"Key Club is an international, student-led organization that provides its members with opportunities to provide service, build character, and develop leadership."
-Key Club Mission Statement
What is Key Club?
Founded in 1925, the first Key Club was formed with the idea that it would be a club for high schoolers to engage in service events. Since then, it has spread throughout the world with over 200,000 members. It is the largest and oldest international community service program in the world.
The program has objectives for all Key Club members to aim for and practice. As stated by the international website, these objectives include:
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To give primacy to the human and spiritual, rather than to the material values of life.
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To encourage the daily living of the Golden Rule in all human relationships.
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To promote the adoption and application of higher standards in scholarship, sportsmanship, and social contacts.
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To develop, by precept and example, a more intelligent, aggressive and serviceable citizenship.
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To provide a practical means to form enduring friendships, to render unselfish service and to build better communities.
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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.
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In order to properly organize members, the program is organized into districts. From the district level, it is divided further into regions. From regions, it is divided into divisions, and from there, the individual club level. Our district is the California-Nevada-Hawaii District, abbreviated to Cali-Nev-Ha or CNH. Our region is Region 7, and our division is Division 16 North.
About D16N
Division 16 North is located in the Santa Clarita and San Fernando Valleys. Our division consists of 12 schools, including Alemany, Arleta, Academy of the Canyons, Canyon, Castaic, Golden Valley, Hart, Saugus, Sylmar, Valencia, Vaughn, and West Ranch High Schools. Our mascot is the Unicorn. Our division is also proud to have achieved the following awards, all in the 2020-2021 term:
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Member Recognition Program Awards, inclduing Bronze, Silver, and Platinum winners
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Most Improved Club (West Ranch HS)
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Distinguished Division Newsletter (Sana Meher, West Ranch HS)
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Distinguished Division Website (Sana Meher, West Ranch HS)
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Distinguished Club Poster (Swarada Kulkarni, West Ranch HS)
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Distinguished President (Katy Shin, Golden Valley HS)
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Distinguished Secretary (Rebecca Lee, West Ranch HS)
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Distinguished Member of the Year (Sana Meher, West Ranch HS)
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Oustanding Club Website (Swarada Kulkarni, West Ranch HS)
Levels of Key Club
Clubs
One of the key themes of Key Club (no pun intended!) is the fact that members are the most important. Because of this, it is very common for many members to not know much about their upper-level officers, especially on the international level. The club level includes both club officers and club members. A club is defined as a school that has Key Club and has paid their dues for it, Following the key theme, members are more important that officers. While officers are needed to house a successful club, the main point is that Key Club encourages all members to do their most for their community, even if they do not have an elected officer role.
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Our division has 12 clubs which can be seen in the Schools page under Resources.
Divisions
To organize clubs more efficiently, divisions were created. They are groups of clubs located near each other. A maximum of 15 clubs can be in a division; once a division reachers 16, it splits based off a cardinal direction (example: D16 split into D16S and D16N, S standing for South and N standing for North). Our division currently houses 10 clubs. All divisions are led by a lieutenant governer, abbreviated LTG. They are elected by club officers. LTG's will then choose who they would like on their division leadership team, abbreviated DLT. The LTG and DLT work together to plan out new division service events and promote Key Club. Unlike club events which are restricted to one school, division service events are open to many.
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There are over 70 divisions in our district. Our division is Division 16 North.
District
Regions are sorted into large, sometimes interstate, groups termed districts. It is important not to confuse district for division! Districts can also be outside of the US (since Key Club is international). Those districts usually encompass countries. They are lead by the district office (the governer, secretary, and treasurer), with help of the district leadership team (news editors, member recognition, tech editors, etc). The district makes many things, including monthly service project focuses (called Spotlight on Service Program), The Buzzing Post (the district newsletter), judging for contests, and DCON. DCON is the annual District Convention and is one of the things many Key Club members and officers look forward to!
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Our district is the California-Nevada-Hawaii District.
International
The International level is the highest level of Key Club. It is run by several advisors, a President, a Vice President, and 11 Trustees. Each trustee represents one or more districts, which are located all around the world. The International board makes the biggest decisions for the organization, including creating sister programs and making sure their respective districts are functioning. The end of the international term is marked by ICON, which is similar to DCON but much bigger. In order to run for International office, one must have lots of Key Club experience and receive endorsements from their club, division, and district.
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