THE ISSUES

The role of an International Trustee:

    The office on International Trustee carries a three-year term during which time the 15 trustees sit on the International Board helping to chart the future of our organization and then steer it along the course.  The trustee during that term provides counsel to several districts around the Kiwanis world and may eventually stand for the election for the presidency of Kiwanis International.  Region 2 encompasses the districts of Western Canada and Eastern Canada and the Caribbean.

Where we are:

    Eastern Canada and the Caribbean District's leadership in Kiwanis International is well recognized.  And if I may be forgiven a medical metaphor Kiwanis International needs another dose of E.C. and C.  I believe that it is suffering from a loss of focus and a loss of vigor that only a treatment of E.C. and C. passion, commitment to children and openness to change can correct.

    In our year together during my term as Governor we made a lot of noise.  Making a big noise, be sure, is about having fun.  But more importantly making a big noise is about championing the needs of children and about renewing and reinvigorating Kiwanis through change.  These are the issues that defined my leadership of the District and they are the issues that I am sure you will agree must be readdressed at the International level.

Children:

    There are more no deserving beneficiaries of Kiwanis service than children.  And while the grass roots appear to get it, I have become increasingly dismayed by the seeming lack of leadership and initiative directed towards deserving children at the International level and the seeming marginalization of the International Young Children Priority One (YCPO) Committee.  You will remember with me a time when YCPO was Kiwanis and now it appears to be an also ran.

Change:

    Except for the very welcome addition of women to our membership roles, Kiwanis clubs look like and work like they did half a century ago.  We are not attracting and retaining the baby boomer generation let alone Generation X.  But I believe that the disengaged can become engaged.  Kiwanis must offer them opportunities to provide meaningful service that pays a dividend to the heart within a vehicle that is mindful of the realities of 21st century life. Our current practices and regulations have a stranglehold on the organization, dictating what we can't be as opposed to opening up the possibilities of what we could become.  They cause too many people to ask why  and not enough to ask why not.

Summing up:

    Despite worldwide expansion, over the past 15 years we have witnessed a net loss of 80,000 members.  Change is no longer an option.  It has become a must.  It is only by change that our vigour will be restored.  We must evolve Kiwanis into the organization that millions of desperate children the whole world over need us to become.  To accomplish this end, Kiwanis International needs E.C. and C. to provide strong, decisive and passionate leadership.  I believe that I am that leader.