Ask the Heartland Center

Question: We've got two moderately active service clubs in our town and I can't seem to find a way for them to work together on anything. I'd like some ideas on how I might maneuver them into a shared project for the betterment of all.

Vicki Luther
Co-Director
Sometimes it's best to start sharing projects that are very simple. Exchanging stories in each newsletter, or mailing out a flyer to your members for the other club's event might be easy ways to start building a history of working together. In fact, if you had a conversation about the past, you might even discover some ways that the two clubs have worked together long ago and make that another reason to go forward with cooperation.

Milan Wall
Co-Director

Maybe the first thing to do is to get some other folks on the same page as you so that you're not the only one with this cooperation in mind. You might try to identify some members of each club that you'd term "champions" of the shared project idea. If you had several members of each club that supported the idea of a shared project, you can make sure that the idea keeps coming up at meetings over time.

Reshell Ray

Program Associate
Finding out some commonality in the missions or purposes of the two service clubs will help you pick the best project to share. You want to identify any cross over in membership or audience, too. These two elements will be the framework for convincing folks to work on a project together.

Kurt Mantonya

Program Associate
Suppose the request for a project came from a credible source and was addressed to both clubs? After all, if the Teen Club or the Senior Center asks for help from both, that might set the stage for a shared project that addresses the need.