Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Governor Tour - Weekend 2

Weekend number 2 in my Governor tour landed me in the heart of the OC- California.

A day before I was to land I had the chance to catch up with the Assistant Administrator for KIWIN’S, Paul Duplesis. Paul is an amazing and loyal friend. If you’ve never met the man, make it a habit to at our District Convention.

Paul is a guy whose life has had its ups and downs, but through it all he’s always had a ton of support. KIWIN’S members who are now CKI’ers definitely understand and appreciate everything this guy does. That being said, the guy is insanely funny as well. Not funny as in, he makes a ton of jokes. He’s more of the guy who tells people like me that I’m pushing the envelope a bit. The problem is, he can’t tell me to stop pushing the envelope because he’s laughing so damn hard. Ah Paul. Future DA.

I land in Ontario, and Paul picks me up and takes me to the Magic Kingdom Service Project/DCM. My flight was a bit late, so I didn’t even get a chance to help the kids make art supplies. It was good to see Lt. Governor Danny and our Awards Chair Long hanging out with the kids though. The only problem is, when you put the three of us, and a couple more people together … yeah, it leads to a ton of laughs.

After the service project, UCI President Sarah Bana led the clubs in a “reflection” of the service project. Pretty much, everyone gathers in a circle and reflects on the event. It is an amazing way to get people to understand and better yet, feel the importance of the presence in these events. I think it is definitely something I would pass along to other clubs looking for a way to motivate members into doing service.

The Magic Kingdom DCM was held in a Chipotle – classic. Though I don’t recommend it (and Danny knows, haha), it was actually a pretty quiet place to have the meeting luckily. I was given a plaque for riding the rose float, and we got to begin the fun game of naming people to future District Board positions – even if they didn’t know so! Please make it a habit to attend DCM’s, they really are fun!

From the DCM, I had to jump back in Paul’s car and head on over to Glendora for the Metro Crab Feed.

Let me tell you how awesome this concept is:

You host an event, in which members pay a set amount to eat as much crab as humanly possible. Most buffets in Las Vegas (Lost Wages) is about 25-30 bucks. You eat a ton of different things. Most buffets even charge more if they offer seafood. But if you, as a club, buy the crab in bulk from a wholesaler, reducing the costs considerably, you can charge less. $22 does the trick for me. And then you donate the money to a good cause, you give people a reason to want to eat all this crab. It’s a great fundraiser. I encourage all of you to have food fundraisers. I will attend them. Crab seems to be the weakness for me.

The feed itself was pretty awesome, filled with raffles and familiar faces. Peter Yu attended the event. So now you have Peter Yu, myself, Paul, Alan Morton (Past Go West Chair). You now have the most entertaining (at least we thought so) table in the room. I’m sure the UCLA club enjoyed our presence too (I hope!) Grace from UCLA seems to think I grew horizontally. Forget you foolio. =P

The next morning, after all you can eat crab, we decided it would be a great idea to have Korean BBQ in Garden Grove. At the event was Peter Yu, Lt. Governor Danny, Lt. Governor Andi, Awards Chair Long, Past District Officer Pei Pei Chu, Fullerton President Liz. It was all the guys on one table, the girls on the other. Even with all the men laughing over every joke we made (I can’t tell you the jokes made, they … you will have to message me), we were still going through plates of meat like crazy. It came to a point where we just kept eating the bacon pieces which is basically just fat fried. Way to go, Chris.

The amount we consumed in that hour was pretty nauseating, though if I didn’t have to leave for the airport, we would of stayed at least another 2 hours. We were pretty determined to deplete the Korean’s stock of meat.

The ride the airport with Andi was actually pretty fun. Few jokes, look at the time. Few more jokes, look at the time. I got the airport and ran through security. It was pretty hilarious, but I just made my flight on time. They didn’t serve drinks because the ride was bumpy, and they meant it. I couldn’t even read my magazine, which tells you it was pretty insane, that flight.

The weekend overall was awesome, I got to make two more divisional visits, and I only have a couple to go. I hope to be able to finish those up before my term in office is over. These last few months are really the fun ones the Governor gets to enjoy. Making visits, talking to clubs, getting a feel for where their future is headed. That’s really what our organization is about right now. We are making sure the future is in good hands. So do your part. Motivate members to step up and keep CNH #1. posted by Chris Plasterer at 4:25 PM 1 Comments

Hawaii - Final Part

Better late than never. J

My final few days in Hawaii were quite amazing. On Sunday, I had the chance to meet Kiwanians from the island, representing two of the four clubs I believe they have on that one island alone. The UH Manoa Circle K Faculty Advisor was there as well, who was actually a former CKI’er! I told her about Fall Training Conference, and she immediately remembered Sonora from years past. She didn’t believe me when I said we had about 500 people at this year’s event. Haha.

The training of the UH Manoa and HPU Circle K’s went very well. We opened with the club’s self evaluation of the club, and came up with goals they though they could achieve by March. Lt. Governor E.T. and I both understood that they may not be at our District Convention, but we are very positive that they will reach their 20 member peak. In the end, we really hope they turn into the big brother of the HPU Club. How amazing would it be to bring in a new club from both Nevada AND Hawaii in one year?

Though making spam musubi was definitely the food highlight of the weekend, having the chance to meet and bond with the Hawaii CKI clubs was definitely my favorite overall event of the weekend. Here’s a club that is miles and miles away, yet still continues to do the same things we do. Now more than ever, they definitely would love to hear some of your encouragement. We are a family after all. Send your emails of encouragement and motivation to E.T., paradise@cnhcirclek.org. I’m sure he’ll send them off. To help the Hawaii clubs, we are also paying for two of their member’s DCON Registrations, as a token of our support as a District.

The rest of the weekend consisted of shopping at the Ala Moana mall. This place is definitely one of my top new reasons to live in Hawaii. They have every shop you ever wanted. I ended up getting some sauce on my shirt, so I went to the various stores and grabbed some gear. E.T. and I had a particularly fun experience in the Hollister Co. store that shall remain a secret!

After Ala Moana, we tried our hand at taking the bus, which was for the most part … interesting. We passed the time by reading up very cool pick up lines. Here are a few of my favorites:

The only thing your eye’s haven’t told me is your name
Excuse me, I just noticed you noticing me and I just wanted to give you notice that I noticed you too.
Can I take a picture of you, so I can show Santa what I want for Christmas?
Do you have any raisins? [No] How about a date?
I’m sorry, were you talking to me? [No] Well then, please start.

Yeah … so after that, we had a chance to make bargains with some of the merchants along the street, and then headed with E.T. to an amazing party that was being held by a friend of his.

Listen to me when I say this: I want to live in this house. E.T. was like, “Psh, there are plenty like this,” which I believe, but I was just dumbstruck by it. It was an amazing house, but even more amazing was the food. They had potato salad with egg in it, prime steak, I mean prime; Pasta with shrimp, traditional Hawaiian music and just tons of tons of fun. Going immediately to the Honolulu International Airport from there was a bit of a bummer, but hey, what a way to end the weekend.

Hawaii was a lot of fun in the end, but more importantly we had a chance to get to know the entire situation with the clubs there. They are the same just like you and I. They encounter the same recruitment problems, and I think we made great progress in helping that. The Kiwanis clubs understand their need to help as well. I am confident that from this point on you won’t have to worry about anything going wrong in Hawaii. In fact, you might even see a second club.

- Chris. posted by Chris Plasterer at 4:23 PM 0 Comments

Sunday, January 18, 2009
Hawaii

Aloha!

Hawaiian Airlines is a pretty amazing airline. Many would be proud of me, I had:

• Pesto Penne
• Salad w/ Thousand Island
• Water, water, water.

The movie I was saw was really interesting too, Eagle Eye. If you haven't seen it, just check it out. In concept, its a pretty crazy way to look at how the Government checks up on us. :D

When I arrived in Honolulu, I was greeted by pretty much the whole UH Manoa CKI Club, and of course E.T. I got a lei, and immediately decided we need to eat. Haha. What can I say, I'm hungry!

We went to a members house, and had a chance to learn how to make spam musubi! Very cheap, very yummy. I'm literally going to make it hardcore when I get back to Vegas.

If you are one of the few who don't know how to make it, check out the SunBox in a few days. We made an instructional video!

After food session, we ventured into Honolulu to find more restaurants and places to hang out. Really the time we spent here was a chance to unwind, find them the fun things to do in Hawaii. Why may you ask?

Because there is an weird assumption being made these days that if you are a community service organization, that's what you are. You just do service. All of us know that isn't true. So how do you show them all the full benefits we have to offer? I personally think you show them a good time. You take them to all these small socials in between meeting days. And you pretty much let them figure it out. They will think, "wow ... I could hang out and do this any other day, but I'm doing it with new people I met, and we even give back a little bit."

I think that's how you really bring non-kfam people into our awesome organization.

I'm getting ready now for day 2, where I will be working with the Kiwanis Clubs and both UH Manoa and Hawaii Pacific University. I really hope we can get them stoked to bring many from the island over to Woodland Hills.

Check out more updates later on in the day! Mahalo! posted by Chris Plasterer at 10:03 AM 0 Comments

Tuesday, January 13, 2009
2009 Governor Tour First Stop - Hawaii!

Happy New Year!

As my term begins to come to a close, I'm given some more time to actually get out to the divisions and speak up on the amazing accomplishments we've had throughout the year.

I am especially excited to make a Governor's visit to the Hawaii to work with the UHM Circle K Club.

Hawaii is a pretty cool place to make a Governor's visit. One of the first things I generally hear about the Kiwanis clubs there is that they ADORE their SLP's (Service Leadership Programs). The love and attention they put into their Key Clubs, KIWIN'S, and Circle K clubs is simply astounding. I'll have the opportunity to present a recruitment session for their club, and also work with Hawaii Pacific University (HPU), who is interested in being the 2nd CKI Club in Hawaii. To be a guest over in Hawaii is really an honor, and I am stoked to have a chance to work with their club.

This type of motivation and growth we are seeing this year is a sign of the effect community service is having on college students worldwide. A third club was added in Nevada, and almost every division in our District has a college interested in starting up a CKI club. Clubs are stepping up and keep traditions alive. Our Go West event was totally revolutionized, given a catchy new name, and gave members a reason to celebrate a year of service by decorating the many rose floats in the Pasadena area. The ability to step up, the ability to lead, and the ability to share our passions with others ... this will definitely be the message I send to you all during my final visits of my term.

Hawaii will definitely be an amazing trip. I leave Friday and return on Tuesday. If there is anything you would like me to forward to our Hawaiian friends while I'm there, feel free to shoot over a reply! Also, if there is something you would LIKE from Hawaii ... well all you have to do is ask!

(Note: As long as I don't get a request for 100 lei's =P )

After Hawaii, I'm already excited for the Metro Division Crab Feed. $22 for all you can eat crab, and proceeds going to UNICEF ... win-win situation.

Now is the perfect time to be a member of Circle K International. posted by Chris Plasterer at 9:37 PM 0 Comments

Sunday, January 11, 2009
District Board Candidate Forms

Ready for the next level in Circle K? Have something to offer to our already amazing district? Get on board! posted by Francis Casanova at 6:15 AM 0 Comments