I’ve lamented in this column about how Millennials and Generation Xers don’t seem to be joiners, and how it negatively impacts some of the service clubs and other organizations that Boomers, like me, hold dear.
I was wrong.
When the value proposition is right, and the organization is welcoming, they come out in droves.
I don’t know what the magic combination is, or if it can be duplicated, but when it happens, there is a serious “WOW” moment.
The Association of Information Technology Professionals, Greater Wheeling has been shrinking and greying for years. Some of the local tech people (great minds all, I assure you) called us the “card punchers”.
With all due respect to Herman Hollerith, who invented the card that bears his name to record the 1890 United States Census, only a few in the room actually “punched cards”.
We got involved with computing antiquity like batch processes. No, I don’t pine for the bad old days, but the point I’m making is that there was an old guard, of which I’m a part. Some of the old guard joined the club in the 1960’s (it was founded in 1965), and we tried about everything to attract younger, working members to join our organization and carry it forward.
It wasn’t working.
The club is well-funded and has been properly managed with a board meeting to plan for activities. Nothing that we did to attract new members worked, and we tried a lot of things.
Much of what we offered could be found on the internet.
Then a couple of guys without all the grey hair (or guys who actually had hair) started showing up. Then they figured out that there were things they could share over a meal with a cold beverage in their hand that just wasn’t possible online, or in a forum. The presentations were interesting, but, with rare exception, could be duplicated online.
What could not be duplicated was the social part that they rediscovered.
It’s great fun having intelligent banter with people who were actually fighting the same battle. Once that started, it took off on its own. The growth seems to be organic in the best kind of way.
First it was one guy, then another, then four, and now at 8 and the trend looks to continue. They are nearly outnumbering the old crew. Best yet, they wanted to lead and to take the club in new directions that were completely in sync with the organizations mission.
The old crew smiled and got the hell out of the way. We welcomed the new guard and facilitated them taking over the organization.
They will make it a new and more vital club, and I’m excited for the future.
I’ve been president of the organization five occasions in the past 25 years, and the first two times I tried new stuff. The last three I phoned it in by finding qualified speakers.
If I Shanghaied you to speak, thank you for doing so.
The new leadership knows at least one of the old timers will try to bring back the awards system that made HR departments happy in 1984 and does nothing today. I know the new leadership will have the presence of mind to say so.
And my fellow fossil is going to let it go.
For the first time in many years, we have net membership growth, and exciting vibrant meetings. I think the reinvigorated group will make 100 years with ease. My generation and the prior generation made certain they are funded for it.
All because of sound leadership.
Another organization I belong to had a completely different reaction. An organization that is older than the State of West Virginia recoiled at the thought of six new members. I’m willing to wager they have not had six new applications in more than a decade.
Instead of being welcoming, they bristled and pulled out the tired old rule book, looking for ways to discourage the interlopers. Their approach was not how do we get this done, but rules. This isn’t yesteryear. It’s today.
It’s yet to be seen if the new nucleus will form, but I’m not encouraged.
They had a chance right up to the point they scolded the energized member more than a generation younger than most of the leadership because the applications he brought forth were not perfect. It’s sad, really. One young man brought more members in one night that the cumulative leadership team has in years, and they ridicule him?
That’s sad, and it’s a harbinger of a not-so-rosy future.
So, how are you going to lead? And when you’re past your “Sell By Date,” tell me exactly how you’re going to get the hell out of the way.
Your legacy depends on it.
