Monday, April 6, 2009

Joining Up

I have a small concern about many of the organizations I belong to/participate in. The concern? The majority of the participants are getting OLD. HAM radio club? Median age 60+. Shooting club? Median age (not of the shooters who are all ages but of the administration) 60+. A church I visited with a friend? Median age 70. It sees like younger people these days don't join organizations like they did in years past. Of course it is wonderful to have retired folks volunteering everywhere from disaster prep groups to community clubs. These people have the time to work on club activities because they are retired and they have the experience from previous work to get lots of things done, however, I am just wondering what will happen when this demographic dies off. We need younger people to become involved in order to keep many of these organizations going. Even more concerning is the fact that it seems like the younger generation listens less to wise locals who can impart wisdom and common sense and more to centralized media that leads the populace around by the nose whether they make any sense or not. Anyway, I'll hop off my soapbox now. I guess today's message is to encourage the younger generation to participate, join up, and keep our local organizations going by sharing our knowledge and wisdom in order to create future leaders (and to protect them from media brainwashing!).

2 comments:

  1. The flip side of getting the younglings to participate is getting the elders to allow them to participate and feel that they are a part of the group, not just an audience for "how things used to be" lectures.

    I'm in the transition age between the two (45) and when younger the old ones wasn't interested in listening to new ideas (necessary for the growth and continued life of a group).

    The young ones want to feel as if they are a contributing member of the group and are taken seriously.

    If the old ones want the group to continue they need to nurture the young ones into the structure and not have the young ones simply wait until the old ones die off.

    --- joe

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  2. Exactly! I too am in the transition age so I am seeing it from both sides as well.

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