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September 26, 2012

Civic groups struggle for membership

Rebeka Rutledge The Duncan Banner

DUNCAN — Declining memberships is a problem being faced by almost all the local civic clubs and the Duncan Noon Lions Club is planning to try to figure out why that is.

During their meeting at noon Thursday at the Simmons Center, the program will be a panel discussion between several leaders representing their various civic clubs.

What they hope to accomplish is finding solutions to the issue.

“We’re going to brainstorm the problem and see if we can find the answers,” said Mike Davis, member of the Noon Lions Club who came up with the idea for the panel discussion.

Among the civic groups to be represented are the Lions Club, Kiwanis, AMBUCS, Duncan Optimists, Rotary and Leadership Duncan. Chamber of Commerce President Chris Deal will take the role as moderator for the discussion.

“When I joined in the 1970s, there were 60 or more members (in the Lions Club),” said Tom Daughtry, a still active member for Lions. “It’s slowly declined and there’s been nobody to replace those we lose.”

Currently, there are about 20 dues paying members to the club, but only about 13 active members.

Active member means they actually come to meetings and volunteer to help out with club projects. Small numbers is the case with all the clubs.

The representatives for the clubs will also have the chance to share what their group does for the community.

Each one has activities that aren’t only fundraisers for their projects and causes, but they provide the community with fun activities to do.

Already, some of these traditions have been canceled, such as the Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast on election day.

“Everyone always associates election day with a pancake breakfast served by the Kiwanis,” said Davis. “They don’t come because it’s a fundraiser, they come because it’s a fun event.”

The same goes for the Noon Lions Club annual rodeo and Rotary yearly celebration and the Wine’n on the Chisholm Trail run by AMBUCS.

Without steady memberships, these events will be no more.

Additionally, the funds raised at these events go to help worthy causes and without the money, those causes would suffer as well.

One example is the funds from Kiwanis helps to keep KiddieLand in Fuqua Park open.

There are several ideas so far as to why memberships may be dwindling in these civic groups.

“I think a lot of people have felt they couldn’t just show up to the meetings,” said Kelsey Avants, an active Lions Club member. “They feel like they need to be invited and we need to overcome that.”

Another is that as current members get older, they either die or can no longer be active due to health issues.

No young blood is coming in to make up for those losses. One idea is to get parents to educate their children on the clubs.

“All these clubs do a lot for Duncan and without them, all those activities will go away,” Daughtry said.

The Lions Club is open to the public and they welcome all visitors and any new members.

The meeting will be a good opportunity to learn about several local civic groups and help them figure out how to keep their clubs going.

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