General
Key Club International is the world’s largest
high school community service organization. This organization is present in thousands of highschools and boasts over 200,000
members who contribute millions of hours of
community service annually to their local communities.
Affiliation
Key Club International (
KCI) is a sponsored program of
Kiwanis International. This organization is akin to
Circle K International,
Builders Club, and
K-Kids. All of these organizations make up an unofficial institution known as the
Kiwanis Family.
Structure
Each individual
club has the typical club officers:
President,
Vice-president,
Secretary,
Treasurer, representatives and committee chairs. The specific structure of each club is up to its membership.
KCI Chapters are organized into Divisions, each of which is headed up by a
Lt. Governor. Divisions are to clubs as counties are to cities in a way.
A group of divisions make up a
District. Districts each have a
Governor, Secretary, Treasurer,
Bulletin Editor, Lt. Governors (see above), and committee chairs. Some Districts include: Missouri-Arkansas, Southwest, Wisconsin-Upper Michigan, and West Virginia. There are thirty-one such districts. (As per the previous
analogy, think of Districts as States)
The
International Level consists of a President, Vice-president, and fourteen (14)
Trustees. Though there has been a movement
afoot for quite some time to reduce this number for reasons of cost and efficiency.
<opinion>
Politics certainly do exist in KCI (see:
Key Club) however, their impact on the District and International Levels is actually smaller than perceived. The presence of
excessive club politics
varies wildly from one club to another...
your mileage may vary.
</opinion>
Aims
Key Club International strives to be the premiere high school service organization and has enjoyed a great deal of
success. While the aims of KCI are not as well enumerated as those of
Circle K International it should be noted that they are
largely similar.
Historical
In
May of
1925 the eleven
charter members of the first Key Club met in
Sacramento,
California. Originally Key Clubs were intended to replace
High School Fraternities which enjoyed much success in the
1920's. Kiwanians and educators hoped that Key Clubs would replace these fraternities with a more wholesome, service-based opportunity.
The clubs in
Florida formed the first state association of Key Clubs in
1939. In
1946 the Key Club International
Constitution and Bylaws were approved, and shortly thereafter Florida became the first district.
Key Club, though originally
all male opened its doors to femailes in
1975. Prior to that, females were typically a part of Key Club through loosely affiliated groups that were not officially sponsored. Key Club was
second to
Circle K, which allowed females to join in
1973.
Key Club Pledge
I pledge, on my honor, to uphold the
objects of Key Club International;
to build my
home,
school and
community;
to serve my
nation and
God;
and
combat all forces which tend to
undermine these
institutions.
Motto
"Caring -- Our way of life."
Attribution
This node contains information that could, at some point, become dated. All information herein was pulled from memory or gleaned from http://www.keyclub.org. all mistakes are my own damn fault.