Key Club Major Emphasis

Key Club International conducts more than 13.5 million hours of service to homes, schools and communities each year. From building bridges, to collecting tons of food, to helping eliminate diseases worldwide, Key Club International plays a vital role in serving the children of the world.

Each Key Club has the authority to select its own service projects. However, all Key Clubs are asked to participate in the Major Emphasis, which is "Children: Their Future, Our Focus."

Senators, governors, university presidents, corporate executives, astronauts, athletes, coaches, nonprofit leaders, and even a United States president credit Kiwanis' Service Leadership Programs as their earliest, most influential leadership experience.

How We Operate

Member

Every member of Key Club is a part of a worldwide mission, but it all starts with you, then member.

Club

Key Clubs are established in a high school or equivalent institution, or a community-based club also may be chartered. Elected officers can include president, one or more vice presidents, secretary, treasurer, editor, and one director from each class.

Division

Each district is divided into territories called divisions, made up of various clubs. Each division is led by a lieutenant governor, a student leader who carries out the district's policies and provides support to the clubs.

District

A district is sometimes defined by one or several states, or by nation, and tends to correspond to a similar Kiwanis district. Each district is chaired by a governor, who is elected by delegates at the annual district convention.

International

Key Club International encompasses all clubs within the organization's 33 districts, and in other countries that are not included in any specific district. It is led by an international board, which is composed of a president, vice president and 11 trustees, all of who are active Key Club student-members.

Key Club Objects & Bylaws

Objects

• To develop initiative and leadership.

• To provide experience in living and working together.

• To serve the school and community.

• To cooperate with the school principal.

• To prepare for useful citizenship.

• To accept and promote the following ideals:

  • To give primacy to the human and spiritual, rather than to the material values of life.

  • To encourage the daily living of the Golden Rule in all human relationships.

  • To promote the adoption and application of higher standards in scholarship, sportsmanship and social contacts.

  • To develop, by precept and example, a more intelligent, aggressive and serviceable citizenship.

  • To provide a practical means to form enduring friendships, to render unselfish service and to build better communities.

  • To cooperate in creating and maintaining that sound public opinion and high idealism which makes possible the increase of righteousness, justice, patriotism and good will.

Bylaws

The international, district, and club levels operate under a set of bylaws that detail their respective policies. You can find the Key Club International Bylaws in the Key Club Guidebook. The guidebook is the official guide for Key Clubs an dis updated online each spring. keyclub.org/guidebook