Meet the Candidate

Note: This is the seventh and final article in a series intended to help you learn more about your candidate for Governor-elect and his team’s platform. This month’s submission highlights the proposed Strategic Plan for the Capital District. Please visit www.vote4tg.com for prior “Meet the Candidate” articles.

A Proposed Strategic Plan for the Capital District

In an era where time is a more precious commodity than money, successful people don’t randomly get in their cars and start driving around until they decide they are where they want to be. They decide first where they need to go, they determine that they have a reason to go there, and they plan the most efficient route to get there. Even couch potatoes determine where they are going and how they will get their before they get up from the recliner. So is it any surprise that so many clubs are floundering, with no idea where they are going or how they should get there? And when this happens to clubs – the core of Kiwanis – is it any surprise that divisions suffer the same consequences on a greater scale; or that the general membership feels disconnected with the District? Where are we going, Capital District? How will we get there? Are we working together or is it every Kiwanian for him or herself?

Earlier in July, I provided the Chairman of the Long Range Planning Committee with a proposed Strategic Plan for the Capital District and asked for the opportunity to brief the full committee before turning it over to them to be fully staffed. The goal is to share this plan with talented, knowledgeable and experienced District leaders to put together a solid plan that the Board of Trustees can review and send to the Finance Committee to reconcile required resources. Eventually, a fully staffed and resourced plan would be endorsed by the Board and sent to the House of Delegates for approval in 2008. Once approved, this plan becomes the District’s, and the Board of Trustees will be charged with executing it, regardless of who is at the helm. Obviously, the plan would be reviewed and modified as circumstances changed so that we never again allow ourselves to fall behind our evolving communities.

By now, the general Kiwanian, Club Officer, or even Division Officer may be wondering “How does this affect me? Why should I care?” The answers are “It will affect you greatly” and “If you care about Kiwanis service in your community, you need to care about this plan.” Here is why: The proposed plan is both “scalable” and “aligned.”

Scalable means that clubs, divisions, regions, and the District share the same goals, but “to scale”. Aligned means that, as clubs accomplish their goals, divisions accomplish theirs. As divisions accomplish their goals, regions accomplish theirs. And as the regions accomplish their goals, the District accomplishes its goals. That ultimate goal statement sounds something like this:

In the year 2015, 20,000 Capital District Kiwanians will provide 350,000 service hours, invest $4,400,000 to support community needs, and sponsor 860 Service Leadership Program clubs throughout Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Here is an image to give you an idea of what promotional material might look like. Promotion and awareness is critical to succeeding, since this plan is executed at the most fundamental level by individual Kiwanians working within their individual clubs. This flier would be widely distributed through all available means and training would be provided in numerous forums until the plan becomes common knowledge and every member knows and understand his or her role in our unified success.

Please visit my website (www.vote4tg.com) for more details on these goals and the required steps to accomplish them. Then, hopefully, you will see how these goals apply at every level, “scaled” to that level.

To summarize, I propose the District accept the following goals, in priority order, as we move forward to restore Kiwanis to its rightful place as the world’s premier service organization:

1. Increase Service Hours
2. Increase Funds Expended on Service
3. Increase the Number of Service Leadership Program Clubs
4. Increase Membership
5. Improve the Operating Environment

Like a flock of geese, we can go further and faster, and reach our destination sooner, when we all head in the same direction. Let’s do this together!

See you in Rockville! – TG