Cracked has bit today on dying societies, among which they cite the Masons.
Got me to thinking: my dad was a Mason. And in the town where I grew up (rural Ontario, for reference), most of my dad’s age cohort joined one or more of the Masons, Rotary, Kinsmen, IOOF, etc.
So are any of you guys a member of these or other such clubs? I don’t know a single person my age (mid 50s) who is.
I’ll be 50 in 13 days and no, I’m not a member of a service club. I’m also an atheist, so I’m not a member of a church. I am a proud Union member, tho.
Can’t fool us! It’s really because none of them end their meetings by going to the quarry and throwing stuff down there! Anyway, any of your friends talk about being members?
I’m 46, and I’m a Mason. I’ve even posted about it here on the Boards. I joined in January 2010, and it’s been one of the best things I’ve ever done. Our membership trends older, but we’ve got a LOT of middle-aged guys, and plenty of young guys shoring up the ranks.
I was in Kiwanis in my 40’s and 50’s (I left 5 years ago or so).
I didn’t like the right-wing leaning of many of the members, but I generally supported the club’s mission. The club eventually disintegrated due to lack of membership.
I’m 27 and I don’t belong to any service clubs or societies and doubt I ever will.
If I moved to a new town and wanted to make new friends, I would certainly look for meetups or whatever based on my hobbies and interests but I wouldn’t join anything that’s more of a general interest group like Rotary or IOOF and certainly not anything as silly as the masons.
When I lived in Alaska, I was a member of the Moose Lodge, and I was in my forties. We had lots of members that were younger than me, some in their twenties. The Moose Lodge was a popular social center in the small rural town I lived in. We had many family oriented activities that attracted couples with kids. It wasn’t just an old fogey organization where I was.
Nope. My Union is pretty active on the charity front, tho. We do a lot of work with Opportunity Village, etc. and as a Union we hold many social events for our members and their families, i.e. picnics, barbecues, etc.
Reading this thread reminds me I’ve been meaning to re-read Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone.
Membership in service organizations has declined pretty much across the board for decades.
And no, I do not belong to any service organizations (I’m in my early 50’s).
I used to be a member of the Junior Chamber of Commerce (JayCees) which has an age restriction that you must be under 40 to be a member. As the older generations age out, there aren’t any incoming younger members to replace them so the chapters are dying at a pretty alarming rate. I expect this is a preview of what you’ll see with other service groups where the “aging out criteria” is higher and slightly more morbid.
My friend (40) joined the local Rotary “for some reason” (her words) and while she has only been a member for about 6 months they already have put her in charge of 2 different committees. Kinda sucks for her because she has 3 kids and a full-time job, and everyone else in the group is retired. Sounds kind of shitty to me!
Long ago I had a friend who was interested in joining the Masons because he was into the occult and thought they might have some actual “secret knowledge”. Also, he saw it as a sort of retro-hipster ironic move.
As I recall, you need to be nominated by a member to join, and he didn’t know any current members. His attempts to ingratiate with the old duffers was a non-starter.
Never been a joiner. Aspergers and fraternity don’t mix. I haven’t been in one since Cub Scouts. My dad was a Mason and Shriner, very active in both. To his credit, he never said a word about it, recognized me for who I was, and let me find where I’d fit.
Does the fading of these organization account for increasing use of the metric system and electric cars?
Upper 40’s here and used to be a Mason, but I had a fairly demanding job at the time and just couldn’t keep up with everything they did, so I bowed out.
I have been a volunteer firefighter for 20+ years though. In my area, it’s pretty much the same thing as a service organization and fraternity/family. I know that the volunteer fire service has also seen a declining membership in the last several years. I’ve heard many theories why many of these organizations have been on a decline. The one that makes the most sense to me is the fact that so many employers are doing more work with less people. Meaning that many people are either putting in more hours at work or at least working harder than they used to, and just don’t have the time or energy to go to the meetings, trainings, or in my case midnight calls.
I’m sure there are other reasons too, but that is what I see the most around me. A lot of people join our FD, then find out there are monthly meetings, weekly trainings, special trainings, extra committee meetings and don’t forget to come out on the calls that happen at all hours of the day and night! A structure fire at 1am can easily mean you won’t get home until 4am or later, then you have to shower and go to work and actually do your job can be exhausting.
Mid fifties, never had the slightest interest in any of that kind of organization. Most of the people I know in my age group don’t either.
There are occasional exceptions though. Quoting from a Christmas letter recently from a relative, her daughter, age 45 or so, “has assumed several important positions of leadership in local service organizations during the year.” Don’t know what the orgs are, but if she enjoys it, hey, that’s great.
Back when I was a kid (70s-80s), my father belonged to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks which, typing it out, sounds like a participant in the Great Elf Wars or something. As near as I can tell, it mainly involved hitting up the bar in the lodge on weekends and an annual chili cook-off. Back then, all the husbands on the block were Elk so I guess when someone new moved in they got him to join too. Who knows what sort of turf war would have arisen if a Moose moved onto the street.
I haven’t heard about them in years and assumed they were defunct but Wiki tells me that there’s 850,000 members and they’re headquartered in Chicago. Times have changed though and there’s no Elk on my street that I know of and I’m not looking to join.
I’m mid-30s and have been a Lion for about 4 years now.
I joined after my job brought me into contact with them during one of their/our big fundraising events and I got recruited, basically. Service clubs were never really on my radar before; if I had older relatives or neighbours that belonged to one I never heard about it. Currently I’m one of the youngest in club, and aging/declining membership is an issue we’re having some trouble dealing with.
I like the charitable mission and the Lion’s I’ve met are pretty cool (for old fogies 
). I go to a couple of meetings a month and socialize with people outside my normal social circle, work/get drafted to a committee or two, and help out where I can on our fundraising events. I like it, but unless something changes drastically soon, I expect most clubs to die off in Canada before I do.
I’m in my 50s and have never joined any such organization (and no one in my family has either, including my parents).
However, I “joined” the Boy Scouts for my son and then for several years afterwards, which gave me some social and “fraternal” connections with other adult leaders (I think many adults in the BSA wouldn’t mind if there were no kids involved). It gave me good feelings about directly impacting the community, and only stopped when I had to travel constantly for my job.
Joined the Knights of Columbus in my 30s and have been a member for more than 20 years.