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Governor Robert Spellen

“BUILDING LEADERS TO LEAD”

In response to the issues relat­ed to the George Floyd death and sub­se­quent events, The East­ern Cana­da and the Caribbean Dis­trict board sup­ports the Kiwa­nis Inter­na­tion­al state­ment that was issued on June 3.  In addi­tion, the Board invites the SLP Gov­er­nors to address the August Board meet­ing. We want every­one to strive to help ful­fill our Kiwa­nis Vision State­ment which is: “Kiwa­nis will be a pos­i­tive influ­ence in com­mu­ni­ties world­wide-so that one day, all chil­dren will wake up in com­mu­ni­ties that believe in them, nur­ture them and pro­vide the sup­port they need to thrive.”

A MESSAGE FROM KIWANIS INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR STAN SODERSTROM
Watch­ing the civ­il unrest in the Unit­ed States in recent days, our organization’s ini­tial response was to encour­age calm and patience — and to lis­ten.

In recent days, we have heard from some mem­bers who have told us that is not enough.

We are lis­ten­ing. We are learn­ing. And as we do, we also want to be clear on where we stand.

Kiwa­nis Inter­na­tion­al does not tol­er­ate racism. We know that black lives mat­ter. We val­ue inclu­sion from every com­mu­ni­ty in every nation.  We also know there’s more work to be done.

We know that in the Unit­ed States, cit­i­zens have a right to protest, to advo­cate and to peti­tion their gov­ern­ment for redress of griev­ances. We sup­port both the respon­si­ble exer­cise of this right and the free­dom to use it with­out the fear of phys­i­cal vio­lence.  

We are sad­dened by the van­dal­ism and vio­lence but can under­stand how we’ve got­ten here.  

The Kiwa­nis fam­i­ly will con­tin­ue to stand for bring­ing peo­ple togeth­er to make a dif­fer­ence in any and every com­mu­ni­ty we can. Our solu­tion is not to be the loud­est voice on any spe­cif­ic issue, but to help every­one see that res­o­lu­tion can only come by lis­ten­ing and work­ing togeth­er. That has been a suc­cess­ful strat­e­gy for Kiwa­nis for more than a cen­tu­ry, and it can be the only path for­ward for our mem­bers in the Unit­ed States and around the world.

Dear Fel­low Kiwanian’s

A new admin­is­tra­tive year 2019 – 2020 is about to start, and I can guar­an­tee you that this year will be promis­ing, suc­cess­ful and build­ing many new lead­ers to make this world a bet­ter place for our chil­dren.

Yes…this is what we are going to con­cen­trate on this year:

” Build­ing Lead­ers to Lead”

We all have joined this won­der­ful orga­ni­za­tion Kiwa­nis for a rea­son. A rea­son to make and improve the lives of the so many chil­dren out there that are suf­fer­ing for one rea­son or the oth­er we have promised and pledged that we will look after them and the only way we can do this is by hav­ing and build­ing lead­ers to take that lead.

Lead­er­ship is a com­plex top­ic. What does it mean to be a good leader, how do good lead­ers know when to lead and when to step back, and how is it to be an effec­tive leader.

Lead­er­ship is not a per­son or a posi­tion. It is a com­plex and moral rela­tion­ship between peo­ple based on trust, oblig­a­tion, com­mit­ment, emo­tion, and a shared vision of the good for the future of all.

Lead­er­ship is about mak­ing oth­ers bet­ter as a result of your pres­ence and mak­ing sure the impact lasts in your absence.

Lead­ers need to pro­vide a strat­e­gy and direc­tion and give mem­bers the tools that enable them to gath­er infor­ma­tion and insight from around the world. Lead­ers shouldn’t try to make every deci­sion. They should del­e­gate. As a leader, you can be tough on your­self and you raise the stan­dard for every­body; how­ev­er you should be very car­ing because you want peo­ple to excel at what they are doing so that they can aspire to be you or a leader in the future.

The chal­lenge of lead­er­ship is to be strong, not rude; be kind, not weak; be bold, not a bul­ly; be thought­ful, not lazy; be hum­ble, not timid; be proud, not arro­gant; and have humor with­out fol­ly.

  • Lead­er­ship is about impact, influ­ence, and inspi­ra­tion.
  • Lead­er­ship is a priv­i­lege to bet­ter the lives of oth­ers.
  • Lead­er­ship is the abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate some­thing peo­ple want
  • Lead­er­ship is some­one who holds her or him­self account­able for find­ing the poten­tial in peo­ple and process­es.

Ulti­mate­ly, lead­er­ship is not a glo­ri­ous crown­ing act. It’s about keep­ing your team focused on a goal and moti­vat­ed to do their best to achieve it, espe­cial­ly when the stakes are high and the con­se­quences real­ly mat­ter. It is about lay­ing the ground­work for oth­ers’ suc­cess, and then stand­ing back and let­ting them shine.”

  • Nev­er dream about suc­cess you have to work for it and
  • Suc­cess is the dif­fer­ence you make in people’s lives.

So I encour­age you to go out there and show that we are the lead­ers build­ing the future for our loved ones, “The Kids”. I ask that each one of you be that indi­vid­ual and let us build on the future, let us grow new clubs, new SLP pro­grams, and grow mem­ber­ship. More clubs, more mem­bers we can bet­ter and improve the future of our Kids.

Dream of suc­cess, work for Suc­cess and you will see the dif­fer­ence you make in the lives of the Chil­dren of the world.

“Kids need Kiwa­nis and Kiwa­nis needs Kids”

 

Gov­er­nor Robert (Bob) Spellen
2019 – 2020
Build­ing Lead­ers to Lead.

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