the club - whether you're a president, past president or recently joined - can take the initiative to get the club involved in a membership campaign.

 

Here are three elements that have proven to be helpful in a successful membership effort:

 

1. Focused time-frame - Whether it's five weeks or ten weeks, a definite period allows your members to keep the goal in mind with a sense of urgency.
2. Focused goal - A challenging and specific target motivates and develops a spirit of teamwork.  Constantly publicize and display the goal and the progress at each meeting during the time-frame.
3. Fun - This is where the answer to the above question comes in.

• Club presidents can offer to receive a cream pie in the face from every Kiwanian in the club that sponsors three new members!
• Until he or she sponsors a new member, a randomly selected Kiwanian cares for the club's live goldfish mascot!  (You can use as many live goldfish mascots as you wish to multiply the fun and the new member results.)
• Portion the club into teams for membership recruiting purposes.  The team sponsoring the most new members enjoys an exceptional meal at a celebration meeting while all others enjoy hot dogs!

 

There's no peculiar answer to why we need to highlight MAY as MEMBERSHIP MONTH or why we must strengthen our Kiwanis Club membership.  When we have more Kiwanians, we can provide more service - more Terrific Kids programs, more hands to work at our clubs' fund raisers, more help to fulfill our responsibilities of Kiwanis Family sponsorship and more smiles on the faces of children in our communities and around the globe.  For this answer and for these reasons in your community, let's plan now to make May 2010 the most successful KIWANIS MEMBERSHIP MONTH ever!

 

[For more about CD Gov. Don Dudey's membeship plans and contest for the Capital District, click here. - Editor]