A BRIEF KIN HISTORY
Founded by Harold Allin Rogers and ten other men on February 20,1920 in the Nanking Cafe in Hamilton, Ontario.
This group formed our Association’s first club. The Kinsmen Club of Hamilton. Next came a club in Montreal, then Winnipeg, then Vancouver.
As the association spread across the country, it came into contact with other like-minded organizations with which it found enough common ground to consider mergers.
The most notable of these was the Eclectic Clubs of Saskatchewan. Eclectic’s primary aim was fellowship among men of good character under the age of 40.
In the 1930s, a prominent member of this organization was John Diefenbaker, who was later to become Prime Minister of Canada.
Mr. Diefenbaker was a prime mover in the merger between Kin and Eclectic, and he ensured that the age limit, which was a crucial building block of his group,
was preserved and entrenched in the new merged association’s Constitution.Kinsmen wives started meeting together in the late 1920’s. Kinettes were formerly recognized as an auxiliary club in 1942.
In 1950 the Kin Supply House was established to handle a growing inventory of Kin memorabilia and office material.
The Kin Sales Division is an entrepreneurial wing of Kin that makes a significant contribution to the financial well-being of the association each year.
In 1965 Kin members adopted the construction of the Kinsmen National Institute on Mental Retardation as a national project.
Five years later the institute located on the York University Campus in Toronto was officially opened.
In 1980, the National Headquarters building in Cambridge, ON. was opened.
If ever you’re driving Highway 401 West from Toronto in the direction of Windsor, you can’t help but see the big white building on the south side, as you pass Cambridge.
1988 saw “open membership” for the Kinettes, which meant that Kinette Clubs achieved equal status with Kinsmen Clubs, and were able to manage their own affairs.
It also meant that a woman no longer had to be married to or living with a Kinsmen to be a member in her own right, and that a Kinette Club could be chartered in a community even if no Kinsmen Club existed there.
In 1995 the Hal Rogers Endowment Fund was established. In the fall of 1999 its name was changed to the Kinsmen & Kinette Bursary.
1994/95 Kin year saw the formation of our first Kin Clubs – clubs that may admit both male and female members.
At National Convention in August 1999 the upper age limit, which was by this time 45, was removed, thereby allowing Kin of any age to become active members, capable of holding any office in the Association.
As of February 2021 there are 400 Kinsmen, Kinette and Kin Clubs with over 5,000 members.
For further Kin History please read the books, “The Cross and Square” or “Only in Canada – Kinsmen and Kinettes” or consult your new member’s kit.