Hello New Jersey District officers! I hope everyone is doing well. As the title of this article suggests, our highly anticipated fall 2013 semester is almost upon us (and Game of Thrones season 3 is inching ever so closer). As club officers, Fall semester will serve as the most crucial moment of your terms. It will be up to each and every club officer to make sure new members are recruited into their respective clubs, dues are paid for each of those new members, and the club itself is run as efficiently as possible.

Sounds intimidating right? Not to worry! The following “Back to School” issue of the Governor’s Gambit is designed to help each of you best pre-pare yourselves for these upcoming months of hecticness. Please be sure to read through each article thoroughly, and to email me back at shivamk.cki@gmail.com if you have any questions, comments or concerns. It is my personal goal to make sure everyone succeeds this semester, so don’t be afraid to reach out!

That said, I hope you all enjoy the newsletter!

Similar to our District’s annual convention (DCON), Circle K International held their very own giant ceremony, International Convention (ICON), just this past June. This year’s ICON took place in Vancouver, BC. Members had the chance to experience a variety of Circle K treats- including fun and informative workshops, spirited sessions, a dazzling awards ceremony, and much more. Members who also choose to register for this year’s Circle K Large Scale Service Project (a three day event held prior to the con-vention) had the opportunity to give back to the local community of Vancouver itself- building a playground for an elementary school! All in all, my journey to this year’s 2013 International Convention was undoubtedly one of the greatest highlights of my Circle K career. I certainly hope more people join us next year in Nashville, Tennessee!

Directly following our Circle K International Convention, the New Jersey District held it’s very own big event- the Kiwanis Family Picnic! Serving as our first debut event of the 2013 service year, the picnic comprised of members from the NJ Districts of Kiwanis, Key Club, and of course Circle K International. Joining together for a fun-filled day of service and fellowship, our attendees took part in a variety of games and projects throughout the beachfront venue. In addition to our usual crowd of lovely K-Family members, our district was also graced with the presence of multiple NY Cir-cle K’rs, the District Governor of Pennsylvania Circle K, and the International Trustee of Subregion C Jonathan Pevarnik! Totaling over 100 registrants, the event was nothing short of a success. I would like to thank everyone for coming out to this event, and look forward to seeing everyone again in the near future ones!

On July 27th, our District Service Committee (lead by chair-woman Nadiya Chuch-vara) held a District-Wide service project at the Christ Church Food Pantry of New Brunswick, NJ. With the help of members from the clubs of Monmouth, Drew, Rut-gers, and Stockton, we managed to help both cleanup and repaint the interior of the building. After a long eight-hour day of service, our volunteers received a gleeful thank you from the food pantry owners, who had not seen a refurbishment on their building since the Circle K District Large Scale Service Project of early 2012. The New Jersey District would like to thank all of our dedicated members for helping out with this event, and would love to see you again at our Service Committee’s future assign-ments!

CKI members are service machines! Every day, the volunteer work that we immerse ourselves in makes the world just a bit better, one good deed at a time. We want to recognize our mem-bers and clubs for all of the service they do-whether on the state or the international level. The best way for the NJ District Board to know what you are up to is by reporting your service hours!

The person you should be reporting your service hours to is your club secretary, either at a specific time every month, or as you complete them. The method of collection depends on your club, so if you are not sure how to relay your hours to your secretary, just ask them! In order to make your life easier, it is a good idea to either make a note on your phone or a document on your computer where you list your service hours so you do not for-get anything. Each month, your club secretary is responsible for sending in a Club Monthly Report Form (MRF for short). It is at this time that your hours are then forwarded to the district.

So now, you may be wondering, “What hours should I be actually be reporting?” Below you will find some key points about ser-vice hours and other hours:

The following DO count as service hours

• Anyadministrativehoursorpreparationtimeforaneventthatispurelyserviceinnature• TraveltimeTOaserviceproject(30minutesorlongerawayfromyou)• OutsideserviceprojectsnotdirectlyassociatedwithCKI,butareofferedtomembers• AttendanceatafundraisingeventwheretheproceedsareALLgoingtoacharity

The following should still be reported, but are not seen as service hours:

• TimespentataCKISocialEvent• Officehour/timespentpreparingformeetings• Moneyfundraisedforyourclub’sownbenefit

If you have any questions about reporting a certain event or project, ask your club secretary, or myself at njckisec@gmail.com. Happy reporting!

-District SecretaryDawn Kreder

Aloha New Jersey Circle K,

I hope that you all are having amazing summer experiences! As the weather gets cooler and our summer break winds down, we refocus on important events such as the beginning of a new school year, and of course Circle K. This year we have a plethora of events lined up for all of you, and it is vastly important to get your dues in on time. Dues are a key necessity, and allow you to attend both District and International events, as well as receiving recognition awards & scholarships from Kiwanis. They also make your service hours officially count towards your club and the district as a whole.

Remember these important dates:

- October 1st is when you can start collecting dues.- November 1st is Early Bird Postmarked- November 30th is the DEADLINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Make sure that you have your club dues in by then or there will be trouble! Shivam and I will come get you if all isn’t paid by then! PLEASE REMEMBER THOSE DATES! :) It is also important to note that dues have gone up from $8 to $10. Please remember that factoid when collecting dues. Feel free to contact me at cgood7077@gmail.com for more information!

I’m looking forward to working with all of you this year. -District TreasurerCraig Goodwin

Recently, I’ve been hearing a lot about this thing called the Tomorrow Fund. Could you please explain what that is?

Taken from the circlek.org International website: “The Tomorrow Fund is an endowed fund for Circle K Interna-tional held within the Kiwanis International Foundation. This fund, utilizing the interest earned, helps CKI clubs and districts serve the world through grants for service opportunities. The fund is established through a portion of CKI member dues, direct donations, the donation of Carthage-Pullman Society memberships and the dona-tion of Sapphire Circle honoraries.” Please see the full description on http://www.circlek.org/Service/Tomor-rowFund.aspx. I encourage every club to apply! We’ll discuss this more at Club Officer Training.

A message to all Club Officers,

With the school year now upon us, it is important that all of you are prepared for the storm that is about to come. By next week, all club editors will be expected to publish newsletters. All club treasurers will be expected to collect dues. All club secretaries will be expected fill out their Monthly Report Forms. All club vice presidents will be expected to manage their club committees. And of course, all club presidents will be expected to lead their respective clubs. Are you prepared?

If not, don’t worry! On September 15th, the New Jersey District Board will be holding our annual Club Of-ficer Training Conference to help everyone better prepare for their arduous semesters ahead! This year’s COTC will take place at Brookdale Community College, in MAN 103, from 8:45am-1:30pm.

The following event is mandatory for all club officers to attend. If you happen to be a club officer who does not project their attendance, please try your best to find a substitute from your respective school that would be willing to take notes for you. Furthermore, the event is open to all club chairs, as well as general members who desire to one day become club or district officers. The event is free of charge, so please come out join us! With that said, I hope to see everyone there!

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/589205704465747/ -District GovernorShivam Patel

To access the application, please check out: http://www.circlek.org/Resources/Service/TomorrowFundResources.aspx

It’s Bylaw Time....

Hi there club officers! As most of you hopefully remember, this past District Convention, our district’s House of Dele-gates voted to officially in-crease our District Dues price from $8 to $10. This decision was made to help better as-sist the New Jersey District as a whole in becoming more fi-nancially stable, and helping us improve in year’s to come.

With that said, it is important that every club take a close look at their very own club

written bylaws (yes, everyone should have those) and re-flect the change in this dues increase. That means the sec-tion that states your District Dues price should change from $8 to $10. Furthermore, the section that reflects your total dues price should also change unless you do not highlight the unanimous cost in your bylaws, or your club has chosen to make cuts in their own club dues fee to help balance out the original dues price.

As District Governor, I would like to apologize to any clubs this change may inconve-nience, and hope everyone understands this price bump is earnestly needed to help set out organization back into financial stability. With that said, I would like all club president’s to send me their revised club bylaws (to shi-vamk.cki@gmail.com) by September 29th! I plan onsigning them all at once, so please be sure to get them in on time.

A special thanks to Stockton and Rutgers for submitting them very early!