The fall semester is coming to a close, and many of us are starting to think about what’s in store for next semester. With that in mind, I’d like to pose two questions:
What service-related event are you most looking forward to in Spring 2012, and why? What are your goals for your organization or your service work in the new year?
Post your answers in the comment section below, and I look forward to reading them!
Here’s my answer: I’m most looking forward to continuing the State Service Day tradition started last year. There’s a lot of room for productive collaboration with Council organizations and other groups across the University, and I’m excited to make this event a success. My goal for the Council of LionHearts is to get all members thinking critically about our learning outcomes and experiences as service leaders. I hope to encourage personal growth, development of service leadership skills, and the flourishing of a strong Penn State service culture.
I’m most looking forward to Alpha Beta’s annual First Aid Meet this semester. Each spring, our chapter of APO hosts a First Aid Meet (FAM) for local boy scouts to come and test out their first aid skills on some of our brothers who act out different emergency scenarios. The scouts compete with each other and have to “treat” our actors. The chapter puts the entire event together. It’s a great way for us to stay involved with the community and with Scouting which is what our organization was founded on.
Some of APO’s service goals for this semester include getting more of our brothers, as opposed to our exec members, to plan service projects. Another goal is to plan a trip to a soup kitchen in PA which is something we haven’t done in a while. My personal goal for the semester is to be as involved as possible with our members and especially by providing help to the other officers as much as possible.
There isn’t one service event that I am most excited about. Prior to this semester the majority of Rotaracts weekly service events took place while i was un available. However this semester i will be able to participate in the majority of them! I am also excited about participating in FNLO hopefully we dont get 40+ people again but i always enjoy this event because you get to explore campus and get to hang out with members of the club.
Some of Rotaract’s goals as we move into the new year are to expand our club and get more participation from all the members in the service activities. We also have created a committee dedicated to finding service both in our community and around the world that we can take part in. We also hope to continue with our partnership with Dream Sponsors Inc. with the fundraising we do. We may decided to go further and sponsor an orphan in Kenya which would be amazing. Something I hope to accomplish would be teaming up with another org to do service. I feel reaching out to other orgs would be a cool way to meet other students who share a common intrest in service!
I am most looking forward to this year’s CKI Service Week. My favorite part is Kiwanis One Day, where members of Circle K join the other branches of the Kiwanis Family in service projects helping the community. Last year was the first time our club participated in this international event. The rest of the week contains projects with our service partners: UNICEF, March of Dimes, STUFH, and Better World Books. This has been a great way for us to take time to focus on these groups. I can’t wait to see what projects are planned for this year’s CKI Service Week, April 15- 21!
In terms of my personal goals for Circle K International, I hope to increase general members awareness of the international aspect of their Circle K clubs. The involvement at the international level varies amongst clubs in Subregion E. I plan on reaching out to club presidents to get an idea for their needs and find ways that international can help them make their spring semesters a success.
The project I’m most looking forward to this year is Circle K’s Spring 12-Hour Service Marathon. This event is always exciting and brings out the best in our members. After the long day you can look back and be proud about what you have done in a variety of ways.
My number one goal for next semester is to have more members attend the events we are planning. This semester has been AWESOME in terms of getting enough members showing up to events. With that being said, there is always room for improvement, and I feel that more member involvement is always needed. This goes along with recruiting new members and retaining our current and highly valued members. We truly have a lot of great members and a goal for myself is to ensure we are planning projects that meet our members interests and expectations.