|
|
| Middletown Community News |
| What Has Happened to the Clubs? |
| Tuesday, March 25, 2008 9:30:23 AM - Middletown Ohio |
by Ann Mort
One of the projects I’ve handled for the past 17 years, since Middletown celebrated its Bicentennial year in 1991, is the list of club presidents. While working to promote “Bici” we gathered the names and contact info on every club we could find in the Middletown area. When that celebratory year was finished, I kept updating that list each year and sharing it with anyone who wanted the information—Middletown Public Library, United Way, Chamber, City, Schools, individuals, etc. The list has been very useful many times to locate these community assets. (The phone books do not list most clubs since few of them have separate phone lines.)
Through the years, a change in the club position in the community has become fairly evident. It ain’t what it used to be.
Those of us over a certain age will remember when club membership was almost a requirement for citizenship. Most community leaders belonged to one or several clubs and worked hard to promote whatever the project was for their organization. Remember the Rotary Club fruit sales that supported their projects? How about the Lions’ Rose Day? Every lady in town looked forward to a delivery of roses to her desk or doorstep, compliments of her special guy or boss.
Changes have happened…
More women joined the workforce in full-time jobs.
Families focused more on shuttling the kids around to their many functions—soccer, ballet, music lessons, etc.
Young couples devote their free time to supporting their kids’ interests.
There is less and less need to find socialization in the weekly or monthly meeting of like-minded people in a club.
Most of today’s workforce has had enough of meetings, office socialization and internet/email communication by the time they arrive at the home/nest.
A result of many changes is that fewer and fewer young people feel a need or desire to join a club. They are, however, willing to do their part and show up to help build a playground or clean a park. How many times have we heard or thought… “Just tell me when to show up and what you want done but don’t expect me to stand around and wait for you to organize or go to a meeting.”
This shift in thinking and acting has resulted in a net loss to the club numbers and the numbers of members of those clubs. Of course, part of the problem is that clubs have refused to evolve. Many of us often forget that volunteers show up because they get something out of the experience, not just because you have something that needs doing. Clubs are generally made up of people who originally volunteered to help with a project of some kind and just stayed together because they enjoyed the people and/or the project.
About five years ago, I started noting the number of clubs on the list after every update. In 2003 there were 225 clubs on the list and several did not answer the request for updated information so there was no way to know if they existed at all. Notes with some of the responses were along the line of – “We aren’t really a club any more. We just get together for lunch. Our members are too old or too few to run the fund-raisers these past few years.”
This year, after pleading for updated material with the usual less-than-perfect response, I sent the list of 166 out to a large number of email contacts. Even after everybody sent info and added new clubs or clubs that had escaped notice in the past, the number is just 173 in 2008. And, this number includes a few groups in Monroe, Franklin and Trenton.
Through the years, there is a noticeable shift away from social and service clubs. New groups seem to focus on a specific need or an activity.
So, is this a good or bad thing that there are fewer clubs or, at least, changed clubs? I suppose it depends on how one views the changes.
Free time may well be better utilized in activities of special interest to that person or family.
But, what happens to the community projects many of the old style clubs supported? Scholarships come to mind. Is there a need for those scholarships? Will the public universities and government funding eliminate the need for scholarships in the future? Do we have a sufficient supply of scholarship money available through our Middletown Community Foundation?
Will we some day realize we don’t really know anybody any more? We’ve spent so much time on email , text messaging and internet chat rooms we don’t know how to talk to anybody in full sentences any more or how to work together for the good of the community – not just the company?
Actually, as one who has successfully avoided membership in clubs my entire adult life – I think we’ll do just fine. Every generation seems to pull itself together and find its own pathway. I hope to stick around long enough to see what replaces all these clubs who fall by the wayside. I hope it is something really great that BFF’s can do together.
|
| |
|
Archived Comments
| 3/25/2008 10:24:30 AM | JF | | As the average age of members get older, they need to find a way to draw in younger members. As former Rotarian, the weekly meeting just took too much out of my busy schedule. Some of the old rules need to be changed to get younger members to get on board. | | 3/25/2008 10:27:25 AM | Andy Wendt | Nice story and good points about the natural change in our social environment. I would expect this trend to continue and your list to grow smaller each year.
| | 3/25/2008 10:40:08 AM | Kyle Thompson | | Nice story. I think a lot of the reason these clubs are getting smaller is the internet. Instead of going to some meeting, everyone can conveniently check their email, go to a forum, get on other social sites, or even get on a video game to get together and discuss/do things. A lot of the gaming crowd have their own forms of clubs such as guilds, clans, etc... So the internet is really changing the way we look at clubs and other organizations. | | 3/25/2008 10:51:13 AM | Bill Schiering | Ann,
I am the president of a club of sorts, it’s actually a Fraternity. The Fraternal Order of Eagles, Middletown Aerie #528 on 1300 First Avenue. Middletown Aerie #528 was instituted on November 8th, 1903, so we have been around for a while. Our members are still very active in the community. In the last 3 years, we have donated over $400,000.00 to local charities, city departments and scholarship funds. Just this month we have donated $2,528.00 to the Middletown K9 for specialized equipment for their cruisers to keep their K9’s safe, we sent 1000 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies to the Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and supported numerous charities for kids.
We still have meetings every week, participation in the meeting is not required, but it is appreciated. I have also found that people will show up, pitch in and work when asked, but not many want to spend the time to have meetings to organize the activities.
I do believe that everything ebbs and flows. The participation in clubs is shrinking right but I think it will become important again in the future. The only questions are when and what will initiate the swing back to the fraternalism of community service.
Here is our contact information, please put us on your list:
Fraternal Order of Eagles, Middletown Aerie #528, 1300 First Avenue, Middletown, OH, 45044, 513-423-1121, foe528@sbcglobal.net
| | 3/25/2008 5:58:09 PM | Tony Cipollone | | I know as a father of two young children with a wife who works full time as well, it is hard for us to committ any time for civic minded activities on a regular basis. Hopefully that will change soon as I think people generally feel better about themselves when they can contribute to the community in some manner. |
|
|
|
