T-O Today - Volume 28, Issue 4

CIRCLE K INTERNATIONAL

VOLUME 28, ISSUE 4, FEBRUARY 2006

A NEWSLETTER FOR THE TEXAS-OKLAHOMA DISTRICT CHAPTERS

GOVERNOR’S CORNER

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: OKLAHOMA SPRING RALLY

2

SOUTH TEXAS KIWANIS

2

SOUTH TEXAS SPRING RALLY

3

RED RIVER SPRING RALLY

4

CROSSWORD PUZZLES!

5

WEEKEND OF A LIFETIME

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Howdy T-O! As the officer terms come to an end, a new team of officers, will take leadership. It is very important that you share knowledge from one board to the next. This will help the new officers begin the new year on a positive note.

A new board of officers always brings a new motivation as well as new ideas. As district convention is just around the corner, please keep in mind the wellbeing of the members when

electing new officers.

Speaking of district convention, many of you should be excited because we will be having a visit from Brian Egger, International President. He comes from the Pacific-Norwest District.

Please approach him during the weekend and give him a Texas big welcome.

I am positive that he will take back many great memories from a great district. I hope to see many of you in Galveston!

CONTACT YOUR 8 DISTRICT BOARD

UPCOMING EVENTS

SOUTHEAST TEXAS/ GULF C O A S T S P R I N G R A L LY

Circle K members from Sam Houston State University, Texas A&M • DCON: March 3, 4, & Galveston, Montgom5 @ Galveston ery College, Stephen F Austin, gathered • Weekend Officer Workshop: April 29th with Texas A&M in & 30th Aggieland. Before the meeting everyone • ICON: August 11thhad lunch at On the Border where they 16th @ Boston serve the best tortillas North of the Rio Grande. Afterwards members met at Rudder Tower where the meeting be-

gan. Members decided to elect Zachary Johnson as the new Lieutenant Governor. Jonathon Shaw, also from Texas A&M, was endorsed for District Governor. Other business was discussed like the drop down situation and upcoming workshops for DCON. In all we had a successful rally and got the chance to see each other one last time before Galveston.

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O K L A H O M A D I V I S I O N A L S P R I N G R A L LY Watch out for Wet Paint! And watch out for CKI’ers with wet paint! At the Oklahoma Divisional Spring Rally CKI’ers from around the division came to Stillwater, OK, for a painting party, where they helped paint a local school. Members from Frank Phillips College, Oklahoma Christian University, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Central Oklahoma joined together to paint the weight room and the basement at Lincoln Alternative School, with some of the paint actually making it onto the walls. This service project followed the traditional divi-

By: Rowynn Ricks sional meeting and a luncheon at Joseppi’s Italian Kitchen. During the divisional meeting, delegates reelected Rowynn Ricks to serve another term as Lieutenant Governor. The meeting’s main focus aside from the election was of course, District Convention. During the DCON discussion, we ranged in topics from dropping down to spinach smoothies.

From preparing for another year in CKI to painting a school, the Oklahoma Division had a great time rallying in leadership, fellowship and service.

A WARM SOUTH TEXAS KIWANIAN THANKS! On Saturday, February 11, 2006 in PA CKI club. After the meeting the CKI memPharr, Texas the South Texas Division CKI bers did a community service project, Linus held their Spring Rally. The Blankets for the local children hosting club was UTPA. In hospitals and those in attendance was members need. The McAllen Kiwanis from the A&M Corpus Club and the Pharr Noon Club Christi club and the Victohelped the CKI host this ria Club. Richard Willis event. We thoroughly enjoyed the Lt. Governor was there the entire day. Thanks for the to preside over the meetwonderful time we spend with ing. The election for Lt. our sponsored youth!

Governor Elect was held Love, Ina and the winner was JessiWilson ca Gonzalez, the current President of the UTMcAllen Kiwanis

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WHAT’S BREWING IN TH E SOUTH S P R I N G R A L LY E D I T I O N By: Richard Willis

INS IDE STO RY

On February 11, 2006 two CKI clubs, one from Victoria College the other from Texas A&M Corpus Christi traveled far far south to Pharr Texas to meet with their sister club, University of Texas Pan American for the first in a long time South Texas Division Spring Rally.

Once there the two visiting clubs were taken in with some of the best southern hospitality around as UTPA, managed to reserve an entire building and decorated it in flourishing spring décor for the event.

After a Kiwanian home cooked made Bar-B-Q lunch the rally festivities began. Much was gone over, from the chapter statuses presented by the highest ranking officer, to a report from the Kiwanis Foundation by our T-O Trustee guest Mr. Terry Wilson, to a District update by yours truly, not a thing was missed. Some of the highlights that came from all this reporting were the announcements of planed perfect attendance of the South Texas Division at DCON, and the announcements that the entire division is in the 100% reporting range.

As time progressed we eventually got to the real reason why we were all their, to elect the next South Texas Lieutenant Governor. The prevailing winner was someone I have been hoping to see take the spot all year, Jessica Gonzales, current President of the UTPA chapter.

She is a very hard working and dedicated CKI’er that I know will represent South Texas well, and I can honestly say South Texas has a lot to look forward to next year.

After the Rally all 26 of us stayed and made lots of Project Linus blankets that UTPA provided all the material for. Overall it was a fun, interactive, and progressive day. Go South Texas!

Look for us at DCON as we cohost with Hill Country the “Hill Country/South Texas Shoot Out” block party on Friday night!

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R E D R I V E R D I V I S I O N S P R I N G R A L LY

By Julie Bily

I N SI DE STORY H EA D LI NE

The Red River/Metro Division Spring Rally on February 11, 2006 started out a little rocky. It took over an hour for us to be seated for our Divisional Lunch! Once seated, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at Cheddar’s with lots of conversation amongst everyone.

After lunch we headed back to the Austin College campus for the divisional meeting. Kaycie from UNT led everyone in a memory-testing icebreaker. To begin, everyone had nametags. You would introduce yourself to another person and then switch nametags.

Then you would go to another person and introduce yourself as the person you just met, formerly yourself. For example, I introduced myself to Bob as Julie. Then I went and introduced myself to Rachel as Bob, formerly Julie. It was a challenging icebreaker that forced everyone to learn each others’ names.

For a service project, Austin College provided supplies to make Valentine’s cards. These cards were later distributed to children at the local community center. We even got to include candy!

Important information about District Convention, Weekend Officer Workshop and other District events was covered in the divisional meeting.

Then came the event everyone was waiting for: the Lt. Governor election.

We had three outstanding candidates run for the position. It was a difficult decision for the division; there was a second round of ballots because no one candidate received a majority of the votes. The Red River/Metro Division is happy to announce that Jeremy Flowers from Southwest Christian College as the 2006-2007 Lt. Governor.

We also had some members that were interested in running for District Office. Two candidates ran to be endorsed for District Office by the Red River/Metro Division. We are happy to announce that the Red River/ Metro Division endorses Adriana Casas from UNT for District Office.

Everything considered, the 2006 Spring Rally was very productive for the Red River/Metro Division, despite running late because of lunch. Again, congratulations to Jeremy and Adriana!

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Texas– Oklahoma Circle K International District Convention at the

In Galveston, Texas on the 3, 4 & 5 of March, 2006

GET YOUR CKI WINDOW STICKERS! Promote our great organization with a 3 x 6 window decal.

It’s simple white letters that read CKI. For more information, or to order for you or your club, contact: Mallory Smith, TAMU CKI at mallie_moo@yahoo.com

NEW ADMINISTRATORS Sc ott Kimball is a graduate from the University of North Texas. He was the 19961997 District Governor for the Circle K TexasOklahoma District. He also served as Lieutenant Governor and Convention Coordinator on the District Board. He is a Kiwanian of the Greater Lewisville where he served as President in 20042005. He now works GP&E and lives in Lake Dallas, Texas. He looks forward in working with Circle K members in the Texas Oklahoma District.

D av i d Escandell is a graduate Midwestern State University.

In Wichita Falls, Texas. He was Lieutenant Governor for the Red River/ Metro Division in 1993-1994. He is now a Kiwanian at Northeast Tarrant Country. He now works at First American in Dallas, Texas.

He is married to Tani and has a son named Dominic who will be three in May. He is excited to be part of this board that he claims that he cannot sleep at night at the face of working with the upcoming district board.

H I L L C O U N R T Y S P R I N G R A L LY At the Hill Country Spring Rally, a new Lieutenant Governor was elected.

We had a good turnout of members and shared the upcoming events of each of the clubs. At DCON current Texas University Circle K Greg Brown will take over as

By: Allison Million the new Hill Country Lieutenant Governor. Afterwards we went to the Texas Stop Sign (Dairy Queen) and had ourselves a meal. Even if you were not able to attend the Spring Rally, we hope to see you at DCON.

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WEEKEND OF A LIFETIME By: Rachel Tidwell, Texas A&M Texas A&M Circle K International at- another was through the use of person tended Weekend of a Lifetime on January notes called life lines. I loved watching the 27th through the 29th. This was the first kids excitedly read their life lines as well as time that our chapter has volunteered at writing them. The life lines I received were the event, and we all absolutely loved it. truly uplifting and I will probably keep them When we first arrived, we were gladly greet- forever. ed by many WOAL staff. At our introductory One of the great benefits from WOAL session with the volunteers, we were each besides getting to know some wonderful assigned a group of high school students kids was the food. The camp had a buffet from Key Clubs in our disstyle setting and areas for CKI Goals trict. These groups were salad, desert, cereal, soup, called families and they of1. 16,000 Membership potatoes, etc. The boys usuten referred to us as momally got mounds of food and 2. 575,000 Service Hours mies and daddies. Our reate until they were stuffed. sponsibility was mainly to 3. 4,200 Interclubs They even had slurpies, yes lead our families to get to 4. 800 International/District slurpies. We were never hunknow each of their family gry that was for sure.

Event Attendance members as well as showThroughout the weeking them how to be a good end we also had reunions leader. After we finished our introductory session, we joined all the students for the where we learned crazy dances, watched first “reunion” and then met our families at veggie tales, presented commercials and the first “Family Outing”. Then the fun be- flags, made rainstorms and listened to speakers. There were also workshops we gan. attended with our families that included The weekend was packed with fun ac- confronting conflicts, expressing yourself, tivities that built our relationships as well accepting others and team work. The as our leadership skills. We had various structure of the camp enabled campers Family Outings where we got to lead them and counselors to grasp the concept of in silly questions about themselves, mak- leading, living, loving, and laughing out ing family names and flags (my family was loud.

Dashing Kinfolk), creating a skit to adverWeekend of a Lifetime was an awetise positive themes, playing team building games, and sharing our ideas about how to some opportunity to mentor high school lead as well as giving encouragement to students in Key Club. We all developed one another. An interesting way campers lasting relationships and memories with and volunteers were able to encourage one our families. It was definitely a weekend of

HOW TO CONTACT THE DISTRICT BOARD Governor—Jose Arteaga, 972 Michael, Pasadena, TX 77506; C: 713-906-5865; governor@txokcki.org Secretary—Kim Hardy, 4719 Catalina Dr., Wichita Falls, TX 76310; C: 940-224-7443; secretary@txokcki.org Treasurer—Angela Ragan, 1023 Fannin, Denton, TX 76201; C: 214-663-7170; treasurer@txokcki.org Hill Country LTG– Allison Million, 12412 Edward Hollow Run, Austin, TX 78739; C: 512-694-1676; Allison_Million@baylor.edu Oklahoma LTG—Rowynn Ricks, 100 N. University Box 387, Edmond, OK 73034; C: 405-623-2379; oklahomaltg@txokcki.org Red River/Metro LTG—Julie Bily, 1023 Fannin, Denton, TX 76201; C: 940-390-2023; redriverltg@txokcki.org Southeast Texas/Gulf Coast LTG—Denise Braun, 555 Bowers Blvd. #1817, Huntsville, TX 77340; C: 713-907-2958; southeasttexasltg@txokcki.org South Texas LTG—Richard Willis, 108 Greenway, Victoria, TX 77904; H: 361-649-9568; southtexasltg@txokcki.org Editor– Zachary Johnson, PMB C417 Commons Lobby, College Station, TX 77840; C: 956-648-4853; editor@txokcki.org District Events Chair—Carl Thomas, 4719 Catalina Dr., Wichita Falls, TX 76310; C: 940-642-8925; districtevents@txokcki.org Membership/Kiwanis Family Chair—Adriana Casas, 1023 Fannin, Denton, TX 76201; C: 214-537-3655; ady927@gmail.com District Administrator—Sean Raich, 5109 Karen Dr., North Richland Hills, TX 76180; H: 817-577-4619; administrator@txokcki.org Asst. Admin.—Anna Ethridge, 2140 Shady Grove Dr., Bedford, TX 75021; H: 817-6858039; ethridga@michaels.com