By Governor John Fajen

We can have fun.   We can change the world, one child and one community at a time.  We can grow.  We can generate money for administrative expenses and for service projects.

 Today, as I write this article, KSU and KU are playing their annual game for fun and for honor and for excitement.  We often see the coaches in their role as coaching the team on the field.  We don't often see them recruiting high school students and junior college transfers.  What would happen to your special sport team if recruiting slowed?  They couldn't have a winning team if they focused only on the actual coaching of the plays and just waited for new players to walk on the field and ask to be members.

Just like your favorite coach and your favorite team, WE MUST HAVE RECRUITING ON OUR MIND AT ALL TIMES. 

Sports recruiting is not just done in the off season, it is a process of keeping the team performing well and looking good all year long so that players WANT to join and have an opportunity to be on the team and play a winning game. Potential players choose the team that will both allow them to play the most minutes on the field or court and show the player at his or her best.  Kiwanis must be visible and must look attractive so that people are attracted to our clubs and seek us out for an opportunity to play. We must create winning clubs and opportunities so that potential recruits know about us and want to join even before we ask.

RECRUITING IS NOT JUST ASKING YOUR NEIGHBORS TO JOIN YOUR CLUB--RECRUITING IS FIRST CREATING A CLUB PEOPLE WANT TO JOIN--AND THEN ASKING PEOPLE TO COME TO A MEETING AND SHARE THE FUN.

 If you have to talk and talk and talk to get someone to join, you may have to work and work and work to keep them coming to meetings and passively remaining in your club.  Members can outreach and bring guests all year long, but if you don't have an attractive opportunity for the potential member, they will slip away and join another team. If we can attract people who are eager and interested to join us in exciting and enjoyable fundraisers, service projects, and fellowship activities, they will stay and become players in the club.

 If recruiting isn't working well in your club, it's not that your members aren't trying hard and asking enough potential members "Are you a member of a service club?" It may be that the "feel" of your club is not sufficiently appealing when a guest attends a meeting or hears about you on the street or in the newspaper.  You may have to dress up your meetings and your service projects and pay to get your local newspaper to print an article or a photo.  You may have to get creative.  First impressions count.

Ask yourself: "If I were not already a member of this club, WOULD I WANT TO JOIN THIS CLUB?  HOW WOULD MEMBERSHIP IN THIS CLUB MAKE MY LIFE BETTER?  WOULD MEMBERSHIP IN THIS KIWANIS CLUB BE WORTH MY TIME AND EFFORT?"

We think in terms of what a new member would do for our club (and division and district) and for the children we serve, but what can we do so the potential member will see that being a Kiwanian will enrich their own lives as much as their work in the club will enrich the lives of the children they will serve?

 If your club is struggling, here's an idea:  Look at the other service clubs in your area and find if any are thriving.  Attend a meeting as a guest.  Go to their service projects.  Watch their fundraising.  What are they doing differently than your club?  How do they offer more "appeal?" We don't have to re-invent the wheel; good ideas are not copyrighted.  Adopt and adapt all the good ideas you can find and put them to work in your club.

 Bottom line:  Do I act like a Kiwanian that attracts others to me and my club?  Is my club so appealing that people are drawn like bees to a flower?  Does my community even know what Kiwanis is and what it does?  If the people you invite to Kiwanis always ask you "What is Kiwanis? What do you do?" you have lots and lots of homework to do before you will able to successfully recruit people who know about you and are willing to accept your invitation to visit your club!

 "Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success." Henry Ford