Key Club tracks 100 Service Projects with Custom Event Calendar

Boyd County High School in Ashland, Kentucky is home to an award-winning Key Club made up of some outstanding service-minded students. Key Club is a student-led international service organization for high school students. Key Club is a branch of the Kiwanis International service club, which is focused on making a difference in the lives of children worldwide. 

Kira Wilburn is a Kiwanis club member, the Kentucky-Tennessee District Zone Chair, and the co-advisor for the Boyd County High School (BCHS) Key Club. “Key Club is the largest student leadership organization worldwide,” she explains. “There are hundreds of thousands of members spread out across the world…and their main principle behind it is just to do good. [They] help people become leaders and role-models through student-led activities.” 

The Boyd County High School Key Club has around 70 active members and completes nearly 100 service projects each year. One of their most successful projects is called  “Key to Sweet Dreams” Bedtime Kits for Ashland Build-A-Bed. Local businesses and organizations donate funds to purchase mattresses and the material to build bed frames for children in need, and the Key Club puts together bedtime kits. These consist of sheets, blankets, alarm clocks, health and beauty products, stuffed animals, books, and night lights – “anything you could possibly need for a bedtime routine, it’s included!” Kira says. “That’s just one example of a project we do, and we’re actually recognized internationally for that. It ends up being close to $30,000 that we bring in and manage in donations, and the students completely organize it.”

Key Club students lead and organize the club and its community service projects, while the advisors are there to provide support. “[The advisor's role] within the club is to help facilitate what the students are doing,” Kira explains. This includes handling applications and tracking service hours for projects, meetings, and events. “Track it Forward has made that so much easier to manage,” she says.

“We have transformed our club’s operation as well as our members’ experience through the use of this software.”

Boyd County Key Club members at the Kentucky-Tennessee Convention

The Search for a Time Tracking Solution

Tracking is essential for Key Clubs, which have minimum hours requirements and reporting requirements. BCHS Key Club members are required to complete a minimum of thirty service hours each school year in order to be considered in good standing. Anything from club meetings to travel time and donations can count toward these hours requirements. With the Milestones feature in Track it Forward, it’s easy to set up multiple requirements and track progress toward goals.

In addition, there are reporting requirements for Key Clubs to the larger international organization. There’s the international level, the district level, and the division level. A division may consist of about ten schools that are near to one another and as a group they would report to the district, which is usually a combination of states like Kentucky-Tennessee. Each individual club is required to keep their own records in any way they see fit.

Kira and the BCHS Key Club first began looking for a software solution to manage hours after their former club president attended a Key Club district convention. A seminar was held to discuss different types of technology and apps that Key Clubs could use. At the time, they were using paper sign-up sheets.

“We would sometimes have eight signup sheets at a time [on the door],” Kira says. “The kids would have to go between classes, during lunch–whenever they had a chance–and sign up for things. If they had to cancel, sometimes they didn’t always remember to erase their names, and as advisors we would have to go and find those things out after.” After the technology seminar, they decided to get rid of paper timesheets and sign-ups once and for all.

“So we were exploring different platforms, and we actually used SignUp Genius first,” Kira explains. “We liked the idea of it, but the implementation wasn’t great…We tried doing it on Google Forms, but we didn’t like the security of that…We did a Google search and found Track it Forward, and fell in love with it!” Thanks to Track it Forward, BCHS Key Club no longer has to worry about paper sign up sheets or students missing events. They can track hours across different service categories such as meetings and fundraisers.

The BCHS Key Club also uses the approvals feature to ensure the right people have access to their Track it Forward site. “We love the ability to approve volunteers and individual hour logs,” Kira says. BCHS Key Club also partners with other organizations to host events, and with event calendar settings they can collect student RSVPs without sharing private data. “This has greatly improved our ability to effectively collaborate with other groups while maintaining the safety and privacy of our students,” Kira says.

“The longer we use Track it Forward, the more features we have come to love.”

Most Useful Features for Key Clubs

1. Event Calendar

BCHS Key Club has been using Track it Forward for nearly three years now. “The most useful feature so far has been the event sign-ups,” Kira says. “This has completely transformed our club. We have about twice as many active members actually go out and participate [than before].” With a fully customizable calendar, Key Clubs can list upcoming events, recurring meetings, and more!

2. Mobile App

Students can also log hours and sign up for events right from their phone. “The app really makes a difference,” says Kira. It’s easy for the students to look at the events calendar and details, and then sign up from their phone and get email reminders. “We’ve been able to do more projects [and] get more accurate numbers on which students come to the events…the management system of that has been phenomenal.”

3. Photo Uploads (Selfies)

With Track it Forward’s advanced verification features, administrators can choose to require additional data on hour logs, such as selfies, signatures, and GPS location. At BCHS Key Club, photo uploads are enabled as an optional feature. “We have so many pictures of kids just volunteering and having fun, and those are little snapshots of things we would never have had before,” Kira explains. “The photo uploads [feature] is phenomenal. It’s a heartwarming thing to be able to look through those pictures and see all the good that the kids are doing.”

Track it Forward has been so successful for the BCHS Key Club that Kira has shared it with other Key Clubs in her area. “[Track it Forward] has made our club so much better, and I want to see other clubs flourish as well.”