Service clubs change with the times

It's not easy being an Optimist these days. Or a member of the Lions Club, Rotary Club or Kiwanis.

Civic strongholds of the mid-20th century, these service organizations have been beset by aging, dwindling memberships and the demise of small towns. Even the inclusion of women in the 1980s couldn't stem enrollment declines of 20 to 50 percent over the past few decades.

But tough times call for semi-tough -- and decidedly 21st-century -- measures for these venerable social networks. On today's docket: LinkedIn pages, satellite clubs, the occasional e-meeting or family gathering at a bowling alley and, most of all, flex time built around busy schedules.

"If you're going to attract younger members, there's a big difference between people in their 50s and 60s versus people in their 20s and 30s," said David Moen of the Burnsville Lions Club. "People in their 50s and 60s like to get together and have a meal and BS. Younger people like to e-mail."

So while Moen, 63, is part of the district's Membership Retention Committee, his son Mark, 36, is the district's public relations director. Among his duties: setting up Facebook pages.

If such groups are to draw younger folks beyond the offspring of members, Mark Moen admitted, they'll have to work even harder on overcoming an image that's equal parts ol' boy and old man.

"A lot of Lions have been members for a long time," he said. "We have to show that we're not just elderly guys who meet for a beer and decide to clean a park."

These service organizations, which tend to have a stronger humanitarian focus than fraternal orders such as the Moose and Elks clubs, were founded about a century ago, mostly in the Midwest.

They were male-only groups of businessmen, focused on a single cause such as polio for the Rotary and blindness for the Lions. (Helen Keller spoke at the latter's 1925 international convention.)

They grew, especially after World War II, and were particularly prominent in smaller towns. But the demise of those communities meant that service clubs there "dried up as well," said Terry Gorman, secretary-treasurer of the St. Paul Optimists. "It's like death by a thousand cuts, not slicing your arm off like Monty Python."

Meanwhile, the "greatest generation" that had fueled the clubs' ascent started dying off, but not before faltering on ensuring their legacy.

"I don't think they quite got the recruitment thing right," Gorman said. "When I was just out of college, this guy said, 'You should come to our breakfast meeting.' I thought he wanted me to sell Amway. It took a couple of meetings before I decided, 'Hey, I like these people.'"

As their numbers started dwindling, the clubs expanded their scope, to look more like the rest of the population. Women were welcomed -- they now comprise about 30 percent of the Dakota-Ramsey-Washington County Lions' Clubs -- as were people from all vocations.

"We are no longer strictly a business organization," said Denis Cornell, governor-elect for Kiwanis Clubs of Minnesota and the Dakotas. "We still have doctors and attorneys, but also truck drivers and custodians."

Youth, and flex time, served

Still, the biggest recruiting focus has been to think young. And luring younger members, especially those with families, has meant sacrificing strict adherence to the weekly meetings that have been the organizations' M.O. for decades.

The Minneapolis City of Lakes Rotary Club gathers for breakfast every Wednesday at the Minneapolis Club, often with a vocal performance by their Rotary Rooters chorus.

But the organization is flexible about how its younger outfits, Interact (high-school age) and Rotaract (for 18- to 30-year-olds), operate.

"They might meet twice a month, sometimes at a bowling alley or party room," said Guy Marzano, president of the Minnetonka Rotary Club.

The Lions have family clubs (with dues reductions) and have launched a unit at Dakota County Technical College.

"We are older Lions, but we are also younger Lions and women and college kids," said Mark Moen, whose Burnsville unit's membership has risen in recent years.

The Kiwanis Club has satellite outfits that can work under a recently introduced 3-2-1 program: three hours service, two hours social, one hour meeting every month. The Kiwanians also are "starting basically at the cradle," Cornell said, with K-Kids elementary-school clubs that "formulate and decide what kind of service projects they want to do."

But attracting young adults remains a challenge, the Optimists' Gorman said, because so many of them already are doing charitable work.

"So many of them have done community service during their school years and might have felt like 'I did my stint,'" Gorman said. "Or then with something like Habitat for Humanity, you can pick a day and hammer, nail and tote stuff and walk away and feel like 'I've picked that off.'"

That makes local community pride, which has long been these clubs' hallmark, as important a recruiting tool as ever.

"Hey, maybe your neighborhood needs some playground equipment," David Moen said, "then join the Lions Club and hold a fundraiser. So you can't come to meetings, but by golly you can come to two or three fundraisers a year, and there's nothing wrong with that."

Bill Ward • 612-673-7643