A member of several groups for decades, consensus appears that things are changing…  No longer are there ‘relatively young’ recently retired folks with likely a couple of decades ahead of them to share a hobby they’d pursued during their working years.

Not only are people working longer hours, with less time to build ‘a hobby,’ but working longer into their ‘retirement years.’  Thus, there are very few capable of devoting themselves or donating the time to maintain and build organizations like ours.  Fewer, too, have acres of fruit trees to display and share.  

Fortunately, ‘this’ has been one of the most durable organizations I’ve been a part of.  With a deep pool to draw from, I’d been allowed to pick a comfortable niche.  But as I’ve watched participation dwindle, I’m not surprised…  Having attended, yet not taken on a position within the board of directors, it’s troubled me to watch the same aging members filling ‘rotating positions’ due to a lack of newer participants.  But as mentioned, that appears to be happening everywhere, with the HOS having a longer run than many.

Now, though ‘a million miles away’ myself … I’d be no more inclined than before to step into a board situation that more resembled a high pressure no pay corporate nightmare than I was when closer to the action.  But my suggestion is to allow a continual morphing of events, shifting to match the desires of younger folks with far less space to grow, far less time to donate, and a less engaged commitmentment to what’s been a living mainstay to many of us for decades…