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KlNOTIIANNlvmsAlU Saturday I9 17000 Canadians share now Hal Rogers dream run leadership personal in ones community importance of family service work caring about the world in which we live These could be words taken from sociologists describing the shift in attitudes of the me gen to a more socially conscious society of the 1990s These words though are the cornerstones the aims and objectives of the tion of Km Clubs phrases developed 1920 and becoming relevant again years later The combination of fun service work and personal opment has created a winning for muld tiidl attracted note ifidii 000 voung men and women who to comprise Kin dubs coast to coast Similar to mam other successful organizations one person dream and vision of the future are the dm force behind its success Harold Allen Rogers is that person Born in London Ont on Jan 1899 Rogers finished public school and went to work as a junior clerk with the Home Bank of Thorndale He moved to Hamilton when his father took over the management of a wholesale plumbing and heating busi Soon Hal Rogers found himself a member of the staff and prepared for a sales career Two months later Rogers was on his wav to Europe and the First World War first enlisting as a mem of the and Sutherland Highlanders and once overseas lea iy ornodi ml a a member of the Hth Bat talton He described his war ences in the 198 book Onlv in Can Kinsmen and Kinettes I d lived a parochial life before 1 joined up When I was assigned to the Kootenav battalion this was first experience with oung Canadians fron the mountains the Prairies from Quebec and the I can never forget hoi shared a common belief that ihat we were doing was supposed to make Canada a better and stronger nation Sure we went through hell in the trenches but what made it bearable was the com radeship the feeling of working to that I receded through m buddies Rogers fought at Ridge Lens Hill Vpres was gassed and wounded at where he received a slice Id it sun ries with him his return to Hamilton Ont he rejoined the plumbing supplv firm but being a relative newcomer to the city had few friends his own age This feeling was magnified the loss of the fellowship and comradene shared with his buddies In an effort to meet ith young men his own age he approached the local Rotary Club for membership His ap plication was rejected because an other member of the club already filled the employment category of plumbing wholesale Rotary al lows only one person per employment category That member was Charles Rogers Hal s father More determined that ever Rogers decided to form his own club The tial steps are recalled in the 1979 book The Cross and Square I stopped a chap on the street and troauced mysen I nail noticed in church occasionally and he im pressed me as someone who might take an interest in plan for a club He said his name as Harold Phil lips We shook hands Then I went on to explain that I was a comparative stranger to the city and had been tov ing the idea of starling a service club where young fellows could find companionship and participate in club programs Phillips thought that it was a good idea He said he had been in the city a little over a vear but knew few people We agreed that we each to interest another voung chap in the project and then get together for a talk A week later four of us met to discuss the scheme and an agreement was reached on going ahead with it The following week on that Saturdav night in February a dozen like minded voung men sat dow to dinner he and proceeded to organize the first club That was the start of it SERVICE WORK Dinner meetings and socials pro the framework for the addition of another ideal thatofservtcework Earlv club projects included voung men to the and provid entertainment for children in a home for orphans Being young professionals Hamil ton Kinsmen soon followed their ca reers to various parts of the country taking Kinsmenship with them Toronto Vancouver and Winni peg soon followed id establishing clubs the end of 1926 nine cities had Kinsmen clubs The national convention in W mm peg saw the adopt a constitution and by law and fix the maximum age for ac live membership at The association continued to grow throughout the 1930s and at the outset Canadahad 103 Kinsmen clubs With the call to arms Kinsmen mobilized two wavs First as soldiers fighting for Canada And second at home be coming a war service club assisting n the total war effort It was during the Second World War that one of the largest Kin projects of time Milk for Britain took place Responding to a radio appeal for milk for British children Rogers be to rallv Km troops across Canada to raise funds for the purchase of powdered milk The goal for the first was to raise enough money to purchase one million quarts Within nine months Kinsmen and Kinettes had supplied more than three million quarts By the end of the Milk for Britain campaign the Kin family had raised well over million and sent million quarts of milk to Britain The wartime effort saw the emergence of new Kinsmen clubs and the forma tion of a new part of the organization Kinettes Kinsmen wives had for years sup ported the activities of their husbands and in various parts of the country had begun to create their own clubs on an informal basis The Kinette movement began to grow and at the association s national conven tion Kinettes were given official rec in the national bylaws and duly certified as an auxiliary zation The end of the Second World War marked a new era in service work for Kinsmen The association motto Serving the Community s Greatest Need took on a more global per as the association helped to found the World Council of Young Men s Service Clubs in Included m this group was the of 2030 clubs USA and Mexico Active International USA and Canada Apex ha Round Table Clubs Great Brit am and Ireland and of course The Association of Kinsmen Clubs of Can and Newfoundland Kinsmen now had a network through which to chan their fund raising efforts to all parts of the world by working in co operation with their service club brethren in other countries With the end of the 1940s formation of another Kin auxiliary clubs The upper age limit had always been a contentious issue What happens to a Kinsmen when he reaches Attempting to maintain its identity as a young men s service club delegates at the 1947 national convention endorsed the formal es of K40 Clubs Kinsmen over would still enjoy the fellowship and service work but would not be allowed to hold exec utive office thus ensuring that the vounger members assumed these re sponsibilities and learning expen ences associated with them As Canada prospered in the 1950s so too did the Kin family Club ex pansion was foremost in everyone s minds vet so was member retention To assist in keeping Kin interesting rranv award programs were developed giving Kinsmen goals to attain and excellence to strive for In the Kinsmen Club of North began with a relatively unknown disease that struck down children by the age of four From this one service project support grew for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis tion so that it is now the association major project The association celebrated its anniversary in 1970 in grand style as the entire country supported a na project that of raising to assist in the construction of the Kinsmen National Institute on Mental Retardation built at Toronto s York University The decade of the 1970s gave the Kinshien a heightened profile through their involvement in the Par ticipaction Movement particularly with the construction of Participarks Kinsmen led the way in building these fitnessoriented parks and opened more than by the early 1980s Sixty years of Km culminated with the opening of the Hal Rogers Kinsmen National Headquarters a three storey foot build in Cambridge The 1980s brought many changes within the Km family most notably the raising of the maximum age limit to the equalization of Kinettes as full partners in the association and in 1989 the change in the organization name to the Association of Km Clubs to reflect a new commitment to btl ingualism As the association begins its eighth decade many challenges are waiting to be met Kin system The Association of Kin Clubs is not a secret society with strange rituals weird handshakes and grand poobahs Rather it is a registered non profit corporation As with any volunteerdriven organization the association strength lies at the grass roots level everyday people Kinsmen and that form the local clubs The Association of Kin Clubs is made up of Kinsmen Kinettes K40 K and Kin Kid Clubs There are currently Kinsmen Clubs 450 Kmette Clubs more than K40 and K Ette clubs and a handful of Kin Kid Clubs Each Kinsmen and Kinette club elects its executive officers for a one year term Club members chair various service projects and socials that are chosen by the club at its dinner meetings Every club belongs to a zone a geographic grouping of clubs usually eight to 12 clubs Elected annually is a zone executive headed up by the deputy governor Kinsmen or zone Kinette This level in the acts as a communicator to the clubs organizes interclub so cials and even zone service pro jects Each zone is included in a dis tnct a geographic grouping of zones of which there are eight in Canada Again an annual tion chooses a district executive which is chaired by the district governor for Kinsmen or district Kinette The eight district governors and district Ki nette coordinators sit on the na tional board of directors The national president is elected at the annual national con vention Traditionally the na tional vice president from the previous year is elected as dent He campaigns on a slate partnered with the national Ki nette vice president They ihen appoint up to four directors who are akin to an inner cabinet Assisting the elected volunteers are the staff at the Hal Rogers Kinsmen National Headquarters Kinettes open doors by changing the membership rules By Rob Savage Toronto Bureau Thomson Newt Serv TORONTO Every Kinsman is a member of the Association of Kin Clubs but not every association member is a Kinsmen The Km association has various di visions Along with the Kinsmen there is its counterpart for the women the Kinettes Similar to the Kinsmen enrolment rules Kinettes have to be at least 21 years old and under 46 to become members The Kinettes like the Kinsmen have various executive lev els from individual club executives up to a national executive Bob Elliott the Km Clubs executive director stresses the Kinettes handle their own affairs The women t obligated to pursue the same fund raising goals as the men The he says run fund raisers for the issues they feel are important They are autonomous enough to go out a raise thei r own money At one time women could only be come if their husbands were Kinsmen However that rule was eliminated in August Elliott says getting nd of that stip ulation has opened the door to women who want to join a service club The move has been successful While Canadian service clubs have suffered recently from declining membership the Kinettes enrolment increased 10 per cent from June of 1988 to this past June The mem 1989 was 884 Wendy Reddington national nette coordinator says the vote taken in to create a parallel partnership between Kinsmen and has changed the group s tus The Kinettes are now associates with the Kinsmen rather than an auxiliary group Reddington says the move towards equality is not complete and some programs aren t yet totally equal However there are important changes she says For example the Kinettes are starting to accept greater financial responsibilities and as dependent on the Kinsmen for help Another important change this year effects the top Kinette post The national coordinator will be replaced by an elected president THE LAST- I am the associations tional coordinator says And I will be the last associa tion national coordinator As the changes come about the Ki nettes will be working to improve their public image and bring in more members Reddington says one of the hand icaps the Kinette organization suf fers from is a certain modesty about its achievements While she feels the group has always done admirable work it kept a relatively low profile when it was an auxiliary group We do fantastic things for the community and have been for years she says But because we don t cry out we often miss out on the media awareness Reddington says education will be the key to the changes in public awareness Educating members about the merits of their achieve ments will allow Kinettes to go out and speak with confidence to the pub lic We ve never had to have our own pride We had it go out and sell it Now we can go out and talk to any one and encourage them to join us Reddington compares the Kinettes to Canada as a nation She says the Kinettes are only now learning they can do their own flag waving