Kiwanis Remote Voting

The Capital District introduced the concept of remote voting for Kiwanis International elections and amendments initially as a resolution at the 2013 Kiwanis International Convention in Chiba, Japan.

As a result of this resolution, KI commissioned a task force made up of Kiwanis leaders and KI Staff members to research and discuss the concept of allowing remote participants to vote in Kiwanis elections and amendments.

In their initial report to the KI Board dated December 1, 2014, they stated:

 “The role of the task force was to assist in carrying out the directive of the Administrative Resolution adopted by the House of Delegates at the 2014 Kiwanis International Convention: to investigate the option of allowing clubs worldwide to vote electronically on Board elections and on proposed amendments and resolutions. 

Staff was responsible to investigate the necessary technology and interview potential vendors. The task force was responsible to help assure the integrity, global applicability, and user-friendliness of the process; and to help plan ways to inform and educate members about online voting. This included reviewing Staff’s work as well. (The task force was not charged with drafting the necessary Kiwanis International Bylaws amendments, which is the responsibility of the Kiwanis International Committee on Resolutions and Bylaws.) 

The task force met by video conference on November 24, 2014, and December 1, 2014, from 2:00pm to 4:00pm U.S. Eastern Time. It was also viewed an online demonstration offered by one of the leading vendors recommended by Staff, and was allowed the opportunity to ask questions directly of the vendor.”

Staff consulted other service organizations about online voting, asking for any information they would like to share. We received responses from three who have embraced full or partial online voting: Sertoma (10,769 members), Optimists (71,507 members), and Mensa (51,042 members). Those are shown in Exhibit B. All three organizations were satisfied with their online voting experience. None saw a measurable decline in convention attendance attributable to online voting. 

The key benefits of online voting are to: 1) Allow all clubs worldwide access to have a voice in the business of the organization even if they do not travel to the convention; 2) Reduce costs related to the Kiwanis International convention by eliminating the need to hold a House of Delegates session. 

Currently, less than 20 percent of Kiwanis clubs are represented in the House of Delegates at Kiwanis International conventions. Online voting would allow all clubs the opportunity to have a voice in the business of the organization without ever leaving their communities. 

Using online voting for elections and amendments would reduce the direct costs of voting by over 50 percent: from an annual average of US$38,250 for on-site keypad voting to an estimated US$18,000 for online voting. (This cost could be slightly further reduced in the future if Kiwanis International eventually moves from a vendor-run system to a Staff-administered process.) These savings do not take into account the basic costs of holding the delegate session, including room rental; audio-visual; house set-up, tear-down, and clean-up; and Staff time.)”

The Capital District has drafted a few different versions of an amendment and put it before the House of Delegates several times receiving most recently over 60% of the vote but missing the 2/3rds threshold needed for adoption.

The amendment proposed to the 2024 KI House of Delegates in Denver, CO was drafted in collaboration with the Kiwanis International Board (via the Governance Committee) and was officially supported by the KI Board. This year, 2025, that exact same amendment has been proposed but is NOT supported by the KI Board of Trustees.