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As we start out the new year for Exchange Club here in Walla Walla; I'm honored to represent you as your president.
An interesting bit of trivia regarding the 2009 year is this is my 20th year in the Walla Walla Exchange Club. I joined this club back in 1989 when Dale Newby was our president; Sloan Kimball invited me as a guest and I've belonged ever since
Over the years I've watched many of you represent this club as our President. I'm not planning on reinventing the wheel; I want to draw on many of the "great" things each of you have done. So as the year starts and continues on, you will see a few things come back to life. One of which is:
· Trivia, Naming your table and wearing your Exchange Club pin; I think one of the ways you can show Walla Walla that Exchange Club is a vital service club; is by wearing your Exchange Club pin on every Monday. Then when someone asks you what your pin is, you can tell them your "Elevator" speech about Exchange and invite them to come as a guest and see if it is something they would like to belong to.
o The way the reward will work is:
o If you're name is called & you are wearing your pin you will get $5.
o If you choose to correctly answer the trivia question or name the members of your table you will win an additional $5.
Hopefully you will each enjoy this little bit of fun!
In leading our club my role is to serve you, by supporting you and the things you want to change or continue. My ultimate goal is for us to share some fun with one another. You are our greatest strength.
The survey is your voice and I'm listening! As a wise woman recently told me: we have 2 ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we talk. Many of my thoughts and plans for this year revolve around your wishes through the survey.
On the tables today you will find a copy of the Club member survey. I'm not going to go over all of the survey today; however, since this has affected my plans, I'd like to discuss the following briefly:
· When asked about the things we could improve on, it was clear to me that you would like more social events!
o I have asked Kathy Small to plan a quarterly social event that will be "no host" and fun. I can't think of anyone better to be in charge of "FUN" than Kathy - she likes to have fun. She already has a few good ideas.
o Obviously our budget can't pay for additional social events so you will be asked to chip in some $$ for food or beverage; or you might be paying your own entrance to a movie, bowling, golf or other fun group event.
· And on the heels of that comment, another item that was pretty clear: Any changes we make shouldn't increase our dues! So that will be our priority.
· Another theme that was clear is you would like to have more "service" opportunities; I have asked Gary Hanson to head up an event on October 24th for our "National Day of Service"; he accepted this challenge and has some ideas to partner with "Habitat for Humanity"; so we could be asked to:
o bang a few nails,
o sweep up debris,
o paint some walls
o or other fun activities - all to help our fellow citizens of this community.
· Another clear message is that the majority of our membership "would" support a move to a new location. However, many of you may not be aware this could be a decision we have no choice in making very soon. The Elks is struggling and according to their executive team, they lose money providing us lunch each week. It is apparent that one way or another we need to be looking at our options for moving to another location.
o So I have formed a committee to look into some of our choices. Ive asked a couple of people to serve on this committee; however the list is not complete, so if you'd like to serve on this committee, please let me know.
· Question 16 - Rank the top three program our club should support financially - you have chosen to support:
§ Home Team 21 of you
§ Child Abuse Council 18 of you
§ Friends 8 of you
§ Camp Fire 6 of you
§ You'll also see that there is strong support for Youth programs in general: The ACE award, Youth of the Month, and many other programs that could fall into each of those categories.
o So in order to make sure we are funding your programs at the level you wish, I've also formed another committee to look at our support of Home Team and our other partner agencies - how we should support them in the future, at what level and who should monitor progress.
o The direction I'm giving the committee is to develop:
· A plan that will give clear direction to home team and other partner agencies, with regard to outcomes we expect in order to fund at the maximum percentage of annual income from our major fund raiser the Baker Boyer Ducky Derby.
· And a part of this plan should outline the funds we will give to home team or any other program - as a percentage of income.
o So this way the agencies we support will know that they can help to increase their level of support by partnering with Exchange in selling tickets for the Ducky Derby. The more we make the more they will get in a donation.
o This will create true partners!
We have some work to do here, so we can all feel good about who, what, where, why, and how we give our hard earned money. This committee is just starting to be formed and I'm looking for members who can represent both sides of the issues, and be willing to have robust conversation to come to a better end result.
Another clear strength and concern is our - MEMBERSHIP - we can't do any of the things we want without retaining our current members and gaining some new ones. Michael and I have scheduled a club meeting down the road to really do some brainstorming on membership. But I think mostly we just need to remember to invite that new business owner, new manager, promoted employee or fellow citizen to a meeting.
So in closing, I hope you see some fun in our future - AND JOIN ME in continuing to make The Exchange Club of Walla Walla "THE" service club in our area. We want to be SEEN as well as HEARD; all over the community.
Thank you very much and I look forward to a great year!
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