Debbie Redmond’s Hawaii Speech

May 2008



Notes by Debbie Redmond
Corporate Secretary. Y’s Men U.S. Area
And Senior Program Director, YMCA Adult Habilitation Day Program
Carondelet Family YMCA. St. Louis, Missouri
Prepared for the 72nd Y’s Men Hawaii Region Convention
May 2008

Aloha. Greetings from the Mid America Region of the U.S. Area Y’s Men. It is indeed a pleasure for me to be able to attend this Convention and be a representative for the Executive Officers of the U.S. Area. There are currently five Executive Officers, they are the President, Immediate Past President, Chief Financial Officer, Budget Oversight Resource Officer and myself with nine regions and nine Regional Conventions per year to attend. One additional officer will be added this summer when the Area President Elect, Phil Sammer, takes his oath of office.

And you may ask, “What is it you do for the U.S. Area?”. My response, well………..my title is Corporate Secretary. Essentially, that means I am Secretary of any and everything that incorporates the U.S. Area or the Y’s Men International. I take minutes for two major meetings per year. I send out mailings with the help of the Roster Secretary such as for a variety of elections from the U.S. Area and the International. I attend meetings and conferences as a representative on the U.S. Area Level when needed. I answer questions (usually by e-mail) for both the U.S. Area and the International offices. I maintain records and assist the other officers.
(In the photo below, Debbie and her husband Charley attend the Metro District Endowment Dinner in Honolulu May 22, hosted by the Kaimuki Y’s Men’s Club.)

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Our organization, the Y’s Men International,struggles with many of the same issues as other Service Organizations that provide services Internationally. The way I see it, there are two key issues for the U.S. Area Y’s Men. The main one at this time happens to be membership numbers that have been in a steady decline in the U.S. Area. The other issue would be identity of the clubs. In an article written last November about Service Clubs, the USA Today talked about these two difficulties. It stated that the three largest Service organizations in the world are: Lions Club International, Rotary International, and Kiwanis International. Their struggles with membership has been occurring since 1992. They are in the process of redefining the membership and reaching out to the next generations. This has meant providing things like “cyberclubs”, meetings at Starbucks and family clubs. When asked, they will state that people need to have a specific cause or a reason such as for the environment, equality, AIDS, Cancer, etc. A person may join to support a specific cause but now a days, people join for a short term commitment and do not want to make it a long term commitment. They will work for an event but do not want to commit to membership. Indeed, we are like those three International organizations but the growth in membership Internationally has increased for Y’s Men International. If you consider the Lions Club, Rotary, Kiwanis and Y’s Men as far as membership, only two of the four are growing on an International level. The Rotary and Y’s Men are the two that have grown in the last few years. The struggle with declining membership for Y’s Men has been specifically one that is seen in the United States as well as Canada. Membership has increased in some of our international communities but has steadily declined in the United States. In 1968, for example, the U.S. Area Y’s Men Organization had over 607 clubs, with over 9,000 members and were divided into 16 regions. In 2008, the U.S. Area now has 125 clubs, less than 2,000 members and only 9 regions. We have lost 482 clubs and over 7,000 members in the last forty years. While it is understood that obviously we don’t necessarily have the same members for forty years, we have not been replacing lost members in the same manner and the same amount as previously. With the reduction of membership has also meant a reduction in the number of U.S. Area representatives who are considered International Council Members. By 2005, the representatives were reduced from two to one as International Council Members for the U.S. Area. At that time, we then had to change our Area President position to last two years and the Area President Elect responsibilities have been redesigned. As our U.S. membership decreases, the membership in the areas such as Asia and India have greatly increased. The vote on the International Council consists of one vote for the U.S. Area, Africa has one vote, Asia has seven votes, Canada has one vote, Europe has five votes, India has five votes, Latin America has one vote and South Pacific has one vote.

I heard one time that typically only 17 percent of the population are “volunteers” or “joiners”. Y’s Men have to find a way to become more visible and state their specific “cause” so as to attract the people that could possibly become a volunteer for the organization. We are essentially getting older and not recruiting “fresh blood” for our own cause. Some clubs have chosen to dwindle instead of evaluating ways to recruit or add other members. While we have added a few clubs, we have lost even more clubs completely. Additionally, as the membership and the organization of YMCA increases, the visibility of the Y’s Men group has greatly decreased. Many YMCA professionals are no longer aware of the opportunity to have a club that would provide service to their own YMCA. For example, the YMCA of Greater St. Louis has 20 YMCA’s in the Metro area yet there are only two Y’s Men Clubs. The two YMCA’s connected to those Y’s Men clubs thoroughly enjoy and support each other but the other YMCA’s have little knowledge of their existence let alone a desire to start their own club. Some of the states no longer have a single Y’s Men Club yet they may have a large number of YMCA’s. An example of that would be Texas, Arkansas and New Mexico. Things might improve in the next few years if we really work on it. We need to make a commitment to putting effort into getting more people and more clubs. There is the possibility of new clubs being chartered in Alaska, Arkansas and the North Atlantic Region. Interest has been shown in Richmond, Virginia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri, etc. As we talk about having new clubs, it is also important to revitalize our existing clubs and membership. We cannot just charter a club and leave them out there by themselves, we also need to have people available to provide assistance and mentor the club. If we charter a club in Houston Texas, for example, the closest club to that one would be quite a distance away since there are no clubs in Texas, Oklahoma, or even Kansas. The closest club would be close to a thousand miles away.

The second main issue is something I like to call “Identity”. There are essentially 1.5 million not for profit clubs in the United States looking to recruit membership. Out of that 1.5 million, over 500,000 of those clubs are ten years old or less. Most of them have a specific “cause” or reason for their establishment such as those that are seeking to find a cure for a specific disease or help the environment. Y’s Men don’t stand out in that large number of clubs, we also don’t stand out in some of our own YMCA’s either. Imagine, for example, sitting in a booth for one of the YMCA conferences for Health and Fitness in Dallas, Texas. I did just that last May along with Fred Leonard. Only one of every ten people who walked by the booth would respond that they knew about the Y’s Men organization. When Fred was at the booth by himself, he had people comment on the name since they thought it was something only for men since our sign said Y’s Men. Most of you probably know that a club has the option of being called Y’s Men, Y’s Men and Women, or Y Service Club. Our club, for example, is called Carondelet Y Service Club. When we refer to ourselves as a Y’s Men organization, our own YMCA staff look at us in a puzzled manner. The U.S. Area as well as the Y’s Men International are therefore thinking in terms of our own image and what out name means to different groups of people. We need to get our logo and image out there for people to see and become familiar with our identity.

What we need to consider is that there might possibly be a different kind of volunteer out there now than when many of our clubs were established. The generation that saw volunteering as an important component to their lives is slowly fading away. Possible volunteers may indeed want to support a cause but not all of them are willing to donate time as well as money to their favorite cause on a long term basis. And what cause do we support? Most of you here know about the Time of Fast projects throughout the World yet when we talk about Y’s Men, we don’t necessarily tell about them. Many of you joined the organization because of the local “cause” for the YMCA or a specific project instead of anything International. I know I did. I joined after being involved in the annual Book Fair for a few years, my feeling at the time……it was a great group of people and there must be more to the group than spending their time sorting the books, marking them, and deciding how to distribute the money. Not many people have joined the Y’s Men group because they wanted to be a part of that group instead of their cause.

Along with our identity issue is our relationship with the YMCA of the USA. Like I said, not all YMCA’s know we exist. In the Fall, 2007, Fred Leonard requested and received a time to meet with the CEO of the YMCA of USA, Neil Nicoll. The meeting was scheduled to coincide with other meetings in the Chicago Area. Persons who attended included: the International President, Lasse Bergstedt; the International Secretary General, Rolando Dalmas; Rachelle Reeg, Y’s Men Liaison to the Y’s Alliance, and Fred Leonard, U.S. Area President. As a result of that meeting, we are hopeful to be able to incorporate our identity and our need in the trainings for professional Y staff. We hope to get our name out there more often to include some of the publications sent out by the Y of the USA.

So what is our next step? We need people and we need to advertise our own “cause” to convince people to be interested in us. We need to continue to identify prospective members and prospective leaders to continue our commitment. Time and time again I have seen how wonderful this organization has been in reaching out to all YMCA’s that need help by providing volunteer time, money, and assistance. When we help raise money for the YMCA, we help raise money to assist other people. All of you here are committed to the Y’s Men and the YMCA but we now need to make ourselves more known and valued as the “Place to be and the organization that everyone wants to belong.”

Again, thank you for giving me the opportunity to attend this wonderful conference. I look forward to seeing and talking to more of you soon.


Debbie appended this “thank you” note when sending her prepared text to this page:


Mahalo to each of you for such a wonderful time in a wonderful setting for your Hawaii Regional Convention and the Endowment Dinner plus everything else in-between.  I would have to say that all of you were such gracious hosts and made our stay something that will be a wonderful memory the rest of our lives.  Not everyone can say that they got to tour three different islands and spend time with people that really know those islands.  It was so much more than what has been listed in the travel guides and much more than either Charley or myself could imagine for a trip to an "exotic" island.
 
I hope I met the expectations for the Convention as well with my participation and speeches.  I worked hard to make sure that I was prepared and continue to work hard in staying informed about the issues within the Y's Men organization.  Last week, for example, I sat in on the new training that was provided for the District Governors (held here in St. Louis). 
 
Charley is not accustomed to traveling or doing things where it is for my sake and not just family related.  I know the trip was way more than his expectations.  He took 300 plus pictures and has spent a lot of time editing them and showing them off to anyone that even halfway looks interested.  He is now talking about his next trip to Hawaii and the things that we saw which most tourists don't know anything about.
 
Finally, I spent much of the time I was there trying to adjust to the time change.  I am now spending much of my time here since returning home adjusting back to the time change.  It was well worth all of it though to be able to say that I went to Hawaii and had a wonderful time attending a Convention.  Thanks to each and everyone of the people at the Convention, who assisted with my stay, and helped with the Endowment Dinner.  Hope to be able to see and talk to each of you again very soon.
 
 
 
Debbie Redmond