Hello LaMissTenn

I have seen that many of you have been checking the blog lately, so I feel I should apologize for not posting in a while. Finals and board meetings will do that to you I guess. Listed below are the goals we came up with this weekend as a board, so please take a moment to look them over and leave us some comments. Becca posted pretty much everything else, I will be posting minutes and a listing of all cabinet members as soon as we reach the ones we are still trying to reach. Check back later this week for that information. In the meantime, The Sky's the Limit and it starts with these goals!

2003-2004 District Goals
Set by the District Board
May 10, 2003

Achieve a membership of 550 by March 1, 2004 by:
• Chartering at least one new club per division
• Encouraging growth in currently existing clubs, which includes bringing struggling clubs to charter strength and retaining clubs in good standing

Rededicate ourselves to service on Club, Division, and District levels by:
• Providing resources to clubs so they may increase the quality and quantity of service they perform
• Achieving 10,000 hours of service as a district by March 1, 2004
• Creating an incentive program for those clubs that meet a goal of 30 hours per member and participate in the District Service Initiative

Improve the Circle K Member Experience through Membership Development and Education by:
• Creating a District handbook for members by the District Fall Training Conference
• Utilizing Summer Rally and Tioga Fall Training Conference to increase membership involvement through education and training
• Utilizing District Conferences and Training Materials to foster leadership potential in members.

Encouraging Increased Circle K involvement in all branches of the Kiwanis Family by:
• Providing support to Kiwanis Clubs in mentoring other branches of Kiwanis Sponsored programs
• Developing an awareness of Circle K through the Speakers Bureau
• Encouraging Circle K clubs to interclub with the Kiwanis Family an average of once per month

Ensuring District Financial Stability by:
• Promoting the District Tomorrow Fund by emphasizing the Speakers Bureau and letter-writing campaign
• Raising $2004 by District Convention 2004 for the District Tomorrow Fund

Hello!

Well, folks, our first District Board meeting has come & gone, and I can say that I am extremely happy with the results. We didn't all get everything we wanted, we all had to make compromises-- but I think that we did that, and we did that well -- and I hope that we made decisions that everyone in LaMissTenn will be happy with. I sent most of this out through the LaMissTenn reflector anyways (if you're not on that e-group, you should be... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lamisstenn). But-- here is some more detailed information.

(Btw, I'm going off of my last post about asking for feedback about decisions, so you can reference that one if you like).

1. Tomorrow Fund -- we established a new Tomorrow Fund chair on the Cabinet, to stress the importance of both the District & International Tomorrow Funds. This person will run the Speakers Bureau, which was started last year, and develop a letter writing campaign, encouraging Kiwanis support. Additionally, we have pledged to raise $2004 (by the year 2004) for our District Tomorrow Fund, and an additional $2500 for the Circle K International Tomorrow Fund.

2. District Convention WILL be in Memphis, TN this year! Dates will be announced shortly.

3. LMT Pins - Many of you had very good points about our LMT pins, and we have tried to keep everyone's requests in consideration. Here is what you all said : "They should be kept traditional. Everyone knows us for our 3 state logo" - " They should illustrate something that LA, MS, AND TN have in common." "Perhaps we should add a symbol to them, and make them new". Here is what we've done: Our new pin, will have the standard LMT three state shape, and will look exactly like the pins last year.... except that the color will be navy (on the whole pin), outlined in gold, to display district unity. The white LMT ring will be identical to last years pin. And a gold steamboat (something that unites our whole District, through the Mississippi River) will be placed in TN, moving towards LA. Hopefully this is a great compromise for everyone, and will be something that is new, but reminds us of where we are all coming from.

4. Our District Theme - Our District Theme this year is "The Sky's The Limit!" This is obviously to convey the high goals that we have set for ourselves, as well as our high expectations for the District this year. (on a humorous note, we all have sky blue hats (Tucker's is navy) and sky blue scarves -- and have taken some very cool pictures... we'll get those to you ASAP).

5. Our Service Initiative is the one that Erin D. & Alison suggested, about working with different age groups at different times of the year. It has something for everyone, and will hopefully be very well accepted by all of you. You can read the shoutouts for more information on it.

6. new initiatives will be announced soon...

7. Goals will be announced soon... (Alison will do that through another e-mail later)

8. Summer Rally will be held in Starkville, MS - August 15th-17th. More information will follow.


So.. what do you guys think about our mascot being the LLAMA... get it? LLAMISSTENN! Hah.. credit for that goes to Asst. DA Lenny Simmons


Governor's Shoutout: Goes to the District Board , including DA Mark Mobley, Asst. DA Lenny Simons, and ZA Dave Harvey -- for putting up with the insane hours of meetings that we had this weekend. Everyone was tired and antsy, but they still did their jobs, and very very very well. Unfortunately they were kinda jipped - we had really no time for social activities, or fun, because of our very tight schedule (we had to leave early for Mother's Day, and people having exams this week, and we didnt get there until late Friday) -- AND it was our very first meeting with lots of things to do -- but we got it all done. I'm very proud of all of you, and the way we worked together!

International Corner: umm.. forget that! Did you see the amounts of District info we have to talk about today?? :) Maybe there will be one tomorrow. If you want.. you can look at the International Board's photo journal/article about a Service Project they did in Indianapolis, to reach out and read to some local children. You can get there by going to http://circlek.org

That's it for now, more will definitely come later! :)

The Sky's The Limit!!