Greetings fellow members of The Kiwanis Club of Siesta Key.  Joy has asked me to document my year as Lt Governor for Division 18N. It has been a wonderful year and I would not change a thing.

 

The year has flown by. Governor Gary Frechette chose “THE LOVE BOAT” as his theme and it suited him and all of us very well. He was the captain of the ship and we 27 LTG’s were his willing crew. At the first board meeting at D-Con 2016, there was a fire alarm in the hotel and we all had to evacuate. Gary, as is typical, stated that “we are about to set sail and have already run aground”.

 

First items of business for me were the Installation of Officers for our 3 18N clubs. All went well and it was a good way to get to know the incoming officers and club members of Longboat Key and Sarasota. Best of all was installing our own Siesta club.

 

The AKtion Club luncheon came along early in the year and Gov. Gary attended. He became familiar with members of the 4 clubs in attendance and presented each of the new AKtion club board members with sailor hats of different colors. The happy looks on their faces said it all.

 

Kiwanis One Day was held at The Boys and Girls’ Club campus in Newtown.  Members of our three clubs worked hard clearing the land so that it could be put to better use. Peter Kiziu did an outstanding job of leading the charge and the B&G Club board was thrilled with what we did. We will be back there on Oct. 28th this year with our larger Division 17.

 

The annual Veterans’ day breakfast sponsored by The Kiwanis Club of Sarasota was held Nov. 11th and it was as heart warming as ever. Our 3 clubs each a full table and we were all thrilled to see so many veterans and to watch them as they stood at attention in turn as their service songs were played on the bugle by Danny Bilieu.  This will be a continuing event and the featured speaker this year will be Steve Branham who is the current LBK club President. Steve is a Rear Admiral U.S. Coast Guard Ret’d. We need to have at least another full table for this one.  The Gourmet Lawn Party sponsored by The Kiwanis Club of LBK followed in December and was momentous as usual. Forty restaurants took part and $63,000 was raised for student scholarships. Some of us attended the Scholarship presentation breakfast in August where the $63,000 was awarded to 33 deserving students from Sarasota and Manatee Counties.

 

I coordinated a holiday food drive for the 3 clubs and 500 lbs was collected for The All Faith’s Food Bank in Sarasota County. Our Siesta club keeps it going all year and the other clubs were willing participants during the holidays.

 

Salvation Army Bell Ringing:  Both Siesta Key and LBK took part in this again, each at a neighbourhood Publix. LBK actually had a member on station all day, every day, for the month of December.

 

Over the past several years, our Division 18N had decreased to only 3 clubs. Gov. Gary and our Mary Lynn Desjarlais recommended that we merge with Division 17 to our north and that Division 18S to our south should become Division 18. I was now tasked with making it happen. Florida District Executive Director Melanie Winterheimer sent me the requirements and we were on our way.

1. I prepared a petitioning letter to be sent to Florida District describing why the merger would be a good idea. The letter was accepted.

2. Special DCMs were held for each Division to explain what we were doing so that the two designates present from each club would be prepared to approve the merger. Our Mary Lynn Desjarlais acted as Parliamentarian at both of these meetings and sent reports of each meeting to the FL District.

3. Because both Divisions 17 and 18N had approved the merger, and because the FL District approved of how it was handled, the merger was approved at the District Board meeting on April 8th.

We will now all belong to Division 17 effective Oct. 1, 2017. We look forward to getting to know the Division 17 club members throughout the coming year. 

 

The summer months have been quieter. I visited our 2 sister clubs each month and have introduced our incoming Lt Governor Mike Lubrano to Sarasota & Siesta Key & we will visit LBK in September.

 

Our district convention was held in Naples Aug. 24th to 27th and was a wonderful event. Informative seminars, a Love-Boat cruise, great lunches & dinners with dynamic speakers & good food. Gov. Gary steered his Love Boat back to port and Todd Smith from Orlando will take over October1st. His speech at the Saturday night dinner proved that we will all be in good hands. I would love to see more of our Division members attend this convention.

 

All in all, it was a great and productive year for me. I became much more familiar with our sister clubs in 18N and loved attending their meetings. Each club has a different style & mode of operation. I was welcomed warmly each time I visited. The coming year will be even more productive as we visit the 7 clubs in our new Division 17 and get to know them. I have no doubt that we will broaden our horizons and come back from these meetings with new friends and ideas.

 

I also enjoyed getting to know our Florida CKI and Key Club members. They were prevalent at D-Con and it was wonderful to meet them. Phoebe Sartori is the CKI Governor for Florida this year and is from New College in Sarasota. LBK is her sponsoring club.  Gabe, our Division 18 Lt Governor, attends Englewood High School. He has attended one of our SK meetings already and was everywhere at the convention. It  was wonderful to see.

 

I wish Mike Lubrano lots of luck as he takes over October 1st and will be ready to assist with whatever he might need. Let’s have another great year.

Yours in Service,

 

 

Carolyn Kofler

Kiwanis Club of Siesta Key

Lt. Governor, Division 18N

Florida District of Kiwanis International