December Tex-O-Key

THE TEX-O-KEY KEY CLUB // DECEMBER 2013

TAKE A LOOK INSIDE K-FAMILY Thinking of the other K’s in our K-Family pg. 10

VOLUME 2

ISSUE 4

DCON 2014 TIME MANAGEMENT Preparing to Balancing “Get Hooked skills to On Service” ease a busy pg. 06 schedule pg. 17

TOKEYCLUB.COM

RIDDLE OF THE MONTH

CONTENTS

Give me food, and I will live; give me water, and I will die. What am I? E-mail me the correct answer for five monthly report points!

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Contributions

LAST MONTH’S RIDDLE ANSWER: A COLD

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Messages from Int’l

EDITOR’S NOTE

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Governor’s Report

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DCON 2014

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Keeping Up with the K-Fam

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Club Improvements

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Time Management

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Rustic Pathways

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Growth and Impact

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Interclub Socials

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Finding a Sponsor

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Winter Service Recap

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Top 5 Service Projects

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More Winter Service Recap

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Letter to the Editor

Season’s greetings, Texas-Oklahoma Key Clubbers!

With the holiday spirit as alive as ever, it is a great time to abide by the true tenets of Key Club International. Take advantage of the upcoming new year to participate in numerous service events throughout your homes, schools, and communities.

As the last Tex-O-Key of the 2013 year, this issue includes a variety of items, including a look forward to DCON 2014, reflections on K-Family relations, and a recap of other past service events. Moreover, with a new year of resolutions designed to enable our clubs to reach their maximum potential, read about club improvements, growth and impact, and interclub socials in order to give your Key Club an edge.

As we wrap up the 2013 year, I’d like to thank you all for your continued support to the Texas-Oklahoma District. Not only do your volunteering endeavors benefit your neighbors, but your article and photo submissions have been the key to a first semester of Tex-O-Key issues. On behalf of the entire District Board, I would like to thank you all for everything you do. Your valuable contributions make our district what it is.

Yours in service, Tashrima Hossain

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SOMETHING TO CONSIDER The Top 5 Service Projects included on page 27 are awarded based on monthly reporting. The District Secretary chooses them from those submitted each month.

CONTRIBUTIONS ARTICLES

COVER PHOTO Carolyn Tran

GOVERNOR’S REPORT Luke Broussard

MESSAGES FROM INTERNATIONAL Raeford Penny Zack Waldorf

R. Abdelghani Aarushi Aggarwal Hope Carter Caitlyn Conway Matt Curbow T.J. Deguia Kelsey Endari Elizabeth Hang Sydney Hoffman Tien Huynh Megan Hutson Rachel Iselin Crystal Loh Judy Mai

Amna Malik Ani Nair Hannah Norem Katelyn Randolph Gregory Ross Junior Sanchez Carolyn Tran Tiffaney Tran Rhiannon Vires Christopher Whited Hannah Zimmerman

A REQUEST FOR PHOTOS Each Tex-O-Key needs photos that tell a story.

E-mail any good-resolution, diverse, and compassionate Key Club photos to editor@tokeyclub.com, and they just might end up on the cover of this magazine.

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MESSAGES FROM INTERNATIONAL RAEFORD PENNY, International President Greetings Texas-Oklahoma Key Clubbers, I would like to wish a joyous holiday season and a happy New Year to each and every one of you. As we begin to countdown the end of 2013, and the beginning of 2014, we are able to reflect upon our last year of service and the countless individuals who we have positively impacted alongside our growth as individuals. A full year of excitement, hours of planning, and countless community service projects are now things of the past; with New Year’s resolutions fresh on our minds I hope that you will consider ones that involve serving your homes, schools, and communities, as well as developing who you are as an individual to an even greater extent.

The holiday season also marks the end of finals/midterms and for many the first semester, so congratulations, you’re half way there! With this new sense of freedom, each of us can now invest more of our time in service, as the winter time is a dreadful time for many in communities across the globe.

Even though the holiday season may be coming to an end, the opportunities of service are just now beginning. Some ideas are volunteering at a soup kitchen, making blankets, or team up with volunteers across the country on MLK Day of Service (January 20th).

PS: It’s never too early to think about DCON, and I for one cannot wait to spend the April 24-27th with you all in Dallas, Texas!

ZACK WALDORF, International Trustee Greetings Texas-Oklahoma Key Clubbers!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! Thank you all for participating in Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF this year. It is thanks to all of your hard work that the Kiwanis Family was able to exceed their US$2million from maternal and neonatal tetanus!

At our November Board Meeting, the Key Club International board has made a new goal to raise US$1.5million by the end of the Kiwanis year in October 2014. This amount is needed to vaccinate 1.9 million women and their future newborns in 62 targeted districts in the Democratic Republic of Congo! We wanted to set a goal that was significantly higher than last year’s, but still make that goal achievable. Together, as one big Kiwanis-family, we will be able to tackle this goal with no problem!

One of our newest Key Club partners is Rustic Pathways, an organization which sponsors overseas service trips. From Morocco to Cambodia to India, Rustic Pathways has partnered with Key Club in order to provide dedicated servant leaders like ourselves opportunities to branch out and impact people on a much larger scale. Visit http://www.rusticpathways.com/keyclub for more information on how you can get involved! On this site, you can also register for a chance to win a free trip to Costa Rica!

Once again, thank you all for your hard work in the last few months! I am proud to be serving the Texas-Oklahoma District. If you have any questions at all, feel free to email me: trustee.waldorf@gmail.com.

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GOVERNOR’S REPORT FROM Luke Hey TO Key Clubbers!

I hope that you all have had an amazing holiday season, and that you are as excited to finish up the school year as I am. With less than four months left till District Convention, I strongly urge you to go above and beyond in service. Likewise, it is a great time to start fundraising for convention if you haven't already.

The month of January is Volunteer Blood Donor Month. You can find information on possible projects, as well as blood donation events that may be coming to your area by visiting www.redcross.org or www.ifrc.org

Furthermore, all club dues must be submitted by February 1st, in order

Broussard

to avoid suspended status. If your club is suspended, members of your club cannot run for a district office, or attend District Convention.

Let’s finish the last third of this Key Club year as strong as possible.

Take part in the District and Governor's Project, and if you ever have questions, feel free to contact me at governor@tokeyclub.com or by phone, (325) 998-1384.

Yours in service, Luke Broussard

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DCON 2014

GET HOOKED ON SERVICE this April at…

DCON 2014

DCON 2014

DCON 2014

DCON 2014

DEDICATED TO SERVICE

When I first heard of Distric t Convention, I did not know what to expect. I was slightly nervous signing up for something I did not have much information about. However I did gather a group of friends, who would be experiencing DCON for the first time also, to room with. Within seconds of entering the atmosphere of District Convention, all of my small fears of not fitting in dissipated. Through all of the workshops, general sessions, and cheering wars, I started to realize that the people around me were a cut above the rest. Each and every person welcomes another with open arms, and together Key Club is truly an 'Ohana' composed of the best people you will ever meet. Without fear I publicly danced and cheered my heart out; it was such a surreal experience and I found myself rarely without a smile. This gathering truly opened my eyes to how much larger we, as one united club, are. I was introduced to the higher positions beyond

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a single club and amazed by the amount of potential an individual has in the district- let alone international- board.

During this time I not only attended forums and completed service projects, but grew closer to my Key Club family. I feel this experience authentically impacted my desire to serve and grow as a contributing member to my community. Seeing over 2,000 people at the District Convention really hit me. My mind did not perceive how large this event was considering this was only one district.

I would strongly encourage any and all members from around the nation to participate in their own club’s district convention. I truly believe this gathering is like nothing else they have ever been a part of before. District Convention will, like me, undoubtedly encourage members and club officers to get even more involved with their own club.

Coming out from DCON that memorable day in April, I learned about new icebreakers for meetings and how to get to know more of the general club members as a class representative.

Honestly, DCON changed my life for the better.

It would be nearly impossible to completely describe DCON in just one article, but I can honestly say DCON 2013 is included in my best experiences I've ever had and I am very excited and honored to be participating in this amazing event one last time this upcoming April.

--Hannah Zimmerman, Cypress Falls

S C R A P B O O K I N G Competitions are always fun to be in, you just get more and more anxious and you do the best you can in order to win!

Scrapbooking time is coming up just around the corner and it is so fun! Although, it does get a little craz y! Besides that, everyone does their fair share and it gets everyone bonding together.

From traditional to nontraditional scrapbooking, they both just get so fun and creative with everyone’s wonderful idea combined into one. The traditional, actually isn’t to showy like the non-traditional one, but it still is fun to see all of the memories we’ve made so far in the year into one. It’s like a family album, and to see the progress we’ve made, the accomplishments and the relationships we build with one another, captured in a picture and will forever show the

amazing experience! The nontraditional gets a little frisky, there is a theme that we follow but besides that we are pretty much free to do what we visualize about that theme.

Start of scrapbooking means the beginning of the scrapbooking committee, when we start doing this we actually go through an inter view process which members apply, if they wish to be in it. This is ran by the officers, the decisions of who make it, is in their hands.

N ow, j u s t b e c a u s e t h e scrapbooking committee is chosen, that doesn’t mean those members gets to decide for everything. Just like any other situation, we work with one another and take in e v e r y o n e ’s o p i n i o n a n d compromise with one another.

Scrapbooking committee kind of ensures that the materials we need, the ideas we have will

come alive, we make sure we make it all happen!

I think it is such a great idea that we are starting early with this because won’t feel so rushed, and we also will have time to double check everything we need or we need to get rid of if it doesn’t meet the requirements.

All in all scrapbooking will be so exciting to see all of our wonderful ideas comes alive. To be able to pursue this goal, we all will have to work together, combine our ideas, and diligently work, using our time wisely!

The officers have started to plan out and organize what is going on for scrapbooking and have done such a wonderful job with organizing this. The organization this year has increased so much especially with planning this so we accomplish on time!

--Tien Huynh, North Garland

A N U N F O R G E T TA B L E W E E K E N D It was my second year at D-CON and I was pumped up. The year before was so spectacular and memorable that I couldn’t stop moving in my seat. The opening session was about to start and the Key Club in me couldn’t stay inside as I cheered along with the rest of the Key Clubbers.

D-CON 2013 had begun.

The 3-day weekend began with the Service Fair and Welcoming Activity that included dance-offs, face painting and Key Club marriages!

There was one activity where members were put into jail, and to get out, they would have to sing any song! If you were clever enough, a song like the F.U.N. song from Spongebob would have been sufficient. The Service Fair was so much fun, and it pumped the rest of us up for the entire weekend.

Friday was the day of forums. Forums that were offered this year: “The ELIMINATE Project,”

“Membership Recruitment,” “Presidents and Vice Presidents: Making Your Year Less Terrifying,” and “Implementing Icebreakers”. These forums were extremely helpful for all of those who had attended. The forums gave tips, advice and guidelines to having a successful Key Club year. (continues on next page)

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After the forums, everyone got ready for the Opening Session. This year, the theme was “Don’t Be Afraid to Serve” and we were eager to see what the night had in store for us. As we walked into the ballroom, the stage was decorated as a haunted house would have been like. The dark and eerie decorations gave off a spooky feeling that left a little bit of chill down my spine. The opening session went amazing as there was an old woman who had “invited” us into the home, making dark implications every now and then. The session ended off with a very spontaneous guest speaker who talked about believing in ourselves and not letting anyone change who we are. After the opening session closed, we all went back to our rooms for the night.

The weekend was only getting started and we could not wait for the rest.

On Saturday morning, we attended the Regional Caucuses to nominate the candidates who would be great for the District Board. Of the candidates, two of them were our very own Summit Key Club Usman Hyder and Grace Liu. Seeing them up there made me so proud of our club because I knew they were going to go far with all of the passion and hard work they have for Key Club. The caucuses lasted for about two hours and afterwards, we took a little break before the Leadership Luncheon. The Leadership Luncheon informed us on who were the top two candidates for each District Board position. Our very own Usman Hyder had been nominated for the District Secretary position and we were so excited!

After the Leadership Luncheon, two of our officers attended the House of Delegates to vote on the final candidate for the Board positions. As the House of Delegates went on, the rest of us explored the hotel and ran into other Key Clubbers! It was a lot of fun getting to know other Key Clubbers who were passionate about serving as well.

At around 6, we rushed outside of the ballroom to prepare for the Awards Banquet. As they opened the doors, everyone rushed in to find good seats. The Awards Banquet was probably the most anticipated event and I could not wait to find out all the awards our club would receive.

After everyone was seated, the banquet began. During the Awards Banquet, the Talent Show and Oratorical Finalists gave their very best to win our votes.

Then came the moment we had all been waiting for. The Awards. We found out that our Summit Key Club had won the following awards: 1ST PLACE SERVICE AWARD, 2ND PLACE CLUB T-SHIRT DESIGN,

GOVERNOR’S PROJECT PATCH, DISTRICT PROJECT PATCH, NOMINATION FOR GOVERNOR’S PROJECT AWARD, NOMINATION FOR DISTRICT PROJECT AWARD, AND #6 OUT OF ALL OF THE TO KEY CLUBS. It was such an amazing honor to be a Summit Key Clubber that night. I was so proud of what our club had done over the year and I couldn’t ask for better members, officers and sponsors.

Without them, our club would have never made it to where it is today. That night was the night where we had proved it all. As the Awards Banquet closed, we went back to our rooms to get ready for the Governor’s Ball. The dance was so much fun, and what had made it more memorable was that it was the first time I had actually “danced” at a dance with the Key Clubbers I loved.

The next morning was the last and final morning of the D-CON weekend. The Farewell Breakfast was where we were going to find who received the senior scholarships AND who won the new District positions. As we waited impatiently, the new board members were called. When they had called Usman’s name for the District Secretary position, our Summit Key Club literally jumped up and shouted with joy as our very own President walked up to the stage. We were so proud of everything that he had done for our club the past year and for getting us to where we are today. As the Farewell Breakfast closed, we all exchanged “Congratulations” and “Great jobs” to all of the new and past district board members. It was a bittersweet moment and with that, D-CON 2013 was a weekend that I would never forget.

--Elizabeth Hang, Summit

Give the gift of childhood.

GET INVOLVED. Helping Local Kids

Keeping in Touch with the K-Family

The K Family goes from the beginning of the builders club in middle school, to Key Club in high school, and Kiwanis (there’s also circle K in college). We are all connected, and all have essen@ally the same goal and ambi@ons, to serve our community. That’s why it is important to stay in contact with each other, to see if there is any problem, or if we can help each other out.

In Builders Club, Key Clubs can help them out and guide the younger ones. Key Clubs in high school have the poten@al to begin a builders club in the middle schools around them. Of course, they don’t have to do it on their own. The Kiwanis would be more than happy to help out, and this is where its vital that there’s good communica@on. Once the builders club is up and running, they have the choices of asking the Key Clubs around them or Kiwanis for assistance in anything they need in, whether it be financial aid, or help with an event and they need chaperones/ volunteers.

Keeping in touch with everyone is extremely important in the Key Club level. There are so many

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people that we must keep in contact with. First of course is within your own club. You must have good communication with the members so they know when to volunteer (that’s the main objective of Key Club, to serve), and with the officers, so they all know what needs to get done and where they are needed.

Then there’s division level.

This is where you must keep in touch with the lieutenant governor, but its fairly simple because they send a monthly news letter.

If a question about district news or anything about other clubs arises, this is where you would shoot the Lieutenant Governor an email. District level. Very crucial to know what’s going on the district board because it will benefit your club to keep up to date with them. This is where we

g e t o u r a r t i c l e specifications, different projects (like the governor’s project of anit-bullying), important news for secretaries, and so much m o r e . L a s t l y , t h e r e ’s international level. Mostly communicated through our lieutenant governors.

One of the most beneficial groups of people to have communication with are the Kiwanis. They can help out with your club in more ways imaginable.

They made it possible for us to send everyone to D-Con. They are filled with a lot of great ideas, so we must utilize them.

It may seem stressful to keep up with everyone in the K-Family, but it’s useful and becomes easier. That’s also why it’s called the KFA M I LY, w e a r e a l l connected in some way.

--Junior Sanchez, Summit

Kiwanis, My Love!

All of the K’s (Including Builders Club even though it doesn’t start with a K. Or even has a K in it, quite curious if you ask me.)

Anyways, all of the K’s are oHen referred to as The K Family. Lucky enough we were given the ‘parent ‘organiza@on, Kiwanis. And Kiwanis is a great parent if I may say so myself. I have been to my fair share of Kiwanis mee@ngs on my days off of school and what I love most about it is that they make me feel like a part of their club. Rather than trea@ng me like a child and pinching my cheeks or other cliché adult an@cs, they treat me like one of them, like a Kiwanian. And even though I am not one (yet) they s@ll put their best effort forth to make me feel right at home. Even if it is one of their corny and over used jokes. The mee@ngs are actually a lot more fun than I thought before I started aQending them. It’s kind of like a sneak peek of what it will be like once you get the chance to join Kiwanis.

I recently aQended a Kiwanis mee@ng and upon arriving I was politely greeted by each member and had some very interes@ng conversa@ons with some of them I might add.

But seriously, some of the members of my sponsoring Kiwanis club have been on crazy vaca@ons to places I’ve never even heard of.

Making my beloved road trips to Aus@n seem to rank quite low on the excitement-­‐o-­‐meter.

Aside from geUng to know my Kiwanis club, I was also present to listen and learn from the things they talk about at their mee@ng. And most of it consists of how they can help the Key Clubs (As if they’re not already doing so much from us). Going to the mee@ngs renew my apprecia@on for my Kiwanis club. They do so much and too much of it goes unrecognized. So here’s a shout out to my Kiwanis club and I think every Key Club should make more of an effort to show the apprecia@on for their Kiwanis Club as well.

While I am fully aware there is a day dedicated to the ‘Key Players’ in Key Club week I say we all make an effort to not only show our much apprecia@on and highest respect to our Key Players every chance we get. --Sydney Hoffman, Cy-Fair

Our Family

Circle K and Kiwanis are one of the main reasons our Key Club is where it is at today. They have helped numerously throughout the years by donating generous amounts of funds to our club for our convention trip and other necessities we have, whether it is to start a donation or start making a shirt. They have always come through for us, and simply put, there would be no Key Club without our Kiwanis. However, one of the main reasons we are very tightly connected is because we also try our hardest to maintain a great sense of communication with them. By doing so, we have a great point of view for their goals while also refreshing them on some of our upcoming activities. There are numerous ways to keep in touch with our Kiwanis.

During the summer, West Brook Key Club attends a luncheon provided by the local Kiwanis Club every week or so. We send out two officers on designated dates to grab a bite with Stan, the president of our Kiwanis, and a few of his other officers. It’s usually located somewhere nice, this year being the Elegante hotel.

We talk about numerous things, ranging from summer trips to cheesy jokes about a wild array of silly topics. Whatever it may be, it’s always a great bonding moment between our club and the Kiwanis members. However, we always make sure to talk about upcoming Key Club projects and other events we have going on.

This way, they are not so out-of-tune during the summer days where many things may be going on. Furthermore, the food is great. It’s free food, so who would skip out on such a meeting with these wonderful men?

Another way to keep in close contact with our Kiwanis is by inviting them to our meetings. This way, they get a first-hand view of what exactly is going on with our club. They are able to see many faces that they may not recognize and some familiar ones that are greeted with a hug or two. Whatever it may be, Kiwanis coming to our meetings help keep that connection between the Key Club and Kiwanis strong. Sometimes, Stan will speak in front of our members to congratulate them on past accomplishments.

Sometimes, he may even hand donations and checks to us for our fundraisers and other events. It gives off a positive vibe throughout the entire club and never fails to keep communication strong.

Overall, communication is key to a successful club.

Kiwanis is just a small example of how it can make or break a club.

We maintain constant contact with each other, never failing to miss a single beat of Key Club..

--T.J. Deguia, West Brook

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W H AT I F Y O U C O U L D S AV E A B A B Y ’ S L I F E ?

ARE YOU READY TO HELP

?

www.theEliminateProject.org

ICE CREAM IS

ALWAYS THE ANSWER A young and shy freshman girl approached me after a meeting one day and told me, “I barely have any friends in KEY Club and don’t want to do anything because I feel like ‘a loner’.” Her statement jostled me into reality, for I always believed Liberty High School’s Key Club to be a family. But when I opened my eyes even wider, I realized that I was living in the biggest misconception of the century. At the front of the room, I was staring into a crowd of 190 people from 4 different grades, 3 different cities, and 20 different countries. I needed to find a way to unite these people, to give them all something to identify with so everyone could hold each other’s hands in some way and take a step forward, because I believe that strong bonds within an organization are the impetuses for growth.

If Key Club members, or members of any other organization for the matter, remain disconnected from one another, then it is impossible to reach maximum productivity. Our officer team was indeed perplexed whenever we thought about this conundrum. How in the world would we introduce 190 people to each other in one go?

To overcome such a mountainous barrier, we decided we needed a “get to

know you” session, a social event in which members are not allowed to leave until they can confidently say that they are familiar with every single person in the room. And what better way is there to socialize than eating ice cream together and playing ice breakers? No matter how old one is, ice cream is still a winner.

Therefore, we decided to center our social around this so that we can attract a maximum amount of members by offering such an incentive, for it is important to appeal to the likes of the members. Our next biggest fear constantly hovered around our heads, boredom. We dreaded the possibility that our members would get bored. So to involve them and create a more familial environment, we also decided to include a series of ice breakers geared towards making people feel more comfortable towards one another. Lastly, Key Club had to put its seal on this event by reminding the members who we are and what we do. After all, it’s important to remind them the value of such an organization, for once we bond together and work under the motto of Key Club, nothing stops the future of our community from propelling in the right direction at the hands of the youth.

--Aarushi Aggarwal, Liberty

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ONE WORD can

make

a DIFFERENCE “Meeting, mandatory event, and assembly.” My teacher spoke with diligence, “What do all of these words have in common?” Well everybody knew that answer, they all sounded droll, boring, and monotonous, why even the mere mention of the words was putting myself to sleep. “That is correct,” she began to explain, “As when we hear those words we instantly think of the dread that we hold, about being forced to attend such an event. It fills their mind with imagines of boring desks, boring slideshows and lengthy presentations, with no room for fun activities or the freedom to socialize. I mean wouldn’t everybody rather hear party, gathering, or social rather than event?” We all cheered, as suddenly our vision of the “event” changed into a fun time to be with friends and still accomplish something. We no longer were dragging our feet but were excited to go! Just then the bell rang and we all left with this vision in our mind.

I walked away from that class thinking that day about words and how much power over people they held. As although the words meeting and gathering are practically identical, they imply different meanings and can change a person’s attitude. Now many may think that English classes are a waste of time and hold no practical use today in our modern and technical society, but as an editor, I saw many uses from this lesson, including how to boost club attendance at our “meetings”. I attend a small school and so our club is not large, why it is really no more than 30 members so we always try and struggle to get the word to everybody to attend; because really we can’t have a very successful meeting or attendance to other items such as DCON if we do not. So club attendance is crucial and necessary if we are ever to get anything done.

The attendance of members, and this English lesson was on my mind when I was walking through the hall and had my breakthrough. You see, we always adver tise our meetings with posters and announcements usually throughout the school but that had not had the best turnout and I could now see why!

The posters were white, filled with only black bold letters, restating the words mandatory and meeting making them unnoticeable and bland, and the announcements were a little dull and long making people lose their patience and often stop listening half way through. No wonder nobody wished to come, as these posters and announcements all said, Key Club is a boring club, and that all we do is hold mandated meetings filled with no life. It was awful, and I had felt horrible to have let the club down.

That afternoon I tore every poster down. None would be left alone. I went straight home and made

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new posters filled with color, decorations, drawings, and fun words such as gathering and social, and I even made shorter and more life filled announcements to catch people’s attention. I would completely change everybody’s view of Key Club and its gatherings, why this one would be different. Sure enough, that entire week, I got nothing but compliments and praise for the posters around the school. Our attendance shot up, why only one person was not there! It was fantastic, and I could have never felt prouder.

From that moment on, I put more work into publicizing about the meetings, and even watched what I said and how I portrayed such items. It is amazing how a few small changes can really make a difference and how something as simple as an English class can inspire a simple solution that has been there all along. Who still thinks English isn’t useful?

–Katelyn Randolph, Bandera

attendance In some activities clubs do, some of the people that say that they are going don’t go. Whether it’s because of other activities on the same day or if they’re just not interested, people don’t go, but they say that they are going. What can clubs do to increase membership attendance at events that the club has organized?

One way of attracting more members at events is to add an extra reward. Some members might want an extra reward from the events. These rewards could be food, prizes, etc. People get more attracted if there is a reward and if they think that the reward is worth it. If the reward seems worth it to the members in the club, then they will be more willing to go to the event. In our minds, we will try to push other events to a different time or feel more interested in the event if there is a reward. This is just how our mind reacts to rewards.

Another way to get more members to come to the events is to organize the events according to the members’ availability. If more members are not available on the time of the event, it’s a better option to move the event to another time or day. You can not only get more people at the event, but there are more people coming to the event than how many were initially coming to the event on the initial date.

Just like pushing events over to other dates, there is also another way of increasing membership attendance similar to this. Many members of a specific club are also members of other clubs. These clubs might share a date with two different events; therefore the person that is a member for both of these clubs can’t split into two and attend both events. If this the case that is restricting the maximum membership attendance opportunity, then the two clubs should try to compromise and maybe one of the two clubs could move their event to another time (which ties in with the second way of increasing membership activities).

And the last way to increase attendance at events is to create an event that seems exciting. Nobody wants to come to an event that seems boring, so officers should try to organize an event that seems to attract a lot of members.

—Ani Nair, Cypress Creek

When I was four, my dad would play this game with me where he’d fill a tiny bowl with grapes and keep refilling it as I ate. I’d savored each one because I thought that they would soon be all gone.

Almost like magic, though, the bowl of grapes would keep on replenishing and I would never know how. Still, I looked at each grape like the end was coming and that made everything all the more sweeter.

That’s how I feel about the signin sheet for a Key Club event. I still find it amazing how people, against all odds, fight through the ongoing temptation to just change their minds about an event and not go. However, I’m not four anymore. I don’t simply accept this situation as magic and carry on with my life. I wanted to make it to where I could control this witchcraft instead of letting it control my club. The first thing I noticed was the domino effect. If I could convince one person in a particular friend group to have an interest in an event, I’d have 5 more tag-a-longs signed up as well. That realization in itself can give way to numerous different strategies. My personal method to take advantage of this is t manage my time wisely at club meetings and talk individually with certain person from each group. The result this gives is far more personal and

workingMAGIC

organic than just advertising blindly to the masses about a certain event. Quality, if done the right way, will naturally segue into quantity.

Sadly, the reverse is also true. If a member has no close friends going to an event, he or she will almost always choose not to attend. Psychologically, it makes sense. People are in the mindset that the event could prove itself to be awkward and lonely if embarked on alone. To break that trend, Key Club needs to promote taking that risk. Maybe in passing at a meeting, officers can push the idea that nothing will change if we keep doing the same things. Sure, such an event might not be the best one a member attends. On the other hand, what if it is? As community leaders, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain from going to events. Members just need to have that idea implanted into their heads by their loving officers to get them going on the right track.

Lastly, presentation is key (no pun intended). The Jersey Village Key Club does event sign ups and advertising through Facebook events, but whatever venue a club decides to advertise with should include visuals. Pictures from the previous year’s exact event,

promo videos on YouTube, or simple Google’d images pertaining to the nature of the event can make or break the amount of interest among members.

People need something tangible to latch on to in order to commit rather than just an address and a time. Special care needs to be taken in writing the descriptions as well. Call it lame or whatever, but trendy phrases or words can make an otherwise plain event sound much more appealing to our generation. Embrace the informality that our age-group is so fond of because that makes an event feel welcome and relatable. My personal favorite after giving some details of an event is adding “How can you not?”

The basic theme and reoccurring trend I’ve noticed in Key Club is the overwhelming importance of making connections. Everybody and anybody can go out and volunteer on their own.

People join Key Club for the unique culture within each club and the bonds that they make with people while doing good. Anything a club does to appeal to that motivation will make the members that much closer to each other.

Everything after that, including event participation, will fall into place beautifully. That is the magic I’ve learned to understand.

--Carolyn Tran, Jersey VIllage

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Where Did All the Key Clubbers Go? As the school year progresses, many of our clubs find that our members get busy with other things and we start to see less and less of them until they eventually stop coming. As a club that is completely dedicated to service this could become a problem. When this happens we begin to ask ourselves, “What can a club do to increase member attendance at meetings and events?”

While many people stop attending Key Club events because they find it doesn’t fulfill their passions, there are still those members that just need to be reminded of why they fell in love with Key Club and can be reeled back in with a few of these tips.

1 Offer Incentives for Attendance Member want to feel appreciated and by offering incentives like food, which is always a winner, keeps members eager to come to events. For more manageable solutions, you can have a Member of the Month and Distinguished Member to celebrate the wonderful members within your club every month. When members feel like they are important and have a place within your club, they will be more willing to volunteer.

2 Remind Members About Events When you ask a member why they didn’t show up to an event, most of the time you will get “I didn’t know about it.” or my favorite “I forgot about it.” In the age of social media, your club should utilize things like Remind 101, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, to not only combat these answers but keep your members informed.

When there is an open line of communication, there should be no excuse for why your members aren't participating in events.

4 Talk to Your Members If the utilization of incentives, reminders, and carpool arrangements doesn’t have your members stampeding back to you, then you must talk to them. An open line of communication is important to the success of your club. This will also help you get to the bottom of what's going on in your club.

5 What’s Their Passion?

While all service is great service, make sure that the events your club is participating in are what you’re members want to be doing. Perhaps have an icebreaker during one of your meeting to figure out what your members are passionate about. Also, while short term service projects are good, implement ongoing service allows your members to get involved with who they’re serving. Things like this could include regularly volunteering at an elementary school or shelter.

Members feels more invested in these types of projects and are more than glad to show up.

3 Arrange Carpools & Transportation Another major reason for lackluster attendance at events could be transportation, which is especially more difficult for our younger Key Clubbers to get. Many Key Clubbers are more than happy to volunteer, but their lack of transportation prevents them from doing so. It is your responsibility as a club to help arrange carpools for your members. While a forgetful Key Clubber is off putting, one who can’t serve because they can’t get to an event is just upsetting.

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In the end, our clubs do what we can to keep our members involved. While a large Key Club looks great on paper, don’t stress to have a huge club. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

(Margaret Mead) --Raneen Abdelghani, Summer Creek

How to Time Manage Like a Pro As some of y’all know, I’m in band. And because I refuse to be outdone by anyone, I’m also horn sergeant/head brass leader and band vice president.

On top of all that, I’m Key Club editor and a member of PALs and pretty much every NHS you could think of.

You might be thinking that I have no time for myself and I pull allnighters on the daily, but all that’s quite contrary to how I live my life. I’ve never unwillingly pulled an all-nighter, and I have so much free time that I find myself watching cat videos (Kittens Inspired by Kittens anyone!?) way too often.

How do I do this? Well, besides the obvious answer of “hard work and dedication”, I’m a pretty good manager of my time. Here’s how I do it: 1 Know Your Limits.

I played lacrosse my freshman year, and I knew that while it was fun, band was enveloping all my time. So I stopped.

2 Know when to say “no.”

When you’re involved in as many activities as I am, people will ask you to be lots of places and to do lots of things for them. Don’t feel obligated to say “yes” to them, and especially don’t feel bad if you tell them “no”. You’re a busy person. You can’t do everything.

3 Be organized.

Fun Fact: You can’t be in 2 places at 1 time. (if you can, let me know because that would be awesome) The way I keep my schedule straight is that I have a planner (like a physical paper planner) and a planner on my phone. I have a reminder app and a calendar app that reminds me about everything. I don’t miss events anymore.

4 Be a good communicator.

The key to time management is to let people know. If you have a conflict with this club or that activity, communicate your conflict with the powers that be and work it out. Not even the best coach or sponsor is a mind reader and knows your life, your activities, or your problems. Tell them.

It’s not as bad as you think.

5 Be efficient.

Do you think you have free time? If you say no, you’re probably wrong. You’d be surprised how much free time you have. That time on the way to school when your parent’s driving you? Free time. That hour of time you set aside to watch videos on Youtube? I’m sure you could shave it down to 30 minutes. If you use those little chunks of time to get a few problems of math or a paragraph of English out of your way, you might actually get more than 4 hours of sleep!

If you use some of these tips, you’ll be on your way to becoming successful at time management! Enjoy all your free time!

--Hannah Norem, Cypress Falls

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TIME MANAGEMENT

A Key Clubber’s Balancing Act The average Key Clubber is usually not just a Key Clubber. They may also be an athlete, a debater, student council, and/or a bandsman. Keeping all of these extracurricula under control and getting the job done in all of these different places can be a difficult balancing act of an undertaking. But with all of these outside of school activities that so many of us Key Club members have under our belts, how can we focus on everything just the right amount while still maintaining our grades in that place we have to go to every weekday called school?

Last school year, I was a member of the golf team, Key Club, and our school’s band, and was consistently ranked in the Top 5 in my class for GPA. I can tell you with hesitating that it was simply put, a lot to do. For everyone out there that was or is in the same boat that I am, I know the constant responsibility among other things can be a challenge. But this sort of situation is not all that bad its own way. For example, there are ways to overcome the time consumption of extra-curricula.

One of my favorite and most used methods of balancing my activities is to have a daily routine, in which I have different times to work on the thing that I have to do for each of my extra-curricula. This makes it much harder to forget about something you were supposed to do. Another way that I handle business is living in present tense and not future tense. I know how easy it to just say, “I will do this” or “I’m going to do that”, because I can be one to live in the future tense. Simply doing instead of saying is a solid way to get things done and not procrastinate. But all this hard work can be a stressful matter, even when we do manage to get the job done.

One of the most effective stress relievers that I use is to get all the work that I need to do done early in the weekend on Friday night and Saturday morning. That way I leave myself plenty of time in which I don’t need to stress about anything I have going on and genuinely enjoy my weekend. Of course you may try doing this and not like it at all as a stress reliever. There is no set-in-stone way to go about it, whatever works for you as an individual, works!

Balancing all of the extra-curricular activities that many of us Key Clubbers are involved in can be a challenge. But this is just one of the things that make Key Club and its faithful members what it is.

--Matt Curbow, Division 28 LTG

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Distressing the Stressed Out

When it comes to high school students stress is a constant struggle. We are still learning to deal with our school work, Key Club, our families, and other extra-curricular activities we participate in and outside of school. Whether a student is a freshman or a senior stress can be intimidating and it will continue to be intimidating throughout the rest of one’s life. That is why it is a significant skill to learn to manage your time early on in life.

As a person who can get extremely stressed out from a small situation I had to learn pretty quickly how to manage my time and not spread myself too thin. My first tip is to get organized. Organize one’s actions, organize one’s priorities, and organize one’s thoughts.

If one is not organize then nothing can get finished. A person would be worrying about one too many tasks at a time. I don’t believe that one way of getting organized works for everyone though. For some people a planner works really well and for others just using sticky notes around their house and assignments works best for them. As long as one has a sense of order for everything that goes on in their life one is organized and it makes activities all that much better.

During the process of getting organized I mentioned that one should organize their priorities as well as everything else. Once a person has done so they should look at those priorities again and do each task from most to least importance. This way the stress will be less overwhelming knowing that the most important is taken care of.

The most important step in my opinion is to set a limit to set an amount of extra-curriculars to be in and stick with that number. There are so many things to do in high school one can feel the pressure to do them all. I know I had a problem with choosing which ones I truly wanted to pursue. It may be hard to decide but I know from experience that when someone stretches themselves way too thin it just makes the stress that more unbearable. So, keep activities to a small number and devote oneself to those activities.

Even if one were to take all of these tips to heart, stress of participating in so many things can be overwhelming. The best thing to do when someone reaches this point is to stop what one is doing, take a deep breath, talk to someone if needed, and then continue on with the task at hand. Just know that not everything lasts forever.

--Rhiannon Vires, Leander

Organization 101 There’s no ques@on that high school can be tough on students with its extreme amounts of homework, friendship drama, and students trying to spare @me to spend with family. Adding volunteer work on top of these expecta@ons seems ludicrous to most students. However, with proper planning and dedica@on, volunteer work shouldn’t have to come in between the normal requirements of high school students.

Although it seems that there is barely enough @me in the day to get anything done, in reality, students actually have plenty of @me to complete their work and get a decent amount of sleep considering that they plan out their schedules and cease their extreme amounts of procras@na@on. Volunteering, although a requirement for numerous organiza@ons and colleges, shouldn’t be seen as a chore. The fact that their work is making someone else’s life easier and happy, whether it be through collec@ng dona@ons for a charity or through volunteering at a baseball game, should be enough of a compensa@on for students. Through proper @me-­‐ management, students can rid themselves of a nega@ve associa@on with volunteering as a necessity and begin to focus on the good sides of it.

The best way for students to manage both school and their service is by crea@ng a thorough

calendar in which they include upcoming social events, tests, homework, and family gatherings. That way, whenever they have an opportunity to volunteer at an event, they will be able to clearly see that they are able to aQend instead of having to cancel later on.

Addi@onally, through this organiza@on, students will also be able to complete their homework at a rapider pace since it creates awareness in their minds for the things that they need to complete. Through organizing their @me in a neat manner, the students will be able iden@fy the days they are free and take advantage of them to complete their service hours.

Another way that students manage their requirements as teenagers and service is by combining the two and volunteering with friends. Instead of going out to see a movie, students can sign-­‐up to volunteer at an event with their group of friends and instead be able to spread happiness and hang out with their friends. It’s a win-­‐win situa@on for both sides.

Although it may seem overwhelming, through proper organiza@on and though, students should be able to carefully manage their @me between their families, school, and volunteer work.

--Amna Malik, Cypress Ranch

Time Management

Although I don’t “gamify” my nightly workload, splitting up tasks into a quicker parts that can be completed with ease is a good tool to get a lot of work done.

The best activities to reduce stress are Netflix watching and working on speech and debate. Nothing takes your mind off of work like an episode of Parks and Recreation or “Ip Man.” Additionally, working on debate (especially filing articles for extemporaneous speaking) is both enlightening and relaxing. Furthermore, working a diverse range of subjects is a good stress reliever. Most people look at a full slate of things to do as something that can induce stress. I see a wide array of different activities that will help break the monotony of working on the same thing continuously.

Anyone can also relax by taking frequent short breaks. A five minute break every half hour actually helps to keep focus. That way you don’t stress your mental faculties too much and then become weary of working. That break can be spent socially or even just getting on Buzzfeed to read a poorly put together but still entertaining article.

--Gregory Ross, M.B. Lamar

I am heavily involved in a slew of different activities in high school. From volunteering with Key Club, to mentoring students at middle schools to speech and debate, I have many time-consuming activities. In order to do well with all my activities, I have to learn to balance my time and resources. I am able to do this through a variety of means.

Generally, my Fridays and Saturdays are spent at debate tournaments. This means that I have to rely on my co-officers to supervise events on those days. In order to make up for those days, I spend my Sundays and weekday evenings volunteering so I can still get my hours and help with the total workload. Additionally, I make sure that I spend my evenings contributing time to all of my activities. A good strategy to manage time effectively for is to plan what work I ought to do and complete it bit by bit. That way each nightly workload of schoolwork, preparation and key club officer duties is like a challenge that can be completed in increments.

Every night I use the language software, Duolingo. The “gamification” of Duolingo is a powerful tool for learning a new language because it makes a seemingly large andimmense task, learning a language, very do-able.

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Expand Your Horizons with Rustic Pathways

Do you have any plans for Spring Break? Yes? Well, how about for this summer?

If not, check out Key Club International’s latest co-sponsor, Rustic Pathways!

Rustic Pathways is an organization that allows you to travel to remote places such as India, Cambodia, Costa Rica to volunteer and meet others with the same goals as you. There are also regional trips that enable you to go to different countries to serve, as well.

Costa Rica is the most common destination for those who participate in the program. The fee for the trip is 2,795 + airfare, and you are able to get 50 service hours during June 17-July 2. While in Costa Rica, you will be able to develop leadership skills, teach kids at a camp, while getting fully immersed in a new language. Reach farther to expand your horizons.

Also, the Dominican Republic is another Rustic Pathways site that allows Key Clubbers to travel to Punta Cama and learn about the environment and sugar cane production. In addition, you a re a b l e to wo r k w i t h underprivileged children who desperately need your help. Can you imagine being able to visit a different country and learn about others in the world while meeting a new Key Clubber and making new friends? Tell

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others and spread the word, so Rustic Pathways can become widespread.

V i s i t www.keyclub.org/service/hos/ R u s t i c _ p a t hw ay s / Summer_programs.aspx to learn more about the program.

Begin saving up money now because it’s never too early. If the money is too hard to come by, don’t be afraid. Rustic Pathways gives money to those who qualify. They want to provide you with the opportunity to indulge in a different culture, language, and atmosphere while bringing hope to an underprivileged society.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity! Remember, there are many destinations and dates to choose from. Rustic

Pathways attempts to provide the utmost care and wants everyone to have the time of their lives. The amount of service hours received varies directly with the amount of days spent, as does the price.

The longer programs are during the summer while the shorter ones are during spring break.

Let’s spread our Key Club spirit and continue to make a difference in our world. Be sure and visit the link listed above when you get a spare moment to delve deeper into the opportunities granted. We thank Key Club International and Rustic Pathways for offering such a wonderful program, and we hope to use it to its full potential and expand our outreach to others across the world. –Kelsey Endari, West Brook

start serving NOW While conducting chemical research on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin for five weeks, I, though still a high school senior, have been able to converse daily with undergraduate and graduate students, as well as professors and postdoctoral researchers. Through their insight as well as my personal observations, I discovered many things that I had never expected to gain from a research program. For example, I learned that every single second counts during the registration war for courses that the infamous “Freshman 15” is a myth, and that pranks are an essential part of a healthy dorm life.

Aside from a unique opportunity to learn about what college life is like firsthand, my time at Austin has also enabled me to understand the importance of high school organizations, such as Key Club, in shaping one’s decisions in college. I had observed that those who were active in their high school’s extracurricular activities continued to

be active in campus organizations in college. For example, those who were enthusiastic about saving the environment sought out clubs with similar interests. Likewise, those who were passionate about service, such as Key Club alumni, immediately looked for a group of people that were also passionate about volunteering and helping the community.

These people, like most incoming college freshmen, had developed their passions early on during high school, and in reality, their decisions in high school heavily affected their future. For instance, during his few days in college, the typical freshman will decide for themselves what campus organizations they want to join. He will decide on the best way to travel between his courses as well as whom he would want to be friends with and who he would prefer to avoid. On a typical weekend night, he will also decide on whether he wants to party with his friends or spend time making a difference in their community. Yet,

what will influence his final decisions will be his previous experiences and the habits he had developed in high school.

(What extracurricular activities was he involved in during high school? What did he usually do on a day-to-day basis?)

Thus, I strongly encourage all high school students to get involved this upcoming school year by: beginning = volunteering now, realizing the power of a helping hand and a smile, and developing a healthy habit of selfless service. I hope they would either continue or start being active in their local Key Club. All in all, the memories that they gain from serving will stay with them for a long time and will definitely influence their future. They will learn what their passion is, which will ease their transition into the college life. My hope is that their passion would lie in helping others and changing society for the better. In the end, their involvement in Key Club will enhance their future in college and beyond.

--Tiffaney Tran, Cinco Ranch

growing in new ways As an active Key Club member I have grown in many ways. Now I will fearlessly go up in front of crowds of people and speak out my heart’s desire. I have grown as an active member in my community and have learned the value in community interaction. I now know what it means to achieve happiness because of my involvement in Key Club and I can go on forever about what the organization has done for me. With so many things that I have learn and gain every day from Key Club there is one thing that I will always take with me and hold dear to my heart; the light the Kiwanians bring into my life on daily basis.

At every Key Club meeting I attended there was always an older gentleman or lady sitting towards the front with a paper and pen taking diligent notes. On one occasion after I had been newly installed as my class representative and the unknown but familiar face came to all the officers and extended an invitation to sell popcorn at their upcoming Kiwanis meeting. I shyly responded and said I would be willing to come out and join them for their meeting. Little did I know that my perception of humankind would be changed based on a small group of active elderly community members.

The next day I walked in and was greeted by some of the most genuine people I have ever met. I remember them asking me to stand up and tell them all about key club and then quickly being overwhelmed with so many emotions. Specifically, I was in awe and shock. There I was, a mere 16 years old speaking about me and my endeavors and they were listening, voluntarily. I had never experienced so many people that were so much older than me express interest in my ideas and I was on top of the world. The meetings soon became a regular occurrence on Wednesday morning and I was always greeted with the same genuine smiles that never failed to lift my spirits.

Later that year, I remember driving home from a Saturday service event with the Kiwanis and telling my father about the great time I had. My dad, sharing my excitement, exclaimed, “You know Key Club is really cool thing. When do you see a high schoolers and elderly people outside on a Saturday together doing service?” Although, my dad seemed to have been pointing out the obvious it took me a second to see the significance in my interactions with the Kiwanis. Together Key Club and Kiwanis were bridging the gap between the so-called negligent teenager and the stubborn seniors. We are proof that the young and old can come together and make things happen. At our core we are the same. We want to be happy, fellowship with others, and enjoy together feelings of gratitude and thankfulness and in order to achieve this we must be in the service of our fellow man. Let us take advantage of our shared ideals and make a difference!

--Hope Carter, Division 5 LTG

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Interclub

Socials

At Key Club we work hard and play harder. While the main goal of Key Club is serving the community, it is important that we focus on bringing the club together. So, once a month Key Club holds a “social” where they invite all members to join in some sort of activity that is meant to draw the people closer together. A club might be really involved in the community, but it is nothing if its members do not reflect the ideas and morals of the club. That is why it is so crucial that the club holds these “socials” so that we grow our club. We want to become a whole, where everyone and everything is intertwined. The goal of these “socials” is to introduce new members to other members who have been involved in Key Club for a couple of years. Our parents always tell us that it is important to make new friends and Key Club “socials” offer an easy and enjoyable way to make those new friends. You never know who you might meet and learn from just going to one of these “socials”. It is also a great way to keep up with what is going on in the club.

The last “social” we had occurred after the Worldwide Day of Play. Several Key Club members met up at TCBY and Wing Stop, where we just hung out for about an hour talking among each other. I had the opportunity to meet some really amazing people who were involved in Key Club that I had never even acknowledged before then.

I never even realized that they were so nice and enjoyed some of the same things I did. For me, it was stepping out of my comfort zone and I actually enjoyed it. Now I can’t wait for the next Key Club “social”. They have even made a committee that is in charge of coming up with new ideas for “socials”. Our next “social” is planned for Tuesday, October 29, and the theme is BYOT (Bring Your Own Taco). We plan on members bringing ingredients to build a taco and we will enjoy eating our tacos while sharing things about the club activities and ourselves. I hope that these “socials” will help grow our club and bring in some members that may not always participate. We are trying to get people active and willing to help and I believe these “socials” are a step in the right direction. I can’t wait to see what this upcoming “social” brings for the club and for me personally. I know that whatever it is, it will be good. –Megan Hutson, Bullard

Epic Fail

Did you think this article was going to be about failing? Sorry, I was kidding. This article is actually about how to plan the BEST Key Club Interclub social. I know you teenagers and texting nowadays. Hit up some other school Key Clubs and invite them to a few of these events: KARAOKEY CLUB I know you nerdy Key Clubbers out there. I know, Karaoke can be pretty embarrassing, but it’s time to let loose! Go to a family Karaoke and rent out a room together! Sing some songs, get along, and have a fantastic time. Order some food, and cry together because we all have that person that will choose a tear jerking song. MY HEART WILL GOOO ONNNN. ICE CREAM SOCIAL I SCREAM. YO U S C R E A M . W E A L L SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM. We all know a little ice cream and some chatting can bring us together.

DODGEBALL TOURNEY North Garland High School hosted a dodgeball tournament last year,

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and it definitely brought people together. Surprisingly, throwing dodgeballs at people is good therapy. It also gets your members to be active and have a good laugh.

You can even charge a bit of money. That way, it’s also a fundraiser for your clubs!

ICE SKATING Break the ice. Not literally. Please don’t. Have a social at a mall with an ice skating rink!

Eat, shop, and have a nice time doing figure 8s!

G A M E N I G H T YA H T Z E E , JENGA, BINGO. Hey, I think games are pretty fun! Lots of yelling and joking around.

Winning. Losing. Either way you get together all in a bunch of board games and get to see different strategies.

IHOP IHOP is open 24/7. Have a late night breakfast. It might sound really weird, but it’s actually oddly amazing. Oxymoronic, huh?

Ask for their private room, and have a bunch of members eating and getting to know each other. I have to say, we all act pretty weird at night, and that really brings out some good laughs.

LOCK IN Call a local church, and ask if you can rent out their facility building. They usually have a basketball court. Stay up all night and do a bunch of games and icebreakers! Bring all the Monster you can because your energy has to be pumped up throughout the whole night. If someone sleeps, draw on them! It is a rule.

--Tien Huynh, North Garland

INTERCLUB SOCIALS Building Togetherness In every club, it is important to bring enthusiasm in to recruiting members for volunteer events. As a result, it is important to plan events worth participating in and remembering. Not only will the members become hooked with the fun events, this will also give them the chance to build strong connections with other key clubbers and their community. However, although having successful Key Club events are great motivators, it is also important to have interclub events.

As a result of temporarily combining two clubs into one, it physically allows two groups to come together and share the joy of volunteering amongst peers who have the same types of goal, to form an even better bond between each Key Club.

Procrastination is the key to most failures. In this case, it is highly frowned upon to create an interclub event in such a hurry. As a result, plans may be skewed, members may become upset about the late updates, and both groups involved in this activity will be recognized as disorganized. In other words, the main key to having a successful interclub event between schools is the ability to communicate with other Key Club’s officers and sponsor.

As a result, prior to setting up an actual event, both team of officers should be in charge for getting together to address meeting locations, club interests and member interests. In this case, difficulties would be cleared and the chance of creating an interclub event will work out beautifully.

Another idea in being able to create a successful interclub event is the ability to make members break out of their shells. What’s the point of creating an interclub event if both teams of Key Club members were conservative and introverts? Therefore, it is important to be able to create a fun and active event for both groups to participate in. Some ideas could be like meeting up at Yogurt Cup. In the end, both groups of members can come together, eat frozen yogurt, and most importantly be able to raise a tad bit of money for future use. Other events that can work for interclub events are events such as participating in a Walk for Alzheimer’s. This event is not only meaningful, but it also raises a lot of awareness for those in need. Therefore, if both teams were interested in participating, they can come together to collect funds and walk the actual race.

Interclub events should be events that bring two clubs into one. Instead of having only one Key Club planning an interclub or social event, bother Key Clubs should come together and create a successful event as one team.

--Judy Mai, Cypress Ridge

For a successful interclub social, you first need a club that is willing to make it work. Interclub socials are great for getting to know other dedicated key clubbers from your district and for sharing important service projects, events, icebreakers, etc. What you first need to figure out is the venue of the meet up. Then you should decide if it will be catering, your club providing all the food, potluck, etc.

Potlucks are usually the best thing to do because it is easier for the host club and you can just ask each club to bring different things (ex: one school brings meats, one brings deserts, etc.) It would be difficult to make sure to let each individual club in your district know about the social, so informing your lieutenant governor about it and leaving it up to them to get the word out would be the best thing to do. With your board, decide what you think the turnout will be like. Think about exactly how many people will show up that day, how much food will be needed, what time will be best, what time the host club should get there, and everything else. Be sure to overestimate because you never know how many people will come and it is better to have more food than not enough. Also, make sure that you have little activities and things to be talked about planned out so the other club members do not feel bored or awkward. Make sure to see that everybody is socializing with people from other key clubs, rather than just staying in their own comfort zone and talking to the people they usually always talk to.

Don't forget to inform your club members multiple times and remind them to make sure the number of people there is a large amount. It is also a good idea to have the social at a time that is around a holiday so that it has a theme. A good one would be around Halloween so that it is a dress up social. Another good idea would be to have it around Christmas to have a Secret Santa and to exchange gifts at the social. Be sure to clarify with any businesses (such as the catering you guys chose, the venue place, etc) a couple days before to make sure everything is exactly how it should be. Make sure all locations, prices, dates, and times are correct to ensure that there are no major problems with the social the day of it.

--Crystal Loh, Mansfield

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H O W T O F I N D S P O N S O Finding a sponsor can be the most difficult or the one of the easiest things to do. Depending on how immersed your school is with Key Club is an important factor to consider in your search for a sponsor. When my club started looking for a sponsor, we found we had a lot of difficulty finding teachers who are willing to take time out of their schedule to support us. This is partially because The Woodlands High School has a variation of different clubs to choose from. Although this has made the search difficult, it has also led us to become closer as a club. First step is looking to your school life and fellow classmates for help first. Then you can proceed onto the next step.

After surveying school life, you can now begin to ask around to see who is willing to volunteer to be your sponsor. You can do this through mouth-to-mouth or even announce it over the intercom, anything to get the message across of “Sponsor needed”. You can also try is just listening around to see if a teacher is looking to sponsor a club. Even ask a favorite teacher and see if they would do it. Kiwanis can also help you find a sponsor; many Kiwanians know teachers in the school district and might be able to pull a few strings for your club. If there is no one still then you can go to your principal and relate to him the problem. In the end, a sponsor might be assigned to you. This is not an ideal instance

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but anything to keep your club going.

Once you have your sponsor then it’ll get easier. A sponsor is meant to guide you, not lead your key club meetings. We Key Clubbers take pride in the fact that we are a student led organization. Assert that to your sponsor and help him/her realize that while they are valuable, they do not need to put in as much effort compared to other sponsors. This can be very appealing, especially to sponsors assigned to your club.

Remember to always treat your sponsor with respect and thank them for all they do! Your sponsor can be the make or break of the club. They control the come and go. Keep them happy and they will let you do so much more than you believe is capable!

–Caitlyn Conway, Division 9E LTG

IT’S SENIOR From Triathlons and Astros's bobble head giveaways to face painting at children's carnivals, no project is too big or too small for the Cypress Ranch Key Club. A year ago, the club was brainstorming way to give back to the community and were inspired to host a "prom" for the senior citizens at a local nursing home. The event proved to be a huge success that left an impact on the volunteer's hearts and the name "Key Club" in the minds of all who had attended.

A year later, the same passion that had fueled the inclusive event now wittily dubbed "Senior Prom" re-emerged and in early March of 2013, the club advisor, Mrs. Hydes, sent out an email to invite any and all members to attend a planning meeting and the opportunity to join the committee that would work endlessly to make the event a success. Excitement ran like an electricity current throughout each Key Clubber's veins from a mixture of nerves and anticipation. This event was different from the others.

Throughout the year, many of the service projects the Key Club had done were very casual and simply required nice

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jeans and a club shirt; "Senior Prom" had them dusting off their homecoming attire and polishing up not only their dress shoes, but their manners as well. For senior citizens that rarely-if ever-got to leave the nursing home, the volunteers were determined to make the event something they wouldn't forget for months to come.

The day of the event, a group from the "Senior Prom" committee made their way over to Village on the Park retirement center to help put up the decorations and place a table with refreshments off to the side. Bows and tinsel sparkled in red and gold against pure white table cloths and an artistically crafted large cut-out of a glass slipper stood propped up against the ice cream parlour when they were finished. The group then stood back to the side as the rest of the volunteers began trickling in to help out with whatever was left to do. While they were working, the senior prom attendees began trickling in with curious excitement at the unusual commotion that was permeating the usual calm aura of Village on the Park.

Al Hirani had made the night of a woman who had experienced a stroke three months prior. Once an avid dancer, she had thought she’d never be able to dance again until Al helped her to her feet and let her fulfill her dream. Tyson Hoyt not only charmed everyone in the room, he also was the lucky partner of a woman who had not danced since she’s lost her husband numerous years ago. One of the most humorous stories of the night that was passed around the Key Clubbers was that of an elderly woman from Japan who spoke

PROM

TIME!

very little English. After being introduced to Andrew Wang, she turned down every dance asked of her and then snatched Andrew up for the last dance when he was close enough for her to reach.

The event ended too soon for the Key Clubbers and senior citizens alike. Too soon, the names of the Senior Prom King and Queen were being announced and pictures were being taken in front of a beautiful castle backdrop. As the volunteers packed up the decorations and thanked everyone who came out to the “Senior Prom”, they did so with hearts full from knowing that the Senior Prom had not only helped bring joy into the residents of Village on the Park but into their own as well.

--Rachel Iselin, Cypress Ranch

Top 1 Jenks K2K

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Service Projects

Every month at Kids2Kids, Jenks Key Club has members go to our school district’s three elementary schools. Volunteers help teachers grade papers, get organized, and care for kids. All members make phenomenal connections with the kids, extending our service to influence others into helping their home, school, and community. –Stella Huynh

2 James Bowie Turkey Trot The Bowie High School Key Club has volunteered at the Austin Turkey Trot every year. The Caritas organization and Thundercloud Subs help organize this event to raise money for various charities. The event included various runs for people of different ages on Thanksgiving morning. This year the event raised more than $300,000. Key Club members helped out at this event by passing out water to the committed runners, distributing T-shirts to help the event run smoothly and working the packet pick up and registration booths at the event.

–Aditi Sharma

3 Goose Creek Memorial Fight Like Andria Andria is a mother, and wife, who was diagnosed with brain cancer. The Fight like Andria Benefit that we attended this year was held at Royal Purple Raceway Park. There were a bunch of festivities including a bake sale, raffle and silent auctions, BBQ plates, etc. Volunteers helped to run booths such as the moonwalks, hayrides, and face painting. The benefit was not only held to bring in donations for Andria, but was also held to support brain cancer awareness. –Amber Metoyer

4 Brownwood Breast Cancer Awareness Brownwood Key Club has helped many people in our community with breast cancer. Our club sold t-shirts to students and faculty in order to support one of our secretary's that had been diagnosed with breast cancer. We raised around $2,000 and our club was very pleased that we could help someone from our own school. Brownwood Key Club also passed pink pumpkins through the stands at a home football game. We asked for donation in order to help other people in our school district who had breast cancer. Passing pink pumpkins around the stands at our pink out football game is something that the club has done before and it's an honor that we get to help with it year after year. –Alexis Garcia

5 Bryan Threads of Hope We were searching for a way to expand the influence of our service to somewhere other than our local community, and through some research we were able to find a wonderful project opportunity with the Threads of Hope founda@on. This organiza@on sets up work zones in impoverished regions to create jobs and opportuni@es for people in need. We contacted them to inform them of our cause and they obliged sending us 1000 bracelets! We divided them up among members then sold them to our friends, teachers, and anyone who wanted for about $2 each, explaining to them how they would be helping the world and our club through their purchase. The project turned out to be a tremendous success and we sold nearly every bracelet! . –Andrew Carter

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fighting the flu

ONE DESK time

As we proceed further into winter, we hear more and more about flu like symptoms popping up all over the place. Flu symptoms affect nearly everyone in public schools, and causes for millions of absences every year. Attendance is critical to maintaining good grades, and is essential to the main frameworks of a school, and without exceptional attendance schools would receive less finding, and cease to be able to fund programs within the school.

Because of these overwhelming statistics, the Early High School Key Club decided to take action in directly combating the sickness that are spread throughout the school, by trying to eliminate this sickness we hoped to make our school one of the cleanest, germ free zones, in the state of Texas. That's right, every month after school Key Clubbers embarked on missions across the high school to clean the desks in every class room, and with more than 300 desks to cover, this was no easy task. Each Key Clubber was armed with a container of antibacterial wipes, and

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at a

the common goal of eliminating sickness from our school. This month we had around 50 Key Clubbers show up for the event, making it one of the largest service projects we have performed on this scale.

Classroom desks have shown to be one of the most unclean surface in a school, and is something that every student uses on a day to day basis, and sometimes using more than one desk in a day, allowing for the spread of germs between student to student, which is the main cause of sickness. Cleaning desks was a major step in combating the flu and other winter related illnesses in our school, which ultimately has allowed our school to continue on the track of excellent attendance.

Cleaning the desks of our school has evidently helped, as the display of flu like symptoms have been less evident in comparison to other years, allowing students to resume

class as usual without the worry of having to stay home, bed ridden for days.

Cleaning desks in your school may be something that your club may want to look into as future service projects. Fighting the Flu and other winter illnesses has been a great thing to appreciate about the many projects our club partakes in throughout the year, and all that we do for our schools, and our communities, and I hope that cleaning desks in your school is an option for your Key Club, and something that you too can do in the future.

--Christopher Whited, Early

KEY CLUBBERS ASK:

Dear Tashrima, Answers to your every question about anything Key Club

Q: What does Key Club do at DCON? What do you do after you win at DCON? What is The Eliminate Project? What is the B.R.O. Project?

--Clements Key Club

A: Thanks for your questions, Clements Key Club!

To begin, DCON is a four-day event that takes place in Dallas, Texas. It is a time for Key Clubbers from all over Texas and Oklahoma to unite to celebrate the year of service, learn about new ways to help the community, interact with other members, and make unforgettable memories. Attendees can participate in forums hosted by our district officers, elect the upcoming year’s District Staff, and attend fun events like the Governor’s Ball. This year’s theme is “Get Hooked On Service,” which will inspire us to serve once more by believing in the magic of benefitting our communities.

DCON is also a chance to reward Key Clubbers on their service-related accomplishments.

On Saturday, two events contribute to this spirit of commemoration. During the Leadership Luncheon, based on the binders submitted for officer competitions, one outstanding officer is chosen for each board position (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Editor). Later that night, at the Awards Banquet, the remaining awards are announced, such as the Club T-Shirt Award, Club Newsletter Award, District Project Award, etc. Winning clubs send a delegate on stage to receive the trophy; from there, they are photographed and lauded for their accomplishments.

In addition, the Eliminate Project is a service project that holds significance for all of Key Club International. In an effort to eliminate maternal/neonatal tetanus, a disease that kills 1 baby every 10 minutes – nearly 60,000 innocent babies and a significant number of women each year– as well as causes newborns to suffer repeated, painful convulsions and sensitivity to light and touch. Just US$1.80 toward a series of three vaccinations can save a mother and her future children. Our goal is to eliminate MNT from the Earth by 2015; all it takes is US$110 million, which will cover the vaccines, syringes, safe storage, transportation, and skilled staff necessary to immunize the 100 million remaining mothers.

Finally, IP Governor Brian O’Hara chose The B.R.O. (Brother’s Reaching Out) Project as his Governor’s Project, which benefits the Children’s Miracle Network. Throughout the 2012-2013 Key Club year, T-O clubs made a significant impact in assisting the Children’s Miracle Network. 57 clubs across T-O participated in raising an astounding $18,113.52 for CMN. Moreover, 6,855 total man hours were also dedicated to the B.R.O. Project.

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THE TEX-O-KEY KEY CLUB // DECEMBER 2013