Shafer, who served the Kentucky-Tennessee District's as governor from 1988-89, was one of the principal speakers at the Kiwanis International Convention in Miami Beach.. He was first was elected to the International Board in 1994. His family has a history in Kiwanis; his father was also a Kiwanis district governor. Bo Shafer was a charter member of the West High School Key Club and the University of Tennessee Circle K club.

An independent insurance agent, Shafer also is a board member at First Tennessee Bank. He is a former vice-president of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce and past president of the Knoxville Executives Club. An elder and Sunday school teacher (for more than 30 years) at the Second Presbyterian Church, he is a Bible study leader for a group of business and civic leaders.

Shafer's civic involvement outside of Kiwanis has included service for the Salvation Army Board (for more than 30 years), the United Way, Ronald McDonald House, Children's Hospital, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters, which he co-founded in Knoxville. He also has been active with the Knoxville Harvest food bank and a Boy Scout troop in a low-income housing project. The (US) National Society of Fund Raising Executives recently gave Shafer its Outstanding Civic Leader Award.

Shafer in addressing Kiwanians said, "You are the luckiest people on Earth, because you are in the enviable position of having the wherewithal to serve those in need.""We are blessed big-time," Bo says. "We are on the giving side of charity, not the receiving side, and we didn't do anything to deserve it."

A 38-year member and past president of the Knoxville club, Bo sees Kiwanis service not as a duty but rather as a privilege. He believes passionately in Kiwanis' capability to make life better for the world's needy, and he wants to spread that message among the Kiwanis family.