by Celeste Lindell of Average Jane

Around 2001, a friend invited me to cook something to bring for dinner to the residents of a Ronald McDonald House. It turned out to be a service project of the Soroptimist Club, a businesswomen’s community service organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls.

Soroptimist, which means “the best for women,” was founded in the 1920s, back when organizations like the Rotary Club restricted their membership to men only. At one time, it had more of a “high society” membership of female executives and business owners, but these days the clubs are happy to have any working woman who supports their initiatives.

I joined Soroptimist International of Kansas City in 2002 and was president during the 2006-2007 club year. As much as I enjoy the hands-on volunteer projects of the club, the best part about it for me is the women I get to interact with. The members range in age from late 30s to mid-90s. Every time I attend a meeting, I hear at least one amazing story from someone whose life experience is wonderfully rich and varied.

In case you’re wondering, I did wait to dye my hair dark blue until my term as president ended. However, everyone has taken the change in stride (I still sit on the board) and gotten used to the idea that I’m pretty much always going to be wearing a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers unless we have a really fancy event.

Various grandmotherly members often ask me about my band and sometimes suggest that we play at a club function. I think about the raucous song selection we have and politely thank them, knowing that most of the club members would hate it if such a thing ever came to pass.

The sad thing is that the club is getting smaller and smaller. Every year, at least one elderly member passes away, and the younger members tend to drift off to have families or deal with work responsibilities.

I like all the parliamentary procedure, the history and the chance to do the kinds of volunteer work that my grandmother might have done. Judging by the club’s difficulty in getting new members, those kinds of things don’t have much appeal for Generation Y or even most of my fellow Generation Xers.

I understand the difficulty of recruiting club members when lots of volunteer work doesn’t involve a membership or commitment to a particular organization. I do a lot of volunteering for animal charities, too, but sometimes I get busy and drop out for months at a time.

I don’t know the answer, but I know that my Soroptimist Club experience has been well worth it. Now I just need to figure out how to get that message across to more people.