The Madison West Kiwanis Club was chartered in 1959 by Kiwanis International and is in the Wisconsin-Upper Michigan District. Our District is comprised of 24 Divisions. There are eight other Kiwanis Clubs in Division 4 with West Kiwanis. Our membership currently stands at 97 men and women.

The club was originally founded, and for a long time mostly populated, by University of Wisconsin staff, particularly from the Agricultural, Engineering and Agricultural Engineering programs. While this crowd has thinned over the years, there is still a good deal of debate about which field is more important with the Agricultural Engineers having the final say.

Today you will find a wide range of members, covering just about every field of business. This diversity leads to great conversation, wonderful networking opportunities and importantly, tremendous knowledge of community needs. The majority of the clubs projects and volunteer efforts come from member initiative.

Over the years the club has provided innumerable hours of community service and close to $1,000,000 of financial support. It may seem like a small group of volunteers, but this club has a huge impact and continues to do so today.

Club meetings traditionally are conducted once a week and offer an atmosphere of fun, learning, and fellowship. Madison West Kiwanis meets every Friday, 11:45AM until 1:00PM, at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church on Mineral Point Rd. In addition to attending the meetings, the typical Kiwanian volunteers each month to assist with club service projects.

A regular club meeting includes 15 to 20 minutes of socializing, although some members arrive even earlier to catch up on the week’s events. The meeting officially starts around 12:10pm with member announcements, updates on projects and general information announcements. This is followed by a welcome to our guests, a 50/50 raffle and the introduction of the guest speaker. The club works very hard to find great speakers covering relevant topics. Past guests include Russ Feingold, Pat Richter, author David Maraniss, Police Chief Noble Wray and TV anchor Carleen Wild, just to name a few.