Knights of
2007– 2008
Council Handbook
Forward
Granite Knight
How to Increase Council Business Meeting Attendance
and follow-on Fellowship Time
Does your Council
Have This Problem?
One of the most common concerns I’ve heard from District Deputies and Grand Knights and I have talked with is the lack of attendance at Council Business Meetings. It appears the same core active members are the only ones to attend. Even new members are often seen at a few business meetings, afterwards they just stop coming. As a Past Grand Knight and Former District Deputy, I have also seen this problem up close in my own Council and the council of my District. Some councils are lucky to attract no more than 5% of the members on their Council Roster. And some councils have great difficulty to attract even a simple quota of 8 members. I’m told by some of our current District Deputies that its not unheard of to see councils with only 3 members at their business meetings.
Are
Of course there is! And a number of our current Grand Knights have made great progress in addressing this issue. Some hold Council meals before the business meetings. Some serve chip, cheese & crackers and refreshment after their meeting to increase fellowship among their members. And finally, I heard about some of our Grand Knights that attempt to involve their new members by explaining what’s going on during the meeting to them. In this way, the new members having a better understanding of the parliamentary procedure meetings follow and the specific items in our Order of Business. They are more apt to get involved and want to come to future meetings.
But what if these ideas have not worked for you, what if your attendance is continuing to go down versus up. Well first, don’t give up! You may just have an unknown problem in your council and there are always ways to identify and tackle it. Here’s an idea and some example dialogue that might get you started. This approach requires the assistance of your Officers & Directors. And best of all, as well as helping you to pin point concerns of your council membership, it can also help you identify what you are doing RIGHT in your council. So with that, here goes:
Identifying problems
and concerns of your council
Sometimes leadership is just listening and not talking. If you listen (Really Listen!) to your council members they’ll give you all the details of the problems to be solved, and many times, the solutions, just for the asking.
At your next Officer or Planning meeting, explain to your Officers and Directors that you need their help. Ask them to begin actively listening to the membership. Request them to ask for feedback with questions not statements, then to LISTEN and write down the concerns they hear. Ask them to clarify the concern with MORE questions not excuses or defensive statements. Their goal is to capture concerns not solve them! Ask them to thank the members they speak to, for their input and to remind the members that they would be glad to receive other input in the future from them. This information can now be brought to your next Officer’s Planning meeting for discussion and possible resolution. Make sure you, and the officer who spoke to the member, provide feedback to and solicit help from the member who gave them the initial input.
Sample Dialog might
sound something like this.
Officer: Hi Bob! How are things going within our council? Is there anything we could do better?
Member: Well since you asked, our Grand Knight isn’t
listening to the whole council!
Officer: I’m interested! Tell me more.
Member: The
same members do all the talking at our council meetings and either don’t give
other members a chance to talk or intimidate us not to speak out. I know a couple of members are pretty fed up
with it and may not be coming back to future meetings.
Officer: I appreciate that input Bob. What do you think we could do about it?
Member: Well
if you ask me, the Grand Knight could limit the discussion time each member
gets to provide their input to a motion and then go out of his way to solicit
opinions and points of view from the quiet members of the council.
It’s their council too, you know!
Officer: Bob, I think that’s an excellent idea! I plan to bring it up at the next Officer’s meeting. May I suggest the Grand Knight that he also chat with you to get more details?
Member: Sure! If he’s interested, I’d be glad to give my
opinions and suggestions.
Officer: Great! Thanks again for the input and if you have other things in the future that you think would help our council, please see me. I’m all ears! Also, could you please ask those members to be sure to come to the next business meeting. I think they’ll see a definite improvement! Thanks again!
The problem used here, is just an example, and not what the dialog should have pointed out to you. What was important is the technique the Officer used to keep the Member talking instead of defending the Grand Knight. In this way he was able to get the Member to provide a possible solution to his own problem. When presented at the Officer’s meeting, it will sound constructive versus complaining. The other important thing is to realize how easy it is to lose members. By listening this Officer may be able to retain a couple of members (maybe Bob was one of them) and give the Grand Knight the opportunity to rectify something he may not have even been aware of. Try it! You’ll be surprised with what you may hear!
The
Last Step is to Plan Action
Identifying Council problems is a very important step, but the action or inaction on the part of you and your staff will determine the fate of a dissatisfied or inactive member.
Remember to Act on Input. Don’t let problems fester, especially after being made aware of them.
Always Solicit help from the source of the input. If they are concerned enough to make problems known, they are usually willing to help solve them.
And finally, Communicate to the Council. When you have identified a problem and made plans to solve it, let your council know. Even if you are not at the solution stage yet, fill them in on the fact that you have understood that something needs to be fixed and their council officers are working on a solution.
It is hoped that identifying and addressing council problems will help you retain existing and new members at your Council Business Meetings. Indirectly this may also bring previously active members. I wish you great success with your Council and on behalf of our entire State Council, offer my appreciate for your time, efforts, dedication and love of the “Knights”
God Bless you and your Council Family
Essentials to Council Success
Communication
Communication with the Supreme Council
The Supreme Council has many resources that it can offer a local council. These resources can take the form of information or inspiration. Once Supreme gets the necessary information about the Officers and Directors for a council the information from Supreme will begin to flow. Supreme has developed forms to minimize the efforts councils need to extent in getting the necessary information to the Supreme council. Additionally these have been computerized and are accessible on the Web at www.kofc.org . The following tables summarizes these forms and list each forms associated due date.
Due Date Report
Title Form
Number
**July 1st Report of Council Officers (#185)**
**August 1st Service Program Personnel Report (#365)**
(Org Meeting)
**August 15th Semiannual Council Audit Report (#1295)**
**January 31st Annual Survey of Fraternal Activity (#1728)**
(Mid-Year Mtg)
** February 15th Semiannual Council Audit Report (#1295)**
June 30th Columbian Award Application (#SP-7)
(Convention)
June 30th Knights of
When Started Report of Round Table Coordinator (#2629)
Immediately Membership Document (#100)
15th of each “Family of the Month” selection (on-line)
Month
** Submitting these forms are
required for Supreme award considerations and in the North Carolina Council
Recognition Program.
Communication with the State Council
The State Council of North Carolina provides information about the events and occurrences within the state by way of a monthly newsletter called the “Tarheel Knight”. This publication provides insights from the State Officers and Staff in addition to alerting councils to upcoming program events as well as acknowledging the achievements of individual councils.
The Tarheel Knight has a limited hardcopy distribution but is available electronically on the state’s website. The address for the site is www.kofcnc.org. In addition to housing the state newsletter, the NC State Website is home to various state forms, a calendar of state wide events and a listing and links to all the councils throughout the state.
As in your council the most valued form of communication is one on one. The following listing of all the State Officers and Staff provides you with immediate effective communication opportunities in what ever your area of interest:
State Deputy John Gouldie kofcgouldie@earthlink.net 919-870-1808
State Chaplain Padre Leon padreleon@ec.rr.com
State Secretary Dave Jones icilamp@bellsouth.net 704-535-6599
State Treasurer Greg Kent pgkent@mindspring.com 704-597-8185
State Advocate Jack Murray kofcjjm@yahoo.com 336-261-5362
State Warden Mike Durbin jdurbin@ec.rr.com 252-223-9992
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General Program |
Jack Murray |
Membership |
Pat Wojciechowski, FDD |
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Director |
Director |
ski@ec.rr.com |
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336-261-5362 |
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252-725-0091 |
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Vocations |
Padre
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Church |
Dave
McGuire, FDD |
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Chairman |
padreleon@ec.rr.com |
Director |
dnmcguire@inteliport.com |
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252-338-9619 |
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Council |
Wayne
Kleven, FDD |
Community |
Fred
Meyers, FDD |
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Director |
waynekleven@earthlink.net |
Director |
fwmbam@hotmail.com |
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252-478-0440 |
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704-876-0928 |
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Family |
Colin Jorsch Jr., FDD |
LAMB |
Angelo
Gibilaro |
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Director |
cojorsch@aol.com |
Director |
AngelO@ec.rr.com |
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910-322-1711 |
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910-201-1048 |
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Youth |
Jim
Kiger |
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Director |
papajimk@alltel.net |
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704-340-0281 |
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Protocol |
Terry
Miner, FDD |
Pro-Life |
John
Wigger |
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Officer |
Chairman |
cjwigger@bellsouth.net |
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919-848-9777 |
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704-752-3645 |
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Retention |
Paul
Pozzi, FDD |
RSVP |
Marc
Turkaly |
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Chairman |
pmpkofc@bellsouth.net |
Chairman |
mturkaly@aol.com |
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910-681-1231 |
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336-768-1160 |
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Athletic Events |
Tim
Whelan |
Special Olympics |
Fred
Meyers, FDD |
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Chairman |
twhelan@us.ibm.com |
Chairman |
fwmbam@hotmail.com |
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919-878-9162 |
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704-876-0928 |
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Ceremonials |
Joseph
Brunner, FDD |
Tar Heel Knight |
Greg
Ciesielski, FDD |
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Chairman |
Jbrunner21@aol.com |
Editor |
lilski@ec.rr.com |
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910-281-3957 |
Historian |
252-444-1859 |
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Reports & Forms |
Jack Murray |
Awards |
Jack Murray |
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Chairman |
Chairman |
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336-261-5362 |
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336-261-5362 |
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Chorale |
Joe
Dick, PSD, FDM |
Site Selection Chairman |
Anthony
(Tony) Petite, PSD |
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jhdick@juno.com |
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tonypsd@Northstate.net |
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336-584-7667 |
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336-841-1089 |
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Columbian Squires |
Joseph
Zegan |
Photographer |
Lew
McLoud |
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Chairman |
Joez2@atmc.net |
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