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Community, comraderie, cool hats: should I join a fraternal organization?

  • I want to become more engaged in my community. Should I join a fraternal organization? I'm in my early 30s and live in a large city. I've lived here for nearly a decade and want to start volunteering in the community on a regular basis. In the past I've participated in day- or week-long events (park cleanups, political campaigns, information booths, etc.) but now I want to commit to something while meeting interesting people from different backgrounds. I've been reading up on fraternal organizations - Odd Fellows, Freemasons, Elks, Knights of Pythias - and they all have a community service aspect to their mission. Does anyone out there have any experience with these or other fraternal organizations? I know they've been on the decline for the last 50 years or so, but I like the idea of belonging to an organization where you can build relationships with different people while serving the community. I've requested info from the Odd Fellows and Pythians. Anyone have insight on what to expect as a member? Are any of these organizations willing or able to attract new, younger members? What level of commitment is required?

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    Not sure how this one slipped by me! For what it's worth, a couple of months after the fact...My impression is that a lot of those organizations exist primarily for themselves. For networking and being part of a club, not primarily for community work. My father was in the Rotary for many years, and while Rotary does a lot of great things for the community, 80% of your time is taken up by the process of being a Rotarian. Going to various meetings and such.This is definitely true to an extent, but I think some organizations (Kiwanis, for instance) are more community service-oriented than others. The thing to keep in mind with all of these organizations is that each local chapter may have a significantly different focus on the community than the next; it does them a disservice to generalize too broadly.Anyone have insight on what to expect as a member?I became a Freemason about 3 years ago. My lodge has a http://masonicangelfund.org/index2.htm which anonymously provides necessary items of clothing to kids in need, and several times a year some of the members will go to a local school and run a http://www.mychip.org/ event. We host a Red Cross blood drive once or twice a year, and the building corporation gives out a small annual scholarship. Another lodge in my district runs a food pantry (and people from other lodges often bring food when visiting) and another raises several thousand dollars per year for a local http://www.relayforlife.org/relay/ event... so there's definitely community-oriented stuff going on. Most if not all of these groups have been through a lot of very lean years, with members leaving or dying and nobody new joining up. As a result, many of them have gone into life-support mode: a small number of dedicated members keeping the lodge open while non-essential programs fall by the wayside because there's nobody to do the work, and the older guys just plain got tired of running everything themselves. This was the case at my lodge until 3-4 years ago.Are any of these organizations willing or able to attract new, younger members? There are a lot of younger guys (20s, 30s, 40s) joining the Masons in Massachusetts, and not just in urban areas. My lodge feels like it's starting to wake up again now that there are enough new/younger guys around to start making things happen again. The Odd Fellows & Knights of Pythias have a smaller presence in Massachusetts, concentrated around Boston, so I can't speak to how well they're doing.What level of commitment is required?This may vary greatly depending on the organization you join, as well as state and local tradition; In Massachusetts Freemasonry you are expected to attend six meetings when you join; three of them are your degrees, and the other three are "Lodges of instruction" where you review and discuss each preceding degree with an instructor. Traditionally there is also a component of memory work required before you advance from one degree to the next. Some states and/or lodges are very rigorous about this, and it may take a candidate three years to get through the third degree. Some are fairly perfunctory and it may only take three months. In Massachusetts those six meetings are pretty much it; you pay your dues, take the degrees, and if you never set foot in the lodge again, most lodges aren't going to call and ask why. Or, if someone asks you to help out with something and you say "sorry, I'm busy that weekend," it's not a big deal. Family and work come first, always. Again, YMMV depending on the customs of a given group in a given state (or sometimes region within a state.) I hope you've heard back from somebody by now - good luck if you decide to join! MeMail me if I can answer any other questions.

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Here in central Maryland the membership of the organizations you mention is composed largely of very senior citizens, and it's shrinking considerably. Membership of local Kiwanis, Elks, Lions, Ruritans and Civitans seems to be younger by around 10 to 15 years. Local service organizations which seem to cater more toward younger adults would include some of the Rotary Clubs and the Jaycees. I'm not a member of any of these, but from what I've seen over the years, the Rotary Clubs do good work and actively encourage younger folks to become involved.

imjustsaying

I wouldn't put a lot of stock in the corporate HQ birds-eye-view of these organizations as much as I would a hands-on knowledge of what the local chapter is like. In my experience in the world of Rotary (I was a member of Rotaract, a sort of junior Rotary, for a number of years), individual clubs may be comparable in an abstract sense but their composition and tone can vary widely. Also, with Rotary you do need a sponsor and meet the membership requirements and attend meetings and in most of these, you sort of have to be invited (although some clubs may be hungrier than others, Rotary at least maintains a bit of a rarified air). Finally, while many clubs may have one or two activities in which they are deeply involved, there will be many others with only cursory participation. Frankly, I would pick something that meant a lot to me and run with that, unless I needed the networking. The original purpose of fraternal societies was to provide insurance for members (no, really). Some of them were profession-specific, some were more into Masonic-inspired rituals than others, and so forth. Most of them began to bleed members in the postwar era, and the more generic community-service organizations -- Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions primarily -- have survived better than others.

dhartung

My impression is that a lot of those organizations exist primarily for themselves. For networking and being part of a club, not primarily for community work. My father was in the Rotary for many years, and while Rotary does a lot of great things for the community, 80% of your time is taken up by the process of being a Rotarian. Going to various meetings and such. In other words, you're in Rotary first, and doing community work a very distant second. It sounds like you want the opposite - an organization primarily dedicated to community work. Thus I would recommend you narrow down your choices a little, and choose a dedicated nonprofit - or several - to volunteer with. Your community will have a plethora of organizations like YMCA, animal shelters, food banks, meals on wheels, teen outreach, etc. (Or if you're really ambitious and you truly want a broad-spectrum community-based organization... start one!)

ErikaB

My impression is that a lot of those organizations exist primarily for themselves. For networking and being part of a club, not primarily for community work. My father was in the Rotary for many years, and while Rotary does a lot of great things for the community, 80% of your time is taken up by the process of being a Rotarian. Going to various meetings and such. In other words, you're in Rotary first, and doing community work a very distant second. Agreed. My dad is in the Lions Club and I'd say it's about 50/50, which still might be too much administrative work vs. actual volunteering. If you don't mind disclosing your city, you might get more targeted suggestions.

slmorri

Does anyone out there have any experience with these or other fraternal organizations? I know they've been on the decline for the last 50 years or so, but I like the idea of belonging to an organization where you can build relationships with different people while serving the community. Totally anecdotal, but I have no fewer than four friends in their 30s living in urban areas who have recently joined the Masons for similar reasons. I know a number of non-senior-citizens who are active members of their Elks/Rotary type clubs, but they are all mid-40s suburban guys with a few kids.

desuetude

Could you help out with a local Boy/Cub/Girl Scout unit? The parents there do all of the work themseves, but they're only there for the kids -- i.e., not much overhead. (If you want the networking, I am sure you could get that, too.) There is of course the risk of appearing to be a creep, so knowing someone who could vouch for you would help. :7) But I love the time I give to my boys' Cub Scout pack: the whole point of the thing is to have a good time, and I always find myself learning something.

wenestvedt

Every nonprofit has a board, and they're always looking for board members. That might be a way to meet people who have similar interests, but without the gender and age limitations of fraternal organizations.

judith

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