“Research finds big drop in service club membership in Iowa towns” Radio Iowa
Author: dpeters
The Iowa Small Town Poll has tracked a sharp decline in membership in local service clubs. David Peters, a rural sociologist with Iowa State University Extension, says the poll started surveying residents in 125 Iowa towns in the early 1990s.
“When we compare 1994 to our latest data, which was last year, we see that membership in fraternal organizations — these would be groups like the Kiwanis Club, the Lions Club, Optimists, Rotary, Moose Club…Masons and the Odd Fellows, we found that membership over the last 30 years has fallen by over two-thirds,” Peters says.