DEAR SUN SPOTS: Which are the largest five clubs in Maine? I know some do let females belong. Elks, Eagles, veterans’ groups you must be a veteran.

On the national level, I know the American Legion at one time had close to 3 million. What are the top five clubs nationally? Thank you. — John Kezal, Rumford

ANSWER: This question sounds simple but is actually a minefield. Sun Spots had a very vivid picture of the correction she would have to run after someone pointed out that she’d missed a group that belonged in the top five or had some of the numbers wrong.

So she chickened out and settled for listing some of the clubs she could find and their membership numbers. Since John is a veteran, Sun Spots figured those numbers would be of the most interest to him and started there.

According to www.vfwkc.org, in Maine the VFW currently has 9,306 members, down from 10,682 in the prior year. The membership numbers are broken down into categories: life, new, reinstated and continuing.

Nationally, vfw.org says there are currently 1,206,582 members, down from 1,445,550

As for the American Legion, at legion.org, it says that the Legion currently has about 2.4 million members in 14,000 posts worldwide.

The Legion site also breaks down who participates in what activities based on reports from about 60 percent of the posts. For example, they report the number of posts with local Flag Day activities or the number with family support network programs. There are way too many of these for Sun Spots to list here, but they can be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/dxbnvhy.

As for the American Legion Auxiliary, according to legion.org, it has almost 1 million members and is the world’s largest women’s patriotic service organization.  Founded in 1919 to assist the Legion, it currently has nearly 10,500 units located in every state and some foreign countries.

In Maine, according to the Legion office in Waterville, there are about 23,000 members.

As for other service groups, the Lions claim to be the largest of the service club organizations, with 46,000 Lions Clubs and 1.35 million members worldwide. According to a story in the Lake Region Reader on Aug. 11, the Lions Club was founded in 1917 and became involved in one of its most well-known activities, eyeglasses, after a 1925 request from Helen Keller asking them to be the Knights of the Blind.

The Elks are at www.elks.org and claim to have 850,000 members and 20,000 lodges. In Maine, maineelks.org says there are 22 member Lodges and more than 11,200 men and women Elk members. You do not need to be a veteran to be an Elk, according to the website.

The Fraternal Order of Eagles, www.foe.org, also claims to have 850,000 members, and once again Sun Spots did not find any requirement that one be a veteran. Their programs include the Junior Order of Eagles and Eagle Village, a retirement community in Florida.

Finally, Rotary International, www.rotary.org, claims 1.2 million members in 34,000 clubs worldwide.

There are, of course, many other service groups doing good works, but Sun Spots has run out of space and cannot list them all. Readers can respond with information about groups she has overlooked.

Many of these groups have declining, aging memberships and are eager to recruit new members. Sociologists blame a number of factors, including busy families with both parents working and home entertainment, namely television and home video, for the lack of participation.

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