 Exchange helps members to develop leadership, networking, and organizational skills that contribute to success in business, family and personal endeavors. 
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WelcomePresident’s Welcome Message
You might be thinking, why do I need to belong to a civic group to do good things or to volunteer in my community? Honestly, you don’t. Any more than you need to belong to a particular religion and attend church/synagogue/mosque to be a righteous person. Or to graduate from a top university and have a lot of letters behind your name to be a wise person. But try to imagine your community without any houses of worship, schools, or other places where “groups” of people gather for their individual and collective benefit. The very word community is a “group” thing. It takes a community to make a community. We are interdependent for the basic goods and services needed to survive and enjoy life. In modern society, however, one thing that many people find lacking in their communities is a sense of community. Even before modern computer technology contributed to isolating ourselves from each other, we double paned our windows for energy efficiency and removed the sounds of our neighborhoods. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York – in an old apartment building with thin windows through which we could hear every street noise and conversation; and with no a/c the windows were usually kept open except in the winter; we also could hear every argument of the couple two floors above us through the pipes in our bathroom – that’s where I learned some of my best (or worst) Italian words. And I’m sure they learned some choice Jewish words from our apartment. Today, we relax in our fenced back yards and only see our neighbors from a distance when driving past them in cars which we enter through our garages. Many people do not know their next door neighbors, let alone those who live down or across the street. I grew up where neighbors visited with each other on their stoops (i.e., concrete porches) or while getting in or out of their cars; where we interacted with our neighbors daily on the way to the subway or shopping down the street – sometimes just waving as we walked by and other times stopping for conversation. Where if you had your car hood up in the street to check the oil, ten neighbors would congregate to offer eleven opinions on what was wrong – each willing to get dirty and help fix what they thought to be the problem. Neighbors helping neighbors was instilled in me from early childhood. My mother made it clear that when I saw Mrs. Naylor, an elderly Irish lady several houses away carrying her groceries, I better run to help her with those groceries – despite her two grandsons (Tommy and Roy) bullying me. If only I could have been as clear in convincing my mother that I’d rather take a good whooping than have her run out in the street as my tag team partner every time she heard a commotion. Fighting back helped some with the bullies – but carrying those groceries eventually solved the problem – not because Tommy and Roy appreciated my helping their grandmother. Rather, because one time I noticed that on top of their grandmother’s grocery bag sat a half dozen bagels. And the last thing those two Irish boys wanted was for the entire neighborhood to find out that they ate bagels like the Jewish kid. Call it extortion, but Tommy and Roy never bothered me again ... and we actually became friends. Years after leaving Brooklyn and soon after my father died, I had a Puerto Rican, a Chinese, and an Italian neighbor of my aging mother each track me down in Louisiana to express concern about her living alone. They all were watching out for my mother. Now that’s what I mean by a sense of community. What’s the point of all of this? You came to this website to learn about Exchange – not about my old neighborhood in NYC. Well, Exchange is a community of communities throughout our great country. It is made up of diverse individuals – of different backgrounds, faiths, ethnicities, political and social viewpoints – we don’t always agree with each other on everything, but we share a commitment to improving the lives of all of the citizens in our respective communities – from the youngest to the oldest. We love our country and celebrate our Americanism. And we live by our national motto, Unity for Service. In Exchange, we are family. We help each other out when there is a need; we feel each other’s pain and grief when one of us is hurting; and we celebrate each other’s joys and accomplishments. As a family, we work together to make our neighborhoods better places to live and work. The Texas Louisiana Gulf Coast District is just one of thirty-two Exchange Club districts throughout the United States. We have nearly twenty clubs and over six hundred Exchangites in our District. I could brag about our District being the Number One district in the country … but not gonna do it – wouldn’t be prudent. I could tell you how many National awards were won by individuals and clubs in our District, and by our District itself within just the last year – how we won our National’s coveted Spirit Award and how we lead all districts in membership growth this past year – not gonna do it. How much fun we have in our individual clubs and when we get together as a District – no, not gonna tell you that – you’ll have to find that out for yourself. If you want specifics about all the good things Exchange does to improve our communities, check out this website. Check out the links to the various Exchange Clubs in our District, or in whatever part of the country you live. Contact the nearest Exchange Club and become part of our family. If there is currently no Exchange Club in your neighborhood or near where you work, we’ll help you get one started. We want to share the gift of Exchange with you, for your community. Richard M. Flicker, 2009-2010 President |
About UsWelcome Letter From The President 2009 – 2010
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| Copyright © 2010 Texas Louisiana Gulf Coast District. | ||
“Inspired by the Power of Exchange” is our national theme for 2009-2010. Individually, we each possess the power to achieve wonderful things in our lives, as well as to make a positive difference in the world around us. Collectively, when united by a common goal and willingness to work together, our power to do good things is multiplied exponentially.