In Rapid City and throughout the nation, service clubs such as Lions, Rotary and Kiwanis are lacking younger members.

The trend has left Rapid City club members and leaders to look for a way to bring those younger people into the clubs to guarantee that the organizations will have a future.

"I think that people in their mid 20s to 45 really need to consider becoming members of these charitable organizations," said Rapid City Rotary Club president David Wittnebel. "Because if they don't, there won't be anybody to run them in the future."

Many who are involved in the clubs theorize that the younger people are less active in service clubs because of time constraints, a faster-paced society and possibly less interest in community service.

The service clubs perform a number of community activities that some members are afraid will suffer as enrollment diminishes and the existence of clubs is threatened.

Rotary is a club that does service projects locally and nationally. Keeping the Storybook Island children's park running is one of the main local projects for the Rapid City club. Internationally, the club's goals include eradicating polio worldwide.

Wittnebel is worried that club projects could be directly affected by what happens or doesn't happen with membership numbers in the future.

"As the number of active members would go down, or the number of active members with the ability to do things goes down, yes, it's going to affect the amount of help they can give, both locally, nationally and internationally," he said.

The Downtown Kiwanis Club's main focus is helping children. In its biggest project, the club spends thousands of dollars each year buying new shoes for children at schools on the north side of the city.

Club member Jim Kuehn said teachers contact the club when they see a child needs a pair of shoes, and then a Kiwanis member picks the child up from school and takes him or her shopping, allowing the student a new pair of shoes and six pairs of socks.

Projects like this could suffer eventually from lower numbers, Kuehn said.

Wittnebel said that of the 90 current Rotary members, only about 30 percent "at best" are 25 to 40 years old. He doesn't think there are any members who are younger than 25.

Kuehn did not have exact numbers but said a majority of the members are in the "gray-headed" category.

He thinks the reason for the decrease in younger members has to do with the activities that are popular today, as opposed to what may have been popular 20 or 30 years ago.

"As one who went through that same stage in my life, I just didn't have as much competition for my time, my money, my resources," he said. "(There's) just a huge change in what's available and what people are inclined to want to do with their free time." Skiing and snowboarding are just a couple of the kinds of activities that didn't used to be prevalent, Kuehn said.

Parents are also busy taking their kids to various activities, he said.

He also believes that the younger generation takes on more debt load and has to work harder to keep up a comfortable lifestyle than 20 or 30 years ago.

Wittnebel agreed about some of the reasoning behind the loss of younger members.

"We try to encourage people to join Rotary who have the time and are willing to become productive, fully contributing members, and I think that's where the problem lies," he said. "Younger people have difficulties finding the time to devote resources."

He also thinks the abundance of clubs in Rapid City contributes to thinner membership numbers.

Jason Koppman, 44, is a younger member of Rotary who juggles his club duties around family and business commitments.

Koppman, a third-generation member, said the main reason he joined is because his father and grandfather preceded him in the club.

But after he joined, Koppman enjoyed the club and stayed in for reasons other than to fill those shoes.

"I had some nerves about joining, but once I got in, some of those guys latched onto me and sort of mentored me into the club," he said. "I fell in love with the aspects of Rotary and what they do for Rapid City, and Storybook Island in particular."

In a sort of Catch-22 situation, Koppman said that the lack of younger members contributes to problems attracting younger members.

"These are older clubs, and a lot of the members are older members," he said. "That can be a deterrent too, if you don't have a young corps of guys to take them and say, 'It can benefit (you).'"

He said that attracting younger members is key in not only ensuring that clubs can survive but also keeping ideas flowing.

"Having young folks in the club is so important," he said. "The older members have great experience, but they've also done it all. If you don't have that fresh blood in there to add that energy and new ideas and stuff, the club can suffer."

Sid Goss, a sociology professor at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology and a Rotarian himself, offers a more technical explanation for the loss of younger members.

He said the baby boomer generation, born after 1945, which makes up a large part of the current service-club membership, is extremely service-oriented. But the generation after that, referred to as Generation X, is much less so.

"They're just not as interested in the service club as the baby boomers might be," Goss said.

He said the service clubs could be in trouble in the future.

"We'll see some service clubs struggle and perhaps go out of existence in some communities," he said. "And that's really unfortunate because they do many good things for their communities."

However, Generation Y, or the millennials, seem to be more service-oriented, Goss said, citing surveys taken of young people and their interests.

"We're looking for a slump in the next decade or so, and then if the millennials hold true to the predictions, they'll be back," he said.

But time will tell whether that prediction comes true, and how the clubs will weather the lag in members.

None of the club members seems to have a concrete answer as to how to solve the problem and how to attract enough members so the clubs can survive at their current strength in the coming years.

Goss said that, perhaps, the clubs need to be run a different way for the current era, perhaps to compensate for the faster pace of society.

"I'm wondering if service clubs need to change the way they do things, and I don't have an answer to what that is," he said.

Koppman, who said he enjoys hands-on projects like Storybook Island, said a key to keeping members is getting them involved after they join.

He said current members need to "get them involved in that club so that they don't become lost just going to a meeting and listening to a speaker, but they're actually doing and giving back to the community."

Wittnebel said the Rotary currently isn't aware of any special tactics to attract younger members but is trying some television and newspaper advertising in South Dakota that he hopes will help. Kuehn doesn't know of any miracle cures to the problem, either.

He said his fellow Kiwanians will probably have to work hard to recruit members the old-fashioned way.

"I think part of it is motivation of our own members to rescue ourselves and ask that critical question: 'Would you like to join?'"

Contact Ryan Woodard at 394-8412 or ryan.woodard@rapidcityjournal.com