The hidden benefit of service club membership

Burnsville Breakfast Rotary volunteers doing a yard clean-up service project.

I’ve been a member of a service club for probably 25 years. For most of my tenure in the Mankato Schools, I was a member of Downtown Kiwanis in which I even served as president for a year. Since moving to the Twin Cities metro area, I’ve been a member of a Rotary club where I have served on the board as program and community service chairs. 

These clubs do good work. We raise money for national and international health initiatives; we fund scholarships for students in need; we give grants to local nonprofits which seek to eradicate hunger and provide shelter in the area. We hold a variety of fundraisers to finance these monetary gifts. We also support local nonprofits by volunteering to host holiday parties, work at other fundraisers, and do park clean up. For a club of fewer than 35 members, we have an outsized impact.

But what I enjoy most about being a service club member is the sense of community membership bestowed through involvement. Fellow club members are often community leaders - local government officials, legal professionals, business owners, and academics. People who are respected and listened to by the greater community. At club meetings, programs often inform us about local projects, organizations, and resources. (At the past couple meetings, we toured a new fire station and heard from a representative of the metro area airport commission, for example.) Plus the meetings and service opportunities are just good times to socialize with people who feel good about giving to others. 

For me, however, there may have also been a hidden benefit to my involvement - job security. 

As a technology director, I was “non-affiliated” which meant I had no professional organization such as a teachers’ union to bargain for me or protect my rights were I to be fired. I “served at the pleasure of the board” from year to year. Given that the role of tech director was relatively new when I took it on in the early 90s, the position had no benchmarks for effective performance. My sense is that one big screw up and I would be sent down the road kicking horse turds. 

I did have one perceivable skill known to the public via my membership in Kiwanis. I could hook up damn near any laptop computer to the club’s projector and get both the Powerpoint and any audiovisual programs to show on the screen and be heard. It was this small talent which convinced the Mankato community that I was a technical genius and therefore served the school district well and should retain his job. It certainly didn’t hurt that the superintendent and a school board member were also Kiwanians. 

My lesson from this is that it is harder to fire a known community member than someone who is simply an employee. I suspect one can also become “community members” through religious activities, political engagements, YMCAs, youth groups such as Scouts or 4-H, or service directly to nonprofits. 

Be more than just an employee by being an active participant in your community. You will not just be helping others; you’ll be helping yourself.