Our community survey ACE tool helps your club learn more about kids’ needs.
By Tony Knoderer
Your club’s passion for service is crucial to the impact you make in your community. But a desire to help is one thing; knowing who and how to help is another. How much do you and your fellow members know about the kids and the community you hope to benefit?
If you need to start that conversation in your club, here’s a suggestion: Conduct a community survey!
One of our Achieving Clube Excellence (ACE) tools is a handy guide through the survey process. Here’s a quick overview of the six steps we recommend for making it work:
- Create contact lists. Brainstorm with your club to identify community members who could provide the most useful information.
- Identify team members. After you’ve identified community members to approach, discuss which Kiwanian has the contacts to make those conversations productive.
- Schedule and conduct interviews. Determine the time frame in which interviews should be completed.
- Debrief and reflect. During a club meeting (or a membership committee meeting), talk about potential projects, partnerships, sponsorships and fundraisers.
- Move forward. Use the needs you’ve identified and the ideas you’ve created to increase your club’s impact!
There’s a lot more detail in the community survey tool to guide your club. For example, you’ll find tips and ideas for creating the contact list, conducting conversations and more. There’s even a script you can use for interviews!
When should you do a community survey?
Some clubs do it every year! We strongly recommend it any time your club has seen significant changes in membership, service interests or community needs.
You can always find the link to our community survey — and other ACE tools, tips and more — at kiwanis.org/acetools. Bookmark it now!