Clubs

One of the many ways clubs promote Dartmouth fellowship, networking and their communities is through local service projects. These activities range from contributing books to community libraries (Dartmouth Club of Kentucky; Dartmouth Alumni Association of Long Island) to clearing trails (Dartmouth Club of Dallas; Dartmouth Alumni Association of the Rocky Mountains) to supporting the Boys & Girls Clubs (Dartmouth Club of Hampton Roads; Dartmouth Club of Suburban New Jersey).

Under the leadership of community service officer Matt Kelly '95, the Dartmouth Club of Greater Boston turns out 20 or more people each month to work on projects for Habitat for Humanity, the Boston Food Bank, Lynn Woods Reserva- tion and others. According to Matt, the key to success is "make it easy to get to, at convenient times and minimize the barriers to volunteering." He does all the work to coordinate with the sponsor organizations and alert the people on his e-mail list, which has grown to 150 names. "All they have to do is show up!" says Matt.

Most clubs find it easiest to focus on one project that happens on single day or weekend. It is very difficult to maintain a weekly volunteer program, but the Dartmouth Club of Washington, D"C., has done it with great success. The club started a school tutoring program in about 1990 under the direction of Dennis Goodman '60, a former State Department diplomat. He put tremendous energy into it until he retired to Hanover in 1997. Wayne Bardsley '70 had been involved as a tutor for more than seven years and took over the administration of the program when Dennis relocated. Wayne describes the history and success of the program: "The program was originally called Teams and Tutors and had an urban inner-city high school athletic focus. Notwithstanding school administration and faculty support, the problem in the early years was finding sufficient students to tutor. In 1998 we refocused the program from Dunbar Senior High School to Jefferson Junior High School. The change was dramatic. Student attendance rose substantially and, more importantly, the attitude of the students was far more positive and enthusiastic. Without trying to sound too pessimistic, I think it's too late by high school to do much good. At present time we average about 12 to 18 tutors and 30 to 50 students every Saturday morning from 10 to 11:30. The hard-core tutors (the ones you see most regularly) tend to be older, but young alums just coming to town provide the bulk."

Wayne maintains an e-mail list of approximately 55 interested alumni volunteers and emails them on a weekly basis to remind them of the tutoring or to advise them of holidays, snow days or other non-tutoring days. What an incredible success!

These programs, together with continuing education seminars, admissions interviewing and annual dinners usually are the basic components of successful clubs. At Club Officers Weekend in Hanover on March 1 we were pleased to honor the following clubs: Dartmouth Club of Kentucky (President A. Stewart Lussky '88) as Small Club of the Year; Dartmouth Club of Central Massachusetts (President Jim Donnelly '68) as Medium Club of the Year; Dartmouth Club of Suburban New Jersey (President Tom Swartz '49) as Large Club of the Year; and Dartmouth Club of the Upper Valley (President Dudley Smith '60) as Metro Club of Year. (OK, I'm not sure how the Upper Valley is more "metro" than suburban New Jersey, but I don't make the categories—I just report'em!). Congratulations again to each club.

Please contact me with news of your clubs activities and suggestions for future Club News columns.

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