march 2015
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Volume 50 Issue 6 March 2015
Cirkling: Final Edition
Governor’s Page 1
K-Family Connections 2
Creating a Tech Committee 3-4
From the Editor’s Desk 5
Seabreeze LTG Report 6-8
Club Officer Spotlight:
Presidents 9-11
Upcoming Events 12
Contacts 13
A Message from Governor Dawn
Wow!
I cannot believe that it has almost been a full year since we began
our journey together in Circle K. The accomplishments that our dis-
trict's members have been a part of is simply incredible. Raising
money to eliminate tetanus from the world, serving at our three
Ronald McDonald Houses, and serving our campuses and communities
in so many ways - we have really done it all! The actions of all of our
NJCKI members makes me so proud to have been able to serve as
your District Governor.
I truly believe that these acts of kindness and selflessness that you
have all participated in were not one-time things. I know that the
hearts of all our members are full to the brim with a passion for
helping others in any way possible. I urge you to use this passion to
positively influence other people in your lives. Whether you do that
by giving someone a jacket when it's cold, or giving them a warm
smile as you pass them by, the impact of your thoughtfulness can
really change the future. Please, never forget the ways you can
change lives through your daily actions and choices.
With about a month left of our terms, let's go out with a bang, and
makes these final days memorable. And then, once we reach our
DCON weekend, we can begin to prepare ourselves for the new ser-
vice year ahead! I look forward to seeing you all there to celebrate
the old, and welcome the new!
Stay classy, NJ District! :)
Creating & Keeping K-Family Bonds
One of the advantages Circle K offers over other student-led community service organizations is a network of K-Family
organizations that encompasses people of all ages. While Circle K is comprised mainly of college students, it’s important
to remember that there are other branches of the K-Family. Elementary schools have K-Kids, middle schools have Build-
ers Club, high schools have Key Club. Then there is Circle K, and either Aktion Club or Kiwanis follows that.
Getting involved with the other branches of the K-Family is an excellent way to get engaged with groups of new people.
Here are a few tips and ideas to help boost your K-Family relations.
If you’re having a fundraiser, reaching out to a local Kiwanis Club could mean getting more people involved. This, in turn,
could help you raise more money. Kiwanis is filled with wise adults who can help guide your fundraiser forward to increase
the odd of it being a success.
Each summer, the NJ District of Circle K holds a K-Family event called the K-Family Picnic. This event involves engaging
in community service, food, and fun and games out on the beach with members from all of the K-Family organizations.
This is a great way to meet people from all over Kiwanis and from all over the NJ District. In fact, you might even meet a
few people from other districts as we’ve had a number of guests come from other districts in the past!
Key Club is huge in size and has tons of members who are looking to get more involved. If your Circle K club is planning a
large event, definitely contact your local Key Clubs. You might be surprised by the number of members who are interest-
ing in checking out your event! Circle K and Key Clubs have teamed up for very successful service projects in the past.
Don’t hesitate to contact local K-Kids or Builders Clubs either! Some-
times our younger members become isolated due to school policy and
their lack of transportation. However, it is possible to engage in ser-
vice with them! Your club can try to arrange a joint-project with them,
whether that means re-painting a playground at their school or teaming
up to run a lemonade stand over the summer. Don’t be afraid to get
creative with it.
Utilizing the K-Family’s vast network of members is a fantastic way to
hold more successful events while making new friends along the way.
All K-Family branches have something to offer so establishing those
connections is well-worth it. Never be afraid to establish these types
of connections. They’re essential to fostering the bond that keeps the
Kiwanis-family together. By: Rocky Trifari, K-Family Relations Chair
Start a Technology Committee in Your Club
Service Committee, Fundraising Committee, Membership, Development, and Education Committee, Eliminate, Publicity, Social,
Historian, K-Family! So many committees are part of a successful Circle K Club. But I’m proposing to you now to consider one
more for your club - technology. The Technology Committee isn’t a standard in all Circle K clubs, and while it exists on the Dis-
trict level, I rarely see its importance emphasized at club level - and it darn well should be! Technology is very much a part of
our daily lives, both in the realms of leisure as well as productivity. We use technology in a plethora of ways to communicate,
be creative, and solve problems. Today when we need to find out information or want to exclaim something to the world we are
much less likely to reach for a book or shout through the streets; instead we turn to the internet.
What kind of presence does your club have online? If an interested new member searched for “service clubs at [your school]”
would your club come up in the results? How about important information like meeting times and a schedule of events? Clubs
that do not have this information readily available online are losing a lot of potential members, and even if you do have a web-
site or social media page, updating it can take a lot of time and leave board members scratching their heads wondering whose
job it is exactly to make sure these facets are taken care of. Appoint a technology chair!
The technology chair job can be merged with publicity chair, the person who makes your ads and promotes club events, if they
feel as though they’re up for the job. But if you want to keep these positions separate then go ahead! The more people taking
on leadership roles in your club, the better is what I believe. Here are some responsibilities I see the technology chair of your
club taking on:
Making and/or maintaining your club’s website with meeting information and an up to date calendar of events
Posting regularly on social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
Making ads and graphics for all club events (if this role does not already belong to Publicist)
Taking and uploading photos at all club events (if this role does not belong to the Historian)
Keeping websites and social media accounts up to date with important and engaging information is a full time job that will pro-
duce results for your club, which is why I suggest appointing someone to work on this exclusively.
How can you find an interested member for the job as chair of
the committee? First ask around if anyone is interested in web,
graphic design, or social media marketing. These are all viable
career aspirations in today’s job market, and you may find
someone who would be more than willing to take on the role,
both because they enjoy it and also because the job is great
experience for a resume.
But if you can’t find a tech enthusiast, fear not! The technology
chair position doesn’t have to belong to a tech wiz kid, it’s actu-
ally fairly easy to set up a free website for your club (and so-
cial media accounts are a no-brainer for most of us) Here’s
some options for your website:
Start a Technology Committee in Your Club Cont.
- Ask your school’s IT department if it’s possible to get a school hosted site. Most likely your club will be eligible if your
school offers this! From there you could install a content management system like wordpress or drupal along with a free
theme for design. Easy!
- weebly.com - this is a drag and drop, free site builder with no web design skills necessary to create a beautiful page. The
only drawback is having “.weebly.com” at the end of your URL unless you’d like to pay
wordpress.com - the “no-host” alternative to wordpress.org. Install pre-made themes are you’re ready to go!
wix.com - yet another free to use drag and drop site. There are plenty of options like this out there, so there’s no excuse
not to have a website for your club!
Remember to include these key elements on your site:
“About” page explaining what Circle K is including tenets, structure, the pledge, etc.
Club meeting time and place
List of club officers and contacts
List or calendar of upcoming events
Links to the NJ District Site, CKI.org, and kiwanis.org
A photo gallery
In addition to a regularly updated website, have your tech chair post
often to social media accounts. Their updates can include: reminders
about upcoming events, photos from past events, fun and engaging sta-
tuses, as well as retweets from other CKI related accounts.
With the addition of these tech updates your internet presence will get
boosted greatly, and as a result you’ll have more interested members
than ever before. Tech is an integral aspect of our everyday lives, em-
brace it in your clubs!
If you need any help starting your tech committee or increasing your
internet presence in any way, such as setting up a website or social me-
dia account, feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]
By: Kerrin McLaughlin, Technology Chair
From the Editor’s Desk
Hello New Jersey District!
I would like to take this last issue of The Cirkling to thank
you for your continued support and subscription throughout
the 2014-2015 year. I wish you a successful Spring semes-
ter, and I hope to see you at our much anticipated District
Convention! Congratulations to the newly elected club
boards, and to all immediate past officers, thank you for
your contributions to the New Jersey District of Circle K
International!
My time as District Editor has been a fantastic one, and I
wish tremendous success to my successor, whomever you
may be!
Seabreeze LTG Report by Roxanne Gonzalez
Dear Seabreeze Division,
It’s been an honor to be your LTG this year. I’m so proud of all of you accomplished. It’s been amazing being able to meet
everyone from the different clubs and seeing how you guys get stuff done ! As some of you know, this is my last year in
Circle K. I wish you all the best of luck and thank-you for a fantastic last year.
Brookdale
At the end of my presidency, I had a list of things I wish I did better for the club. I was happy to see everything I want-
ed to do, be done this year. You guys were able to do another Day to Eliminate, get guest speakers for the meetings, and
do more serve hours than last year. It’s a great feeling seeing something you consider your baby, evolve into something
bigger and better. You Guys Rock!!
Rider
I love going to your meetings because of the great service actives
and the friendly faces. Rider does an amazing job getting everyone
involved in events and working as a team. I was so proud to see how
winter social came out. I know how hard you guys worked to make
the night super special. It was an amazing night and you guys were
able to raise a lot of money for The Eliminate Project.
Seabreeze LTG Report Cont.
Monmouth
This was definitely a challenging year for your
club, but it made you guys more passionate about
service, which is an amazing thing. Cristian Blanco
did an amazing job setting up service opportuni-
ties and getting people to join. Every event we
had, there was someone from Monmouth repre-
senting their club. I know that the membership
will grow because of how much you all care. Never
lose sight on what’s important, and that is helping
the community.
TCNJ
I was so impressed how organized you were for this year. Every-
one from TCNJ is so passionate and motivated to do fellowship
and service. It’s always a party at your meetings and how you make
60 plus people feel important and involved is AMAZING. When
you hosted club rally at the beginning of the year, you did an in-
credible job making service projects, fun and exciting. You guys
had an amazing year and have a lot to celebrate.
Seabreeze LTG Report Cont.
Rutgers
Every time I went to your club meetings, I always left with a smile on my face. It’s amazing how involved you were with
not only Rutgers, but with the New Brunswick community altogether. I’m so excited to attend Dance to Eliminate and see
how much money you raised for this amazing cause! I can’t wait to hear the final number at the end of the service year.
By: Roxanne Gonzalez, Seabreeze LTG
Club Officer Spotlight: Presidents Cont.
I count myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to serve as the presi-
dent of Stockton Circle K for the past two years. My Circle K'ers have made a
greater impact on me than I believe they realize. There is nothing more motivat-
ing than to watch a shy freshman find their niche and passion for service. I have
been continually inspired by the resilience of the club. With every obstacle my
Circle K'ers have pulled together and came through even more unified than be-
fore. Although I will dearly miss being a part of the executive board, I cannot
wait to see what fantastic achievements lie ahead for Stockton Circle K.
Club Officer Spotlight: Presidents
Being the president and founder of the Atlantic Cape Communi-
ty College Circle K has been a life changing experience. It has
made me the happiest person in the world to be able to make a
difference in my community! Thank you to all of my fellow Cir-
cle Ker's at ACCC, especially my Vice President Molly, for help-
ing me start this club and helping me bring a love of service to
Cape May County!
Club Officer Spotlight: Presidents Cont.
Upcoming Events
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March 2015
Visit http://njcirclek.org/dcon for more information about District Convention!
732-597-1570
Dawn Kreder
District Governor
609-781-2657
Max Hirsch
District Treasurer
732-439-0832
Rena Patel
District Secretary
609-634-4609
Rachael Stieg
District Editor
Contact the District Board