KEY POINTS:
Auckland's Kiwanis Clubs are trying to re-invent themselves to appeal to a generation that communicates via the internet instead of turning out to club meetings.
Kiwanis, the smallest of the three big US-based service clubs after Lions and Rotary, suffered a worldwide membership decline from 324,000 in 1992 to 248,000 in 2005, and from about 1800 to 750 in New Zealand and the South Pacific.
But a new Kiwanis Club of Auckland, based at the University of Auckland, is spearheading a revival aimed at recruiting younger members into a new kind of club that puts less emphasis on meetings.
World chief executive Rob Parker, in Auckland yesterday, said traditional clubs would remain, in what are now branded "Classic Kiwanis", while younger clubs are being grouped under the banner "Kiwanis Next".
"We are asking young people what it would have to do to fit in with your lifestyle," he said.
"They tell us it would be something that would use the internet for communication and connection, and that meetings would be short, with less formality and less protocol."
Kiwanis, like Lions and Rotary, originally aimed to promote business exchange as well as community service.
Mr Parker said that was still part of the clubs' role, even for younger people.
"They have a need for a business network, not in the sense of doing business and making more money, but connecting with other people who are working. They have a need for personal leadership development, for experiences to lead.
"And we have found, in all of our research as well as in anecdotal stories, that young people do want fellowship, although they call it maybe 'community'.
"The social networking sites on the web show that they still have the same need to know and be known by others."
Suzanne Chea, a University of Auckland student who co-founded the new branch, said members did their share of fundraising sausage sizzles and the like, but also did practical hands-on community work.
"We get a group together and sort through clothes at the Auckland City Mission and serve their Sunday meals once a month. We fundraise a lot for the cancer kids' camp and we work a lot with our 'Key Clubs' in the high schools when they need help with face-painting or whatever."
Key clubs exist in most high schools in the United States, but in only three New Zealand schools so far - the Manurewa and Papatoetoe High Schools and Rotorua Girls High School.
Other fundraising projects in Auckland in recent years have included equipment for the burns unit at South Auckland's KidzFirst Hospital, a van that carries patients to and from the Manukau Superclinic and a mobile "fire house" that shows schoolchildren what to do if their home catches fire.
THE KIWANIS
* Smallest of the three big US-based service clubs with 255,000 members worldwide, behind Lions (1.3 million) and Rotary (1.25 million).
* 750 NZ/Pacific members, well behind Lions (11,379) and Rotary (10,500).
* Focus on serving children.
* "Nunc Kee-wanis" means "we trade" or "we have a good time" in the Native American language of Detroit.
ON THE WEB
www.kiwanis.org.nz/distehp.htm
