Like the Elks, Masons, Moose, Lions, Shriners, et al: a good-ol-boys club for "businessmen" to get together and pat themselves on the back. They give money to charity & ****, too. Sacky'll come along and no doubt "correct" me, but my basic premise is still correct.
Wow, do you have a jumble there. At least three different types of organizations. The Masons are a quasi-religious, secret rites type organization. The Shriners may be similar, but to tell you the truth I don't know much about them aside from the fact that they support some hospitals in a kick ass way. Elks, Moose (and Eagles, Oddfellows, etc.) are basically social clubs. Then you have service clubs like Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions, Optimists, Sertoma, etc. They are, as SJ said, on one level a networking organization for businesspeople and interested others. But on a larger scale, they all raise tremendous money for charitable causes, and at least some, like Rotary, get involved in organizing and completing those projects themselves as well.
Just today, our (Rotary) club announced that we've approved a $3,500 grant to a club in Lebanon which will add money of their own, and money from various other levels of US Rotary, to provide a generator to an orphanage in Lebanon. We also contributed over $30,000 for the kids of families wrecked by meth in Mesa County last year. We provide dictionaries to every 3rd grader in Mesa County each year, and school supplies to all the schools at the start of each school year. The Lions Club here raises well over $100,000 a year for charity with their carnival. All of which is fairly typical of these types of organizations.
Scoff all you want 96, as I'm sure you'd rather entrust all these things to the government, but these clubs do a lot of good around the world. Plus, they give Dan Hawkins a chance to speak. What more can you ask for, really?? :thumbsup: