Lindsay King, Club Support Coordinator at Kin Canada, and some other members of the team shared some of their practices and struggles in starting and working with their existing clubs across Canada.
Q: How do you initiate relationships on campuses on which you don't already have a presence? What are the biggest barriers? What sort of practices have you found make things easier? A: Our clubs are not widely known at the moment and we are starting to work on evaluating the program. Some Districts (see map below) and most of the clubs actively use Facebook and sometimes Twitter to make themselves known. Currently, to start a club, a student would need to approach a local Kin Club, District leadership or National Headquarters for support in starting a new club on their campus. They would need to gather potential members to be part of the club and then start the chartering process. Other than this, if an established Kin Club in the community would like to initiate a Campus Club on a local campus they would need to work on contacting the school, setting up in a space where they are able to hold a membership drive, tell students about Kin Canada and work on gaining members through that avenue. The biggest barrier would probably be the time people have to commit to the start-up of a new club with the established Kin Club already having their own projects and the limited time that students have today. The easiest way to gain traction on a campus today is to have a “Kin Kid” (an established Kin Club member’s son or daughter) on the campus already who has been raised with Kin Canada, knows what it stands for and is inspired to start their own Club and gather members. Additionally, when the traditional Kin processes aren’t forced upon a club and they are left to make their own decisions on how a meeting should be run and set their own rules and guidelines they are more independent and can function better. Q: What, if any, strategies do you use to integrate club members into the operations and decision-making of your broader organization? A: All members have the opportunity to progress within the association when the opportunity presents itself. Members are given the opportunity to run for club president, and District leadership (i.e. as a Governor, Vice Governor). Beyond this, members are also able to join National committees and apply to the National Board when the opportunities come about. Campus Club members are also given the opportunity to be involved in the awards program and are invited to conventions around the District and nationally to make sure they have a say in the organization and provide them with full voting rights at these conventions. Additionally, if the Campus Club has a sponsor the sponsor is encouraged to work with the Campus Club and create synergy. Q: Is your programming consistent across your clubs, or do they have considerable autonomy in deciding what to do? If the latter, how do you balance this with the need to uphold organizational standards? A: We don’t program for our clubs, they are part of the larger service organization that is Kin Canada. We give our clubs autonomy and make them responsible for their own programming based on the needs of their campus and surrounding community in line with our mission, vision and values. Although, they can call on the help of their sponsoring Kin clubs in the community or District leadership. They are also able to call on other leadership whether it be at the District of National level for assistance from afar in programming/events/service/fundraising project ideas or any other member of the association across Canada.
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