Sometimes I ponder every possibility I can think of when reading other's words/opinion stuff, but I try to end up not assuming any of them are true. I ask (and post online in general) when it is something I care about, and/or when I have time to actually read the interwebs. Thanks MDW'21 for that. =)
I hear you re: asking ourselves if we've done enough at our volunteer gigs. I've had those thoughts at times, but not recently. Working with so many JORBA volunteers over the years, and now with NICA in a larger capacity, I've come to greatly respect the time which people give, no matter how, how often or where they do so. Your 'blood from stone' analogy is quite accurate, and rightfully so. Self > Family > Work. I feel blessed to be able to give everything I have to my work while keeping those priorities in perspective, but often volunteerism suffers, as it isn't on the list.
There are tons of studies out there regarding success of a non-profit, and compensated staff is always among the greatest impacts. Example: New Jersey has somewhere over 8.8 million people. Vermont has over 600k, or around 7% of NJ's population. JORBA has ~600 members, VMBA has ~7500 members. So JORBA has 8% of VMBA's members, while VT has 7% of NJ's population. How can it be so far off? I understand that this is not exactly an apples to apples comparison regarding focus on outdoor experience/education and green space availability, among other things, but the comparison is pretty striking.
No matter how you compare the two states though, we can be certain that we have some huge factor more mountain bikers living and riding here than VT does. One can argue tourism, seasonal visits, etc., help to increase VMBA's numbers, but over 11 times the amount?
So what do I feel is the most important factor? VMBA hired a full time director in 2012, a time when they had around 1000 members. He was gifted and perfect for the job, and had a great support staff of like-minded volunteers. They've since doubled their chapters and innovated a ton, and that director has moved on. The org is in a great place.
JORBA has been successful too, please don't misunderstand my intent. JORBA has successfully *sustained* operations, despite some really significant challenges. We are a 25+ year old organization, and have had paid membership on a state-wide level since 2007. We have retained total member #s pretty well, and have supported existing chapters with administrative tools and tools to dig/build/maintain with quite well. Our successes with land managers far outnumber our failures, and we have arguably some of the best riding in the country. We are often the voice of our community to land managers, but when it comes to issues which require money (more members) or political voice (more members), we will suffer until we change our strategy.
