Follies Foiled

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

By Ben Cannon

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Middle-aged men in drag speaking in falsetto voices, alternately mimicking and lampooning valley politicians and other local newsmakers and public discourses. That irreverent, colorful scene came to describe the Jackson Hole Kiwanis Follies, begun in 1981 and celebrated every year since. Until this one.

The Follies, written and performed entirely by Kiwanis members (but only the men, historically) was a laborious effort that took months and literally hundreds of man-hours to produce. It was, as Follies organizer Dave Augé called it, “a huge undertaking.”

Though last year’s silver anniversary of the event raised nearly $14,000 for Jackson Hole Kiwanis and the sundry causes it supports – mainly child welfare and student and community programs – the chapter voted over the summer to cancel this year’s sketch show-style parody of the personalities and controversies that color the valley, as every community is colored by its disparate idiosyncrasies (though local politics do not always contribute to a landscape jovially the way, say, okra makes the Southeast unique).

Down to 18 members, give or take, the Kiwanis Club was just not up to the task.
The club did not, however, decide to end the Follies altogether – the plan is put them on hiatus until next year. In the meantime, Kiwanis members, like those in some other local service organizations, hope to bring in new members to offset a nationwide trend that is seeing less people – the younger set in particular – join the classic secular service organizations that still count many of the Greatest Generation and baby boomers among their members.

Membership shortage
Jim Kaye is president of the Jackson Hole Kiwanis. He is among the older members of the group and is the last charter member active in the local club. He said of the Follies cancellation, “We’re going to do everything we can to build a membership and do it again.”

Like other service and networking groups, Kiwanis depends primarily on its current membership to help steer new and prospective members to the organization. But where previous years saw new members join who were not uncommonly in their 20s and 30s, it seems the median age at the local Kiwanis chapter is now some years above that.
 “We used to initially see more young people,” Kaye affirmed. “We still have a few young members, but not in the numbers we used to see. That may be part of the demographics changing. It’s really hard to put a finger on it.”

Kaye suspects that there may be a population or cultural shift at work in Jackson Hole that has somehow made it more difficult to garner interest in his organization or perhaps in the Follies itself. That could point to the idea, as a particular community rhetoric warns of and already points to, that the middle and working class – often a community service-minded lot – are increasingly priced out of and unable to put a stake in Jackson.

Or it could simply mean the younger generation as a whole has less interest in institutions requiring regular commitment, and that the added dash of formality might help turn off a generation with a penchant for flexibility and casualness. When coupled with some laissez faire-mountain town attitudes, you might see groups struggling for new membership.

That is not quite the case, however, for the Jackson Hole Rotary. Rotary is among the healthiest service organizations locally in terms of sheer membership numbers (the Jackson Hole Elks declined to disclose its membership). The group has over 300 members, many of whom spend an hour or so each week among the organization’s breakfast, lunch and supper clubs, according to Steve Robinson, who sits on Rotary’s local Foundation Board.

Like Kiwanis and others, Rotary is equal parts social network and service organization. Between its key fundraisers – the Wine Fest, an elk antler auction, donation match drives within the club – Rotary raised just under $50,000 last year, which it distributed to the hospital, schools, adult literacy programs and a community cleanup, along with other local causes. This year the group is aiming to break the $50,000 mark.
“It gets better every year,” Robinson said. “And if you have an active membership, people want to be involved in that.”

But it’s not fair to compare side-by-side two or more service organizations planted in one community. Smaller to mid-size communities often have one service organization that thrives in membership while another, for whatever reason, is less favored. For example, in Cheyenne, a metropolitan area with a population about four times that of Jackson Hole, the Kiwanis chapter boasts 450 members, while Rotary there counts about 300.

Wondering where the Lions are
At 1.35 million members, Lions Club International is the largest secular service organization worldwide, with chapters in 201 countries. Over the last five to seven years, that group has seen a significant decrease in membership, a spokesperson for the group said. But that could be a trend on the wane.

“We’re actually starting to turn a corner over the decline in membership,” said Dane La Joye, public relations manager for Lions Club.

At the national level, Lions Club, like other organizations, is eyeing ways that volunteers today are likely to offer their free time. As such, the organization is tailoring new opportunities to suit the trend of family volunteerism, where families work and contribute together, and what Joye called the desire for “episodic” volunteering that does not require other time commitments for meetings and the like.

“Americans particularly are just as apt to volunteer now as they were 50 years ago,” La Joye said. “This year we’ve already seen an increase in membership.” He added that women are the fastest growing demographic in the organization, with 65,000 female members joining Lions Club last year alone.

Also, people like to participate in a more direct way. The days of the bake sale are, by and large, over, La Joye observed.

“We’re encouraging clubs to be involved with more hands-on opportunities,” he said. “People want to get out there and get their hands dirty.”

Locally, the Lions Club claims somewhere shy of 30 members, with three new ones up for induction at an upcoming meeting. Cindy Nicholson, president of the Jackson Hole Lions Club, said about a third of the chapter’s members make up a core group that regularly attends monthly meetings and participates in other projects. The group also counts a number of volunteers who pitch in during the 49er Ball and County Fair without officially joining the group.

By design, each chapter of Lions Club – whose service mission is mainly eye care for the needy – has three vice presidents that cycle through that position annually. Due to a lack of willing candidates in Jackson Hole, though, only one of those seats is filled.
“We can’t follow how it should be because we don’t have the people,” Nicholson said.
She added that, while the group is split equally more or less down the gender line, the women are a little more active in the “core group,” and she sees potential in new female membership. 

Nicholson cited a couple of young women in their early 20s – she described them as “about half my age” – who are considering membership with Lions Club. But, she added, “We’re interested in anybody … and would love new members.”
Nicholson was skeptical of looking at an organization’s national and international membership patterns as a good barometer for this community.
“I just don’t think Jackson Hole goes with the trends,” she said. “Our housing market doesn’t go with the trends.”

New strategies
In part to address an uncertain future for secular community volunteerism, Kiwanis International earlier this year went so far as to hire its first-ever CEO. In an email, Kiwanis spokesperson Lila Trickle wrote, “[Kiwanis CEO] Robert Parker is well aware that the traditional service club model is not as well suited to today’s fast-paced, over-committed world and is not as attractive to young leaders as it once was.”

She added the organization is experimenting with a number of strategies to get new members, especially younger members, involved through programs that allow individuals to choose their own club formats – online, young professional, family, etc. – as well as enable groups to work on projects more directly, in more centralized networks that would free up administrative hassles. With membership sitting currently at about 250,000 people in 96 countries, the Kiwanis has set an ambitious goal: one million members by 2015.

Locally, Kiwanis member Dave Augé, who has directed the Follies in recent years, was involved in 24 of the 25 annual events. He at first suspected, though cautiously, that maybe the young people – the “Generation X’ers and Generation Y’ers,” as he called them – are just a little too apathetic or otherwise preoccupied to get involved. But, when presented with the notion of varied opportunities for community service, he acquiesced.

“Now you’re coming to the unique part of Jackson where you have 240-something nonprofits,” he said. “Now you can work with Teton Literacy, therapeutic riding – there are a lot more ways to volunteer. When I got here there were three. The talent’s been spread thinner, I think, because of the opportunities. Everybody’s battling for a pool that’s thinning.”

Young and active
A smaller organization does not always make for a dwindling volunteer group. Soroptimists International of Jackson Hole, currently at 32 members, is a chapter with young leadership. Nicole Wilson, 28, was elected president of the Soroptimists this year.

There is a wide generational swath of women involved in the club to some degree, and Wilson said more of her contemporaries, interested in an organization that focuses on women’s and girls’ issues, have recently joined or are taking steps toward membership.

“Thirty members is healthy for us, but of course you always want more,” she said, adding the chapter has topped out around 40 members since it was chartered locally in 1968.

On Monday evening, the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole announced award monies to the tune $7,747,000 doled out to 211 non-profits between Jackson Hole and Teton Valley, Idaho. Many of those organizations are much too small to keep on staff or even a part time coordinator for volunteers. But of those that do have volunteer coordinators – the Teton Literacy Program, St. John’s Medical Center, not to mention the often stretched-thin nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity, where an executive director takes on that role by default – they are usually looking for help, some more than others.

One website, VolunteerJacksonHole.org, maintained by the Community Foundation, is a good resource for local volunteering opportunities.

Terry Hayden, volunteer coordinator for St. John’s, said she always has openings as the episodic and seasonal volunteers come and go over the year. She said many of the younger people who arrive for charitable work bright-eyed and bushy-tailed soon bow out.

“That’s because of the beast of living here,” Hayden said. “They realize after they’ve been here enough that they have to work two or three jobs to make it work.”
But optimism is strong at Kiwanis, for one, and elsewhere.

“I’ve had people come up and say we miss the Follies,” Dave Augé, the Kiwanis member said.  “But we’re going to get them back.”

Illustration by Nathan Bennett
Does the Jackson Hole KIWANIS’ cancellation of its annual FOLLIES suggest the end is near  for service ORGANIZATIONS?

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Follies Foiled | Planet JH News Article: Cover Stories

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