Why your Club should sponsor a Z-Club

District 4 Spring Workshops

Lori Robinson ICC Z Club & Golden Z Club

Our Objectives Today

• What does a Z-Club do?• Why should your Zonta club sponsor a Z-Club? • How to get started with a Z-Club?• Ideas and Resources for a Z-Club• How does belonging to a Z-Club effect the students?• How to connect with school staff and teachers?• Your Questions?

Branching Out: Z-Clubs and Golden Z-Clubs--1948 to 2014

• Bring the Mission of Zonta to young women in high school and colleges/universities Z Club International

• Create vital pathways into Zonta club membership• Stimulate new and meaningful Service & Advocacy

projects • Promote Zonta's international outlook• In January 2014 194 Z Clubs and 64 Golden Z clubs in

19 countries (May 2012 173 and 31)

Focus Today: Z-Clubs for High-School Young Women

• Community public and private high schools--ready place to start in any town or city

• Reasonable physical proximity to the Zonta club membership helpful

• Formal sponsorship by the Zonta club but need "championship" leaders within the Zonta club to work directly with the Z-Club members and school advisor(s)

• Possibility for an online Z-Club in the future?

What Does a Z-Club Do?

• Develop leadership skills in high school women--learn tasks and roles to lead a viable service club

• Engage the Z-Club members to adapt Zonta club functions:• Membership recruitment• Fellowship and socializing• Programs• Service & Advocacy projects• Fundraising• Public relations and communications.

What Does a Z-Club Do? (cont'd)

• Meet as a recognized extracurricular club in school facilities • Hold scheduled club meetings, 1 - 2 meetings/month to conduct

business, hear speakers, work on service projects, hold fundraisers, have fun

• Stretch the experience, activities, and knowledge of Z-Club members--open horizons for them about their community, Zonta International, career choices, women's issues, healthy behaviors, and beyond

• Potential for activities away from school during evenings, weekends, school holidays, and summer vacations, depending on school policies and Zontian availability

What Does a Z-Club Do? (cont'd)

• Strive to qualify for the annual ZI Emma L. Conlon Service Awards, established in 1961 for Z-Clubs and Golden-Z-Clubs from around the world

• Engage club members to create three types of service activities • Type #1: School service--benefitting the sponsoring school• Type #2: Community service--benefitting the local community• Type #3: International service--projects or fundraising to draw

attention to international work, especially ZI's United Nations- sponsored biennial projects

• Conlon Awards recognize the impact of projects, persistence, and percentage of Z-Club members involved

What does belonging to a Z-Club mean to the youth?

• Friendship• Giving back to the community• Time for me and my friends• Learning on how to put on an event• Finding out about the poverty and depressions in the

world- how I can help• Working for a cause together• Volunteer hours

Why Should Your Zonta Club Sponsor a Z-Club?

• ZI and District 4 want to see expansion!• Stimulate your club with a fresh opportunity for a new Service &

Advocacy project to engage your members, a calendar they can plan around

• Bring out the "inner teacher" and "inner mother" instincts of your Zontians in mentoring high school students through the Z-Club

• Utilize your members' business experience and professional ties to give Z-Club programs, conduct field trips, explore internships, and boost young women's readiness for higher education and work

Why Should Your Zonta Club Sponsor a Z-Club? (cont'd)

• Open pathways to future Zonta Club membership• Enhance students' candidacy for Zonta scholarships• Build up a clear, long-term partnership between your

Zonta club and the community high school--PR benefit and increased good will

• New basis to connect your club to ZI Area, District, and International clubs to show what you're doing, learn what others are doing, and raise your club's profile

• What do you think?

How to Get Started with a Z-Club?

• ZI Website: “Z Club International " New Manual (June 2014)• History and service projects• Organizing a new Z-Club• Procedures and packet information• Z-Club charter presentation• Meeting guidelines• Report forms• Emma Conlon Award• Model Z-Club By-laws

How to Get Started with a Z-Club? (cont'd)

• Identify potential "champions" for a Z-Club from within your club's members--need at least 2 to co-chair effort

• Need Zonta "champions" who can bring leadership, coordination, and continuity for 2-3 year period--within your club, to the high school, with the students

• Identify potential high school(s) to partner with--consider school location, administration, range of current student clubs, student diversity

• Interview with school leadership to determine a good fit

How to Get Started with a Z-Club? (cont'd)

• Contact District 4 leadership for guidance as needed• Complete the 2-page ZI "New Z-Club Authorization"

form, send with $25 for charter registration to Zonta International

• Arrange for ceremonial new Z-club charter activities with the school and your own Zonta club

• Start now! Get organized over the summer, be ready to go when school opens for the fall

Ideas and Resources for a Z-Club

• Zonta International website--Z-Club documents in various places

• Get to know and monitor Zonta International's United Nations projects--and be able to present details about them to the Z-Club members

• Challenge the Z-Club students to investigate more about the ZI international projects to expand their knowledge about the countries in which the projects take place, including their location on maps, educational systems, health care services, status of women--and understand why the ZI/UN projects can make a difference

Ideas and Resources for a Z-Club (cont'd)

• Develop quizzes for Z-Club students to stimulate learning more about the history and location of Zonta clubs around the world

• Monitor your community newspapers--what's new and influential that would attract high school women to participate with your Zonta club to accomplish something unique or important or especially fun?

• For District 4--contact Shirley Ellison and upcoming District 4 Z-Club and Golden-Z-Club Committee (scellison@rogers.com)

• Reach out to other Zonta clubs sponsoring Z-Clubs and Golden-Z-Clubs

• Contribute your beginnings, your successes to District 4 website

Ideas for connecting with staff and teachers

• Attend school functions• Present awards in person on Award Nights• Enlist a teacher as a new Zontian• Ask the students “who is your favorite teacher?”• What the students grow and take leadership roles

Questions?

• What to say to get teachers involved? • How share the resources (video) • Do any of your clubs sponsor a Z-Club or

Golden Z-Club?• Have you in the past?• Share your experience.

Thank you for

attending

Thank you for participating in Z Club International 101

If you have any ideas or need help in starting a Z Club

e mail me at

robinson.lori2010@gmail.com