Date: October 1, 2009 Greetings to North Carolina District Exchange Club Presidents! We have just completed our Fall Educational Conference in Raleigh. We had a great turnout and you know what? I can still feel the ENERGY!!! I can still feel the POWER….POWER OF EXCHANGE working throughout North Carolina. Our day started at 10:00 a.m with several mini-sessions on topics that I hope was beneficial to the members attending. We also held our 3rd officer training session for those interested. A luncheon was held where we received a Foundation report from Dan Wakeley, our Foundation Chairman. Margaret Zealy, Director of the Durham Center (Prevention of Child Abuse) also spoke to us about their center’s programs to the community. She told us a real-life story about a mother whose life has been turned around. Not only has it changed for the Mom but also for the two children involved. These two children had watched their dad beat their Mom day after day. Finally the Mom found the strength to walk away and made contact with the Durham Center. At that time, the four-year-old son would not show any affection or allow anyone to show affection to him. He never smiled and was such a sad child. This was a result of the trauma he had faced daily by watching the beatings. After several weeks of counseling thru the parent-aide program, the mom was able to learn how to interact with her son. Now today, he’s much more affectionate and smiles all the time. They have started a new life now…abuse-free… thanks to that Durham Center. You know, that’s what it’s all about!! That’s why we’re involved in Exchange…our main goal…to prevent child abuse!!! Did you know that we have 9 child-abuse prevention centers across North Carolina? Please help support your local center and our NC Exchange Club Foundation for Prevention of Child Abuse. This foundation helps to support these 9 centers with emergency funds if needed. Our club donations help to keep this Foundation alive and well. Elizabeth Grantham, our Region 10 Vice President (National rep) provided us with information about the National Foundation and what they provide back to us. Did you know that the funds for the National Youth of the Year and National Ace Award winners’ scholarships come from the National Foundation? Also your club can get brochures about Shaken Baby Syndrome, and materials related to child abuse prevention from the National Foundation. They need our club support too. From the newsletters I’ve received so far, I can see that your clubs have gotten off to a great start this year. I can tell that they are using the POWER OF EXCHANGE in each and every community project. The articles and pictures in our NC District Magazine displayed that effort. I do hope that your club secretary is taking the time to fill out the activities reports on the National web site. These activites are logged by National and will help your club be recognized by the National Service Award. Last July, I watched as 19 of our 28 North Carolina clubs were listed on the big screen at National Convention as being National Service Award winners! Was your club one of those 19? If not, I bet you had already done all the work but had not submitted your reports. To help with this, I’m going to attach several documents that we discussed at our fall educational conference. This should explain how easy it is to submit your activities to National so you’ll get credit for the National Service Award. Please take time to read this. Get the recognition for your club that it deserves!!! Don’t forget, we now have a national song for EXCHANGE “You can make a CHANGE FOR EXCHANGE”. I’ve included the lyrics for that too. You can order copies of the CD thru National at www.nationalexchangeclub.org. Proceeds go to the National Foundation for Prevention of Child Abuse. Go ahead and mark your calendars. We’ll be having our Winter Educational Conference in Atlantic Beach (Sheraton) on January 29th-30th. More details to follow when the District Magazine comes out in December. Deadline for news to the magazine is December 1st. You can send you pictures/news to laurielund@PLCCPA.COM If you received our District magazine by email, you noticed that it was a color version. Due to the cost, we can not print our magazine in color but the email copy with the color photos was fantastic!! As a result, we are starting a campaign to get every club to update their email addresses for all of their members. This will help us improve communications from the District to the club officers as well as to members. In a separate mailing, we will be sending out a current club roster toyou. Please take time to pass the enclosed list around at your next club meeting. Ask your members to update any information that they find listed as incorrect. Please take time to call those members that are not present to verify their info especially their email addresses. Then please return this list back to me so that we can update our records. We will also send the corrections to National too for you. Now we’ve already hit the ground running! You’ve already set your goals for the year and have started your journey. Baby Thunder, our traveling gavel, has started his journey too. He’s at the Swift Creek Exchange Club right now and will be attending their events until another NC club visits their club meeting/event to pick him up. They will be sending us some pictures as he attends their events and I’ll post them to our North Carolina District Exchange Club FACEBOOK PAGE. Now if you would like to have Baby Thunder visit your club, then have someone visit the Swift Creek Exchange Club meeting or one of their events. Make sure you let their club President Angie Stafford know that you’re coming so that she will make sure that Baby Thunder, the traveling gavel, is present at their event/meeting. What fun to see how many places he travels during the year. I’ll keep you posted on Facebook in his own BABY THUNDER photo album. Yep we have a page now in Facebook. Instructions are also included on how to locate our District FACEBOOK page if you have a FACEBOOK account. We already have photo albums out there for several NC clubs. Send me your pics and I’ll start a photo album for you too. Check it out!!! Feel the POWER…THE POWER OF EXCHANGE and INSPIRE your club members to give back to their community. Look at your community needs….how can you and your club help to make a difference? Use that POWER of EXCHANGE!!! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!! Don’t forget, Homecoming for Exchange and invite your past members to rejoin you. Be ready to give back to your communities….ready to inspire your friends and family to join Exchange…ready to make a difference in someone’s life! Power….POWER OF EXCHANGE…BE INSPIRED! Plan a monthly event to help support our programs and involve your members and communities. Please add my email address luv2cruiz@aol.com to your newletter lists. Also send me a calendar of your club events. I would love to attend an event/meeting for each of the 28 clubs during 2009-2010 and this calendar would help me in planning my schedule. Remember….WITH POWER….POWER OF EXCHANGE….BE INSPIRED! Sue Liles North Carolina District President
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NORTH CAROLINA DISTRICT EXCHANGE CLUB 