Michigan membership in international service clubs decreased through the ’80s and ’90s but Lansing-area chapters memberships have begun to boom.
The Rotary International Club has 4,167 Michigan members, compared to 4,510 in 1994. The Michigan Jaycees has 4,500 members, compared to about 10,000 in 1991. In 1983, Lions Clubs International had 23,000 members in the state and they now have 17,170 members.
But Loran Graham of the East Lansing Meridian Lions Club said membership is on the rise.
“Our district had a downturn and now we’re on our way up again,” he said. “The more projects you have and the more people you keep involved, the more people that are attracted.”
Graham said the club has about 37 members and a new branch club with 25 members is launching.
Sara Ballard, one of 60 members in the Lansing Jaycees, said membership is increasing within their organization as well.
“We are at our peak in the past five years,” she said. “We inducted 12 members in the first quarter, which is three times what we normally get.”
The 97 chapters of the Michigan Jaycees had 182 new members this year, the most new members of any state in the Jaycees organization.
“We were dropping in the ’90s,” Michigan Jaycee President Gerry Boik said. “But I think the generation of members we’re getting now have more of a sense of community. Technology and the Internet has made people more worldly.”
Michael Harrison, the president of the 297-member Lansing Rotary Club, said membership within their chapter is at its highest.
“Membership has risen steadily this year,” he said. “It’s our cumulative community efforts that encourage people to join.”
None of the clubs have changed their requirements to recruit more people.
Jaycee members must be between the ages of 21 and 39.
“Even though we would like to bring in new members, children and teenagers have not been invited to be members of the Jaycees,” Boik said.
Ballard agreed.
“We haven’t found the need to relax the requirements,” she said. “I think there is an increase because people are looking for a way to get involved in the community and we provide a multitude of ways to do that.”
