SPONSORED YOUTH

Trustee H. Lee Powell, Jr., Chairman, Board Committee on Sponsored Youth

MR. POWELL: Thank you very much, President Bill. Gentlemen of the Board, and Past Presidents: I am going to talk about both Circle Kand Key Clubs very briefly.

We have been pleased with the growth of the Circle K organization following their readjustment.

They seem to be functioning well, and we foresee no serious problems for the future.

Statistically, Circle K has experienced an

increase in membership of over 1,300 this year® The

sponsorship fees amount to some $49,000, and this

will be the fir~ time, almost, that they will have

2

a substantial cash balance in the bank.-

The recently concluded convention was success- ful in all respects. Most noticeable was the sincerity of those who attended. They were concerned with the health and welfare of the organization as opposed to the political struggles in the years past.

We have experienced no real problems as a re- sult of the decision to allow female membership. Women comprised 24% of those participating in the convention and probably ac~ounted for the increase in attendance over last year. There was one female Governor, and the percentage of female officers will undoubtedly in- crease in the coming years. We do not know at present what the ratio is of men and women in membership in Circle

K

International, but we will have this informa- tion during the 1973-74 administrative year.

All in all we are very pleased with the progress made<) In 1969-70, there were 760 clubs

with a membership of 9,455; in 1970-71 wehad 808 clubs with membership of 10,267; 1971-72, 765 clubs with membership of 6,981$ In the year completed, ~have 710 clubs, which is 55 less clubs than the year previous, but with a total membership of 8,309, or

an increase of 1,328 members. This augurs well for the

Circle K organization. It shows that the clubs ~have are becoming better clubs, if for no other reason than the membership is larger

and

more active.

One more comment regarding Circle K, and this is in respect to the structuring of Circle

K

Interna- tional, which calls for one President and six Vice- Presidents. There has been a great deal of discussion about this

by

interested Kiwanians and Circle K'ers throughout International. In this last year, which is fhe first year Circle K has operated under this arrangement, there have not been any serious effects.

However, some feel this will need close study in the future.

Regarding Key Club, Key Club has been show- ing a decrease in membership for the past four or five years. I am_not going to go into a long dissertation of why. I am just going to mention briefly what some of the reasons are. They are very varied. Today there is much pressure on the student to be come in- volved in social issues. To this we have to add the change in teacher attitudes and the fact that through- out the country there are many split-shift high schoolso The drop this past year has been substantially lower than in previous years, and all of us interested in

3

wotking with Key Club and high school students believe we are nearing the end of the dropping cycle and the trend will be reversed~ and we will be moving up in membership and clubs. This hope will be coupled with new efforts for membership development

and

quality sponsorship, which we believe will produce more mem- bership rather than the decrease we have seen in the past few years.

One of the major concerns facing us is the matter of female membersh~p. The ramifications of female membership in Key Club are not the same as with Circle K$ We do believe that· at the present this is blown out of proportion, by some of our district chairmen especially.. The leadership of the Key Club organization is opposed to such a move; and as you know, the House of Delegates at the Key Club conven- tion has defeated such amendments on three separate occasions. All but a few district chairmen feel such a move would harm the Key Club organization. On the other hand, there are areas in the country where Ki- wanians believe in the very near future we are going to be faced with legal suits i f we do not act@ There are situations which have arisen where school adminis- trators have applied pressure for a co-ed program.

4

There has been one change in the Constitu- tion and Bylaws of Key Club International and I have not made my report to the Board yet but

at their recent convention they changed one of their Board Committees from the Committee on Finance, which

5

had very little work and responsibility, to the Committee on Finance and Membership Development. This will

give this committee some work to do, and

by

their pro- motion of membership development will insure some

growth in Key Club.

In 1969 as near as we can tell we had 96,000 members in Key Club, and today we have 78,000, and

we have more Key Clubs than when we had 96,000 members.

So the trend is just reversed in Key Club as to what it is in Circle K@ However, I am pleased to report I

do believe we can look forward to improvement in Key Club and hopefully we can make big strides in this coming administrative year to change this.

PRESIDENT EAGLES: Any questions on sponsored youth?

MR. FORSYTHE: Has there been any change in

activity in Circle K since the women have been admitted

to the organization?

MR$ POWELL: Don, I would make this statement again. I think their attitude is amazing since the change has been made, and they are concerned with the health and programs of their local clubs. I think in the last few years before this change, Circle K has had nothing in mind except to wrestle with us. I

thin~ they have done a complete face about. I wasn't in favor of the change, but I think I was wrong and I think i t is a wise change and i t is working very well ..

PRESIDENT EAGLES: Now, Bill Solberg, Chairman

of the Board Committee on Program Development.