This is so true. My brother is president of the Optimist Club in our hometown. It's a small town (pop. 10,000) with 60 or so members in the Club. They have a core of 10 people who actually volunteer to do the work, time after time. And this is the "Optimist" Club. They have the same recruitment difficulties and member number shrinkage MOA does. Sad to say a sign of the times. Be it secular, religious, brand, charitable or whatever, physical socialization hit its high mark in the 50's...since then television, Internet and other social media has created a new social culture.
There's a book, "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community" by Robert D. Putnam, that touches on this point. It is one of many writings on the topic and how is has changed our social nature. Putnam notes (and this fits almost all "Clubs" to varying degrees) the aggregate loss in membership of many existing organizations and points out that the act of individual membership has not migrated to other, succeeding organizations. To illustrate why the decline in Americans' membership in social organizations is problematic, Putnam uses bowling as an example. Although the number of people who bowl has increased in the last 20 years, the number of people who bowl in leagues has decreased. If people bowl alone, they do not participate in social interaction and civic discussions that might occur in a league environment. Putnam then contrasts this countertrend of ever increasing mass-membership organizations, nonprofit organizations and support groups to the data of the General Social Survey. This data shows an aggregate decline in membership of traditional organizations, supporting his thesis that U.S. social capital has declined.
Seems to fit us - no?
