How to make a small-town club big
In Steilacoom, Washington, U.S., a roster with local leaders strengthens meetings and membership.
By Tony Knoderer
Smaller towns don’t always mean smaller Kiwanis clubs. Consider the Kiwanis Club of Steilacoom, Washington, U.S. In a community of about 6,500 people, the club currently has over 150 members. And it’s known throughout the town for service projects and fundraisers like its annual Winefest, which includes dinner, wine tasting and more.
That kind of engagement is a good way to make a club’s name prominent in a community — and to attract people who want to be members.
But there’s another key element to the club’s success: It has a history of including local leaders on its membership roster. One of those members is the current mayor of Steilacoom, Rick Muri (pictured at right during an induction event, with 2024-25 club president Patrick Kennedy at left).
A Kiwanian since becoming a Steilacoom charter member in 1993, Muri was elected to the local school board in 1997 — becoming the first member of the club to win office while he was a member. (The second, in 2002, was Ron Lucas, then the town’s mayor.)
“Our club started with close ties to the school district,” Muri says. “Our club’s charter president, John Jewell, was our local elementary school’s principal. In 1999, our school district’s superintendent, Art Himmler, became our club’s president.”
Now, Muri says, there are 11 elected officials in the club: all five current school board members, the five current council members and Muri.
“People with political aspirations, they see that,” Muri adds. “It’s a small town — and we are, after all, a social organization.”
A great answer
The club’s appeal for local leaders isn’t just a closed loop that exclusively attracts other local leaders. It’s also an effective way of spreading the word about Kiwanis to service-minded people throughout the community.
“Elected officials have lots of contacts,” Muri says. “When I first ran for mayor and knocked on doors, about one in 20 people would ask, ‘How can I get involved in the town?’ The Kiwanis club was a great answer.”
For Muri, who currently chairs the club’s membership committee, that experience provided an additional recruiting lesson: “Knocking on doors still works.”
But he and his fellow members are aware of how important it is to use more modern forms of outreach. For example, the club joined Facebook in 2009. As with many Kiwanis clubs, the social media platform has been an efficient way of showing people what it’s like to be in the club — by promoting club events, posting photos and videos of projects and even sharing links to presentations made at club meetings. (A recent video shared the dedication ceremony for a new swing the club installed at the local Kiwanis Pioneer Park.)
“If you don’t take the picture and give it a good write-up, it didn’t happen,” Muri says. “You don’t have to brag, but you do have to let people know what’s happening.”
The club also uses its Facebook page to stay in consistent contact with people — members and nonmembers alike.
“We tell people, ‘You can join our Facebook group and see what we do,’” Muri says. “If one out of 10 of those people join, that’s solid growth.”
Civics 101
Another well-known feature of the Steilacoom club is the quality of its meetings — particularly the guest speakers. Recent meetings have included presentations about the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, U.S., the state of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and more.
Muri partly credits the networking reach of the club’s roster, which also includes accomplished professionals and three former U.S. military generals — such as the club’s 2025-26 president, Rick Ash, a retired brigadier general. (Muri himself retired from the U.S. Air Force as a lieutenant colonel in 1998.)
“I tell people, ‘Join our club or just come to the meetings — you’ll get a Civics 101 education,’” Muri says.
It’s also important, he adds, to appeal to people across the social and political spectrums. In Steilacoom, the club — which regularly meets in the morning — has a few evening events each year, ranging from a potluck dinner to a Cinco de Mayo celebration.
“In a small town or city, a Kiwanis club can be a nexus,” Muri says. “Why not be the center of your community?”
