Over the past weekend, the Lincolnland District board met in conjunction with the Mid-Year Educational Conference in Bloomington.

Although lengthy at 3 hours on a Friday evening, the board meeting was very productive. Each of the clubs in the district were discussed, with strengths and weaknesses and what the District could do to help being the topic. There are several clubs in the district that are reaching a critical level of membership - 12 or fewer members - and all of our clubs are getting older. The four loargest clubs - Naperville, Quincy, Joliet and Gurnee - all appear to be strong, but it was noted that those four clubs have lost a combined total of about 150 members over the past 4-5 years, so even they need some help. (for the record, Quincy has lost a net 30 members in that time frame). The most critical need at this time is the Bloomington club, which has voted to disband. This came as a surprise, as they have 18 members and have been active in their community for a very long time.

The focus of the conference on Saturday was to help clubs. Sessions on recruiting and retention, club building (and rebuilding), board and officer training, PR and marketing and on fundraising were led by four of the District's Volunteer Field Reps (Past National President Lou Molitor, National Treasurer Jim Ruzon, Region 3 Vice President Scot Warren and NEC Foundation President Dennis Koch), along with Division 3 Director Janet Jacobs from Naperville and Division 11 Director Jason Koch from Belleville.

The free education session is held annually in Bloomington with plans to hold it in November in 2016 - mark your calendars now!