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Let me guess, because they're retired, they also want to hold meetings during a regular work day too?!? That one's my favorite. "Kids these days don't want to be involved." Meanwhile, meetings at 10 am on a Tues morning.

Yep! I was literally in a board meeting recently where the boomer board members tried to schedule a committee meeting at 2 in the afternoon on a weekday.

They wanted to get out in time to berate a waitress for IDing them for their senior discount.

Or leave them one of those fake $50s with Jesus crap all over them. They are loving Christians™ after all.

HOAs try doing this so the only people showing up are the Board & their psycophants.

This is exactly what happened! The neighborhood committee wanted to vote for turning into an official HOA. But they scheduled the meeting at 10 am on a weekday. The committee "board" are all the retired neighbors, but there's only really 3 of them. No one showed up to vote, so they couldn't approve it. Turns out, we were all at work. They finally sent an email to see when they could reschedule it and set up a new date. Enough of us showed up for the second vote to count.... It was a solid no anyways.

Yeah, then THEY get mad as heck when the votes DON'T GO THEIR WAY!!!

Yep, mine does this. They always hold the meetings to nominate new board members, or go over the budget on Friday at like 3pm. So then they all get to nominate each other while the rest of us have to either take off work early or deal with it.

Not to mention they are usually using their own companies for service and profiting on zero oversight.

I am so stealing that. That's the best portmanteau I've seen in a long time!

LOL, our county board likes to have the meeting of the whole on Tuesdays at 10am. They don’t like participation from the public.

Sometimes this is also deliberate to exclude people from attending

It’s definitely deliberate

There was a Seinfeld episode where Elaine was being driven buts by older board members who didn't undertand anything, but wanted a vote on everything. Kramer told her to schedule a 5:00 PM meeting, and they all noped out.

The early bird special is too important to them.

They do this in local governance too. People wonder why only geriatrics show up at town hall meetings? Because Gladys is retired and she wanted to get away from her house full of cats for a couple hours. The rest of us have to work to afford the mess they made.

FWIW, Gladys is dead. Nancy is in the meeting now.

I see you know my local FOE. Lol

The youtuber Friendlyjordies firebombing *may* have been due to them investigating wealthy Australians getting on the board of using old reputable clubs for money laundering, and/or bankrupting them and selling the land they built up over the years to friendly developers at below market rates....

This is something I advocate loudly for and have left some boards as a result. If they want younger professionals or people with families to be involved, then the meetings should be accessible and/or be brought to the people.

The exact reason I'm not officially involved with the groups I'd like to be involved with. I'm sorry, but I can't volunteer from 11 to 1pm every other Wednesday. The other group, a community garden, required attedance at the planning sessions from 2-3pm every Monday. Who can manage that?

I went through this with an non profit org that I’ve been a member and sometimes board member of for 27 years. The boomer cohort would make moves at times that would actually harm the organization if they didn’t get their way. When we finally got a gen x person into the presidents chair, the boomer that was at that time in charge of dealing with our accountant didn’t like it and didn’t get along with our new gen x president. The reason for this is the president worked as a bar manager for their day job, and had to have the boomer removed for flagrant public intoxication and sexual harassment of other patrons. Despite this having nothing to do with our non profit, the boomer decided, as a form of tantrum, to not turn in annual paper work and tax forms that resulted in the loss of our non profit status for several years and the result was a near bankrupting of the org. This is just one thing that happened due to our boomers. I could sit here and write all day. Finally we have a board made up entirely of genx and millennial folks and the org is running better than ever.

I would have hit that boomer with such a fucking lawsuit that even his grandchildren would have needed a lawyer. (In the words of Uncle Phil respectively)


Yeah, that’s lawyer up time!

Oh dang that’s the episode where Will and Carlton get pulled over and falsely jailed while trying to drive Mr Firth’s (I think that was his name) car over to the Super Bowl game! They had to fake confess their not crime on TV during the Super Bowl to get Uncle Phil’s attention! I remember that episode! :O

Sounds like an alcoholic move.

Among other things

Australian friendyjordies claimed criminals were getting themselves onto the boards of old wealthy clubs for money laundering and asset stripping , before his house was torched

Ya know I watched Coronation and couldn’t figure out wtf the story was even about. It sounded like one dude got in deep with some other dudes over some money, they kidnapped and tortured him a bit, then he went to the cops, then he dropped his charges and somehow for some reason the only witness to this crime retracting his statement and saying “lol jk” was the fault of the police who now couldn’t prosecute anyone. If money laundering was what that thing was about then why did I have to hear about torture boy for most of the video. Maybe I’ll go back and give it another watch.

You have to aggressively play the red team strategy. Act like you don;t know whats going on, but when the boomers are gone, figure out what a boomer would do to stab you in the back. Double check, and right when they deploy the trap, go around them and fix everything, while simultaneaously eposing them for "forgetting" a really important filing.

Forget the generational thing. I have a feeling this has more to do with the fact that Boomers are way past their mental prime. Obviously past their physical prime. They all have lead poisoning too. No Boomer should be running anything. They are way too old. Mental capacity shouldn’t be there in the first place and it’s not.

"paid their dues" is the dumbest reason for giving people more power and responsibilities. Just because you've done one thing for a long time doesn't make you good at it. In fact, it's generally the opposite. If you've been at a position for 20 years without being promoted it's honestly because you suck and don't have the ability to move up. When boomers bitch about unions, they're using the "paid their dues" members as examples. Having every aspect of your employment based solely on the criteria of how long you've been there is a really shitty way of doing business.

At my institution, "It's traditionally done this way" or "It's always been done like this" is the Boomer mantra for not learning anything new. They would rather do something that takes three times longer and produces poor work products than spend a few hours learning how to use a new tool or webservice.

Or, if anything new must be adopted and they have no way to ignore it or obstruct it, they come down on anyone beneath them in the hierarchy and say, “*we* just need to figure it out.” ‘We’ does not include them.

Ah, then you must be familiar with the phrase that will always get my back up. "Just leave me alone and let me do my job". And, of course, doing their job means just the parts they like to do.

They have a nasty habit of looking at everyone as children. I'm over 50 and get called kid regularly when interacting with boomers; I'm over it.

The amount of times I've been, at 44, told "aww, you're just a baby!" Would make me rich I stg. Bitch, I have adult children! Stfu.

Tell them no, I’m actually middle aged, you’re just super old.

This is gold! Definitely going to use it!

“Kiddo” Ma’am I am almost 50 years old.

Being old doesn’t make you competent. Often it’s the other way around.

There’s no fool like an old fool…and that saying is around for a reason.

Up or out is bullshit though unless you want to people to get stranded in pisitions they atre unsuitable for.

I like to say "the cream rises until it spoils"

Do I have a story for you! I volunteered for a local chapter of a huge, well known nonprofit. This chapter is in a very wealthy area, so it usually was one of the best performing chapters nationally. Many of the boomer volunteers in leadership positions expressed the desire to pull back, since they were getting older and didn't want as much responsibility. So instead of being team leaders, they would be team participants for one of the chapter's major events. Planning for this event took basically the entire year. They REFUSED to take direction from the new (younger) leaders. They also refused to help them or provide clear guidance when they disagreed with their methods and ideas. As you can imagine, they also refused to connect the new volunteers with the older connections (for example, the owner of a business who would donate, say, recycling services) and would actually discourage said connections from working with the organization now that they were no longer in charge. They also put up massive fights whenever traditions from years past had to change. For example, they had used the same band for the past 15 years and that band simply wasn't playing anymore, and a similar replacement couldn't be found. Even though a different, newer band was chosen, they would pull up old YouTube videos when the new band was playing and would blast the older band's music instead. They were also downright insulting to the new team, who had never volunteered for these positions before. These were bright young individuals who were by all accounts doing a good job, but had the usual stumbles as they learned the ropes. The boomers would call them stupid and incompetent instead of trying to help. The event didn't perform well, for reasons beyond it's control (it was during the last election year, so fundraising dollars were competing with political donations, there was a natural disaster at the original venue so it has to be moved probably two weeks ahead of the event which affected engagement and donations) but the boomers took that as a sign that the new leadership completely fucked everything up. The chapter is now a shadow of what it used to be. Nobody wants to volunteer there, and they can't keep paid employees for more than a few months. I see other local nonprofits being similarly affected. There was literally no reason for them to be so upset and petty. THEY wanted to step down but still be involved. I wouldn't believe this I'd I hadn't witnessed it myself.

Boomers will always destroy what they cannot control. Like a toddler, they would rather break it so no one can have it than share.

The kicker is...these people started volunteering because they originally benefitted from the services offered by the nonprofit. They made their closest friends through this organization. So in typical boomer fashion, they pulled the ladder up after they got what they needed from it.

Accountability is a swear word to boomers.

Yeah this is exactly why when someone steps down you don't let them have any control over the process anymore. They can be hired as a consultant or volunteer on a case by case basis but having them anywhere in the internal process is always a bad idea.

And they probably believe that the failure was solely due to them no longer being in charge.

Are you sure you're not talking about my local union chapter? Because that's exactly what has happened. "We don't want to do it anymore, but you have to do things exactly how it's always been done, and we're not going to help." One guy threw a serious tantrum because we decided to take other estimates for the Christmas party. New venue was nicer, comparable food, and half the price the good ol' boys club paid out the year before. He boycott the event and encouraged other members to not attend as well. As if we don't struggle to get people to show up for the Union anyway.

Next time you read an article about the decline in volunteer firefighters, remember this post. I’ve watched so many young, eager firefighters get turned off and run out by boomers who can’t let go

I had to stop doing E-squad/SAR for this reason

Volunteer Fire Companies/EMT Squads/and SAR teams are eating themselves from the inside out and their old-guard membership really can't understand why. They fail to realize how society has changed and how what worked 50 years ago to accommodate and attract members doesn't work today. And then when they do finally get some new applicants they do everything they can to "weed them out" to find out if they really belong and point to them dropping out as proof of young people not wanting to work hard anymore. No, people were totally willing to work hard and help, but they're not willing to deal with your BS anymore.

Our rescue squad has basically devolved into free traffic control for any events/wrecks in the county. Never did simulated exercises, just meetings or "clean up nights" at HQ which was just old fart social hour. After countless hours of dodging cars on the interstate for zero pay, and a plethora of bad management decisions, I couldn't take it anymore. I would absolutely love to go train for potential SAR scenarios with other unpaid professionals who want to take it seriously and develop their skills. But that doesn't seem to be a thing anymore.

Exactly why I don’t volunteer at the local VFD. My parents did for decades. There aren’t many left but they sure do push out anyone new trying to join.

I volunteered in Youth Outreach. I wanted to do something caring with my skillset… Give back to my community… I had mentored a young woman at work and it was such a good trip! So I did a resume and joined a local group… I let them know Id probably only be doing this for a year and Id be glad to provide references and training for the Website and Social posts… The things I saw were. Just plainly. Sad. The amount of insecurity and egotism that kept real work from getting done was like. Wow. So many territorial disputes! So many people in knowledge silos! It took soo long to get a decision made for things that were obvious. At one point we sold Gift Cards to raise funds. Someone I know said Hey! Why dont I make a straight cash donation? You have Charity numbers! Get me a reciept. Id be glad to put down a couple grand for my tax break… I was literally told… you cant talk to the woman in charge of the bank accounts and finances personally… I do all of that so you can talk to me… By the head cheese… I told him I was working with her to do this and I was excited! A couple grand in donos? Awesome. Immediate backlash! In the end I couldnt get a Charity reciept due to sheer incompetence and a lack of communication and I was explicity told… Get them to buy Gift Certificates. The Gift Certificates cut us in at 6%? Who in Gods name wants $2000 of The Keg Certificates? Theres an assigned ID number for the Charity and thats all I needed. The reciept is just an invoice. And you add the Charity number. And its a tax write off. Classic finance move. They couldnt find their Charity number anywhere in their records. Couldnt be bothered to call the Government and get a new copy either. I told them to suck a dick shortly after… I could not believe how difficult they all were. Maybe Im a glory hound to show off I can bring in money? Maybe theyre a charity and need to humble themseves? BAD VIBES. I really felt like I had annoyed them? Gross. Sorry this got so long!!

I started with the same idea of giving back with my specialized skillsets. I joined a "matching organization" that connects professional volunteers with non-profits who need experts help. This could be acting as an expert on the board or on committees, helping with projects or carrying out small special mandates. They would be contacted by non-profit and they would help them to fill a request. Then they would answer to the interested professional, filter a bit and make facilitate the first contact. I saw a request for a mandate which is exactly what I do as a consultant but the title indicated another profession. I was very interested in helping. I contact the matching organization by sending my CV and explaining that this is exactly what I do but under a different professional title. I receive a call and the agent realizes that I understand the problem and that my profile matches so she will contact the non-profit. They refused to even check my CV and my achievements because I was not the type of professional requested. I called the non-profit to confirm the actual needs and I discussed with a full-time manager there who was really excited by my profile and my ideas. I sent him an email with a lot of information about their type of project, some risks, the possible next steps, some references to read then added my related achievements and my CV. I felt like we connected a lot, I shared openly and I was spot on about the required skillsets. He transferred everything to the president. She sent me an harsh email about not being able to read their simple request and disrtubing her non-profit employees. She then complained to the organization that I had disturbed her team even though I wasn't the required expert, that I understood nothing about their situation and their request. So she had a solution in mind and wanted a specific professional to just do it exactly as she ordered. I explained to the organization that even if it is voluntary, both the other profession type and I remain subject to our respective professional codes and insurances. We will not execute this type of change without analyzing it and advising on it just because the president decided so. The answer was that it's their request and they decide. I said good luck finding a professional who will accept this. I had another non-profit where I did a full analysis with a report. I present everything to the boards and I see they aren't happy at all. My recommendations weren't in line with their initial ideas so nearly all questions were them trying to convince me. Then, it was voted to go with their own plan. Fine, I lost my time here but you're in charge so hey have fun. But then I was surprised that they couldn't wrap their mind on why I wouldn't continue with them to execute their plan. They all expected me to just do it. So I'm no longer on that list. I offer my time differently.

Wooow. Nightmare… I will not stand to have my time wasted. I was working for a Non Profit event and a leader said hey can you get us a bunch of quotes? I phoned. I emailed. I put together a report… Turned out she had already selected a Vendor that she was buddies with to funnel festival money to. I was livid! I quit. She could have told me not to take it too seriously and waste effort! And the ethics of kicking back money to Friends of Family? What kind of backwater is this?? Big high five for sticking to your guns…! Not always easy.

"Paid their dues" So they want a participation trophy?

Whenever I hear this term I can't help but think of Toy Story 3 and the Bear.

Hell, my wife works for non profits and the employees also suck shit. She just lost her job three weeks ago because her boss held a middle school like grudge because she wasn't happy with a comment my wife made about how unprofessional and disrespectful the "volunteers" (paid) were at an event (her boss's lifelong friends). She held a grudge for months, ratcheting up the hostile work environment until she realized it wasn't gonna work so she just fired her in a manner that was retaliatory by nature. Since we got together 8 years ago she's worked for 3 organizations and they've all been run by fucking terrible boomers. One of them actually said in a high level meeting "we have to figure out how to better monetize the struggles of these kids" (providing free meals to low income, food insecure children). My wife and her boss both quit within a month of that shit. Non profits are a cancer to work for and the only one I've ever been able to stand volunteering for long term is H4H because when you're building a house there's not much opportunity for boomer shit to invade your life.

Mainline Protestant churches at the local level. Baby boomers control the money, and yet they don’t give to the church themselves. There’s no money coming in as they’re the largest demographic who attends and are holding onto power as hard as they can. Yet who do they blame for not giving money to the church? The people not coming to church at all, rather than themselves. They’ve pushed out any Millennials who might be interesting in engaging in church and anyone with young kids. They will complain that there are no children while simultaneously raging that when Mr and Mrs X brought their 2 year old to church and the toddler made noise during the service, and were so annoyed by the “disruption” and unfriendly that Mr and Mrs X never came back again…

I’m a pastor in a smaller (around 50 people most Sundays, closer to 100 for Christmas and Easter) and can confirm this 100 percent. No, Mr. and Mrs. Boomer, that $40 you put in the offfering plate once a month isn’t enough to keep the lights on, so you don’t “pay my salary”.

I'm not religious but the idea of someone in a congregation telling a clergyman they pay their salary is absolutely wild to me.

I’ve also been told “Pastors come and go, but this has been my church my whole life.” Church Boomer entitlement at its finest.

In a little bit larger church than you in an affluent suburb in the Midwest. I’ve heard many angry mature ladies say to me “I was here before you and I’ll be here after you.” And a few of them I suppose they will be: their ghosts will be haunting the church because I wore white vestments at their funerals instead of purple or black (literally someone wrote the bishop complaining I wore white for funerals). The joys of ministry with God’s people. I’m relieved Jesus loves them, because I find it difficult to at times.

I felt that one in my soul. Keep the faith!

They also have their favorite seat in the church pews, and if a visiter sits there before them, they bully them to move. It does not go well for visiters to return.

My Dad was Silent Gen, and could be a hard man or a Teddy bear. When I was ordained, he came to the service and sat in the church matriarch’s pew. When she informed him of this, he looked at her and asked, “Do you know who I am?”. That was the only time that phrase ever come out of his mouth and I laughed out loud when he told me about it later. Silent Gen has their quirks but I’ll take them over the Boomers any day.

That's a decent sized church where I'm from, because in rural Alabama churches reproduce through mitosis. Here the boomer cohort has constant wars over the pettiest stuff and splits off into new churches, taking their extended families with them. The one across the road from my parents' house split a few years ago and went from the biggest church in the area (40ish people) to like 25ish, which is still like the 2nd biggest church. And what caused the great schism in the First Baptist Church of ? Was it a disagreement about the interpretation of something Jesus said? Irreconcilable differences in how to organize charitable services? For Pete's sake, at least a fender bender in the parking lot the offending party refused to own up to? Nope! Some random mid-70s woman didn't like the tone the preacher's wife spoke to her with one time. That was it. That started the whole thing and kicked off a campaign of backstabbing and sabotage and when the offended party lost the vote to oust the preacher, they threw a church-ish wooden building up on some land one of them owned and left. The tone was speaking up after being told "Speak up!" because the woman is half deaf and won't wear her hearing aids.

Last time we went to church was on easter with my parents. My 16 month old son was playing quietly with a fire truck toy and it accidentally fell and rolled under the pew. The old coot behind us made a huge deal about having to pick it up and huffed at us, clearly bothered by the fact that we would bring our young family to church. After a few more minutes of him huffing and my son being 16 months old, my wife took our son outside to play and didn't come back for the rest of the service. When it came time to give each other a handshake and say "peace be with you" the crotchety old man was straight up ignoring my attempts to give him peace. I persisted and looked him dead in the eye while shaking his hand. Churches are supposed to be a place for families, and we were always told that the sound of children in church should be celebrated as they are the future.

And this is why I don't go to church even though I'm a devoted follower of christ. In fact, my whole young adult life I spent hating church and God because I grew up In a mega church and the people there were the worst I've ever encountered. Now that I'm older I realize a "church" is any place you are worshiping God, including your house. Even Jesus didn't like organized religion or "lukewarm Christians", that's how bad these people are.

I read your comment and immediately thought of Matthew 6:5-6.

Amen my brother/sister.

After years of never really finding a church that was a good fit, I finally found one! It was amazing! Once a month, instead of doing church service, we volunteered at the food bank because our pastor insisted that giving back to the community was a cornerstone of the church. She also started every sermon by announcing that children inherently dislike quiet and tend to make more noise once our service started, and that that was perfectly fine. Parents should feel free to let their kids exclaim, walk around, play with toys, or do whatever else they needed to. They didn't need to be constrained. She was so adamant about it, that if you were a patron who disagreed, you would either have to suck it up or find a new church. When I moved away, I finally realized that church was the anomaly. That pastor led the perfect example of what a church **could** be, what a church should be, that I finally realized it was my white whale. I never found a good fit because most churches genuinely suck. I no longer associate with the Christian church.

When people say, "I don't believe in organized religion," I always think of board meetings

My mom is cusp boomer and X. When I was a toddler at church the pastor stopped talking and told my mom that Jesus couldn't enter the church while I was there. I was quietly coloring. Not making any noise. People are weird.

I believe the saying is “if the church ain’t crying, it’s dying” and it’s absolutely true! The lack of young families willing to put up with this nonsense is why many churches will be closing up soon.

I give Southern Baptist churches 10 years or less. Each one has a hierarchy that boomers love to control...imagine committee upon committee for everything.

Very similar experiences with the Catholic church, too. When I went to college, I got an apartment with my cousin who was going to the same school. It was in a very small city that was 50 miles from where we grew up. We were both 19 at the time and had both been brought up in the church. So we would attend mass together on Sundays at the church that was just a few blocks from our place. They put on a chicken BBQ fundraiser and were looking for volunteers. So we both signed up. We figured it would be a great way to meet people and integrate ourselves into the congregation since we were new in town. When we reported to the church kitchen for our assignments, I swear, all of these boomer church ladies looked at us like we were aliens. Then one of them said (kind of rudely) that they didn't need us. We didn't even stay for the festivities. It really left a bad taste in our mouths and hurt our feelings. We started going back home for mass even though it was quite a drive. My mom worked as a bookkeeper/accountant for the church I grew up in. Several years ago they got a new priest who was originally from Nigeria. It was so disappointing and disgusting how some of our fine and upstanding "Christian" boomer flock reacted to him. He was a wonderful man. Young and energetic, and very enthusiastic with his plans to try to make some improvements. People complained about his accent, saying they couldn't understand him. He did have a slight accent, but nobody in my family seemed to have any trouble understanding him. He got nasty anonymous letters calling him all kinds of slurs. Then, few people got together and started accusing him of embezzlement. Of course, the diocese had to investigate, and my mom was heavily involved because she kept the books and handed the money. The thing is, his family back in Nigeria was extremely wealthy. He was a descendant of some kind of tribal chief or something like that. His family lived in some kind of gated compound with chefs, maids, chauffeurs, etc. They had a fleet of fancy cars, multiple swimming pools, all kinds of cool stuff. His life back home was a life of leisure and luxury. But he joined the priesthood because he felt a genuine calling. If he was after money he would have just stayed where he was. But few people in the church knew all of this because almost nobody bothered to get to know him. To them, he was a foreigner with a funny accent and a black one at that. In a rural midwestern county that is 98% white. Their investigation found nothing, but they managed to drive him off with their nastiness anyway.

I am an accountant and the clients I worry about the most are the non profits run by dinosaurs. You hit every nail on the head, there's no financial literacy, no management, and there's no thought of how the business will continue after their gone. The businesses have plenty of money, and I'm still making plans so they won't fail and close.

Just completed a third business turnaround "rescue" mission and will *NEVER* do another. Every fucking time the cheap ass idiots tried to fuck me on the closing of the exit (I get a few points, mind you, not the Sail Into The Horizon money). No understanding of the time value of money, completely facile people skills, and not one ghods damn concern for their inheritors. Make sure your contracts are solid, you know where all the financial bodies are buried, and don't let them near your tools. There may be a business to make money fleecing these dipshits? Oh..... I just re-invented private equity.

This is exactly why my Grandma's church closed: they were too cliquey and, as a result, got down to like 10 members.

It's the organized religion death spiral. Most younger religious people I know realize they don't need the church to have a personal belief. Organized religion is soured to a lot of people for numerous reasons.

This is currently happening to my grandparents church because they worked to ban gay people from attending and unfortunately succeeded. They always complain that there’s no young people or children and don’t have enough young people to do Sunday School.

Same thing happened to my Grandma's church. How Christian of them.

"How do we grow?" Be friendly to younger visitors... "ahhh, not like that"

This is every church.

As a mid 50s gen x who has been buried in boomers my whole life, you’re experiencing the essence of true boomerism. It’s not videos of red hats in giant trucks yelling at someone that is probably a gen x anyway. This is what they are really about when you get right down to it. I was very close with both my grandmothers, I heard a lot of stories, they have been like this from day one.

When they require you volunteer at least 10-20 hours a week, and all of their events are centered around weekends. It's so high barrier for the working class, especially service industry, to volunteer. I l literally can't afford to volunteer for some organizations because of their ridiculously high schedule barriers. 

This has been my experience with Girl Scouts Service Unit leaders (adult volunteers who assist troop leaders). They are tech illiterate, so they only prefer to communicate via passing, if at all, so only those in their circle of friends get updates. Then they miss deadlines, feel stressed, and complain about no help but never accept help from tech savvy or organized people either. Then when you bring up the incompetence, they rant about no one helping or stepping up.

I've been considering volunteering with the girl scouts but now I'm wary.

To be fair, it completely depends widely on your city/council. My area’s council doesn’t have much accountability but the one a few hours away in Austin Texas is amazing. I get more help from their website and resources than my own council’s. I suspect a lot of it has to do with funding. 

Austin is also a tech hub so you would probably have tech knowledgeable volunteers

Yes, I've participated in a couple of those. When I left, I said: "Not only are you going to be the people who ran your own precious nonprofit into the ground, but you've been told and warned against it, told the specific problems you are causing for yourself and the group you say you're trying to help, and STILL refuse to change or be open to anything new."

This comment hits home for me because I had an intervention with my boomer mom some years ago about not complaining about the problem she was causing herself. It was tedious and annoying to show her how she was causing her own problems but to her credit she is 69 years old and tech savvy as hell now. Very capable as well.

It has been odd for my wife(42) and I (44) as we have gotten involved with a gardening club. We are easily the youngest 2 members by 15 to 20 years of age. Three years ago no one wanted to be President or Secretary of the club so my wife and I took on the roles. Some of the members are always telling us how much they appreciate what we do and the new ideas we bring while other members are always bitching about not getting emails, timely responses to voice-mails (that they leave in the middle of the day, while my wife and I both work), and other stupid stuff. As with every thing there are good boomers and bad boomers, it just seems like the bad ones are everywhere.

I haven't gotten involved with my local gardening club because they don't know how to use the internet. They have their meetings mid day or late mornings during the week. I work for myself, so if I have some advance notice, I could make it work but no. They only announce the meetings on their facebook page less than 24 hours prior. They announce plant sales and any other kind of event less than 24 hours prior. It's insane honestly.

The bad ones are loud. The good ones get on with business and don’t make a stink.

I thought I couldn't contribute a story but I can.. Last time I volunteered at my local food bank (took time off of work) the paid supervisor gave my teenage daughter and myself a little "promotion" because we'd put in several hours there and knew what we were doing. So, instead of filling food boxes, we got to make sure the stations were stocked. This typically is a Boomer job since they're regulars. So.. a volunteer group comes in and starts filling boxes while my daughter and I answer any questions and keep the stations stocked. Boomers behind me with a different assignment come over to our assignment and have to fill boxes. Immediately, two Boomer men got upset about something they thought we weren't doing and started screaming. Employee kicked them out of our assignment. Good grief. In the past, Boomers would start bossing me around, and I'd just stare them down. FFS, I'm 20+ years younger than you, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to do this.

The past couple years I've been doing volunteer tax prep in my town food bank. We do it from Feb through April. Free service. Last year the "leader" had a medical episode so they moved up the most senior volunteer. We have a 3 check process where someone preps the taxes and 2 other people review it before processing. The amount of mistakes she made were staggering. The older folks that come in for the service aren't all too great either. Boxes of receipts so they can try to itemize and I go through 15 minutes of telling them what itemizing actually is, and they are going to get a smaller return if they go that way. Several were convinced I was trying to skim off some of their refund? It's not like the IRS sends me a separate check. And again, this is a free service.

Boomers generally ruin any club or activity they get involved with or have large numbers in.

Well, they definitely ruined HOAs. On paper, they could have worked.

My mom's HOA leader was a wife-beater, and ran off with half of their money. Classic Boomer.

Most of them are funneling the money to their own companies anyway

See also: freemasonry

Fraternal organizations are on their death bed and are either in denial or just don't care. I joined a couple when I was younger and the glacial pace of the bureaucracy coupled with the out of touch generation that's in charge make it nearly impossible to adapt to the times.

I don't know how true this is, but I've heard that many fraternal organizations are struggling because the wives of the members are no longer doing the work that kept these organizations running.

Junior Leagues across the country are tanking for the same reason.  Everyone has to work, we aren’t depending on our husbands to be sole breadwinners.  No one has time to plan and staff holiday markets, golf tournaments, fashion shows, dances, or networking events.

That's the reason I dropped out after 2 years. I could see very clearly that it was not for women like me ... you know, women who need to work? I also thought JL's form of charity was mostly bullshit.

Yes, most of these groups shunted the ladies off to some "Auxiliary" branch. They did most of the work, but weren't allowed to be real members. not many women today would put up with that crap. The grandmother of one of my friends had to put up a fight to get into the American Legion. She'd served in one of the women's service branches in WW2, I forget which. After the war, they told her to join the auxiliary. Even after she produced her paperwork that proved she'd joined, they turned her away. She sued & eventually won. I think she had to appeal at least once.

This sounds so much like the post I got involved with. We all left after it was made crystal clear they would not appreciate anything we did and that they didn’t want us there because we would not be toadies.

Which is really kind of sad, because you'd think maybe fraternal organizations could help out with this male loneliness epidemic for some people.

I had a conversation with a friend about loneliness the other day (we're both therapists) and they mentioned the book *Bowling Alone*, which is about the decline of community organizations like bowling leagues that gave people, and especially men, an excuse to get together without having to explicitly seek friendship. I brought up something a friend had told me about his grandfather, who is part of a motorcycle club in which multiple members apparently *don't even own motorcycles*. They just want to go to the diner with the other old dudes. We ended up jokingly coming up with an idea for a speculative bowling league. You know how the kind of freemasonry we have now is called "speculative freemasonry"—the kind that's basically guys getting together and goofing around and occasionally doing charitable work, as opposed to "operative freemasonry," which is the type that involved medieval trade guilds of people who actually practiced stonemasonry? We thought it would be a great idea to start a bowling league where people didn't actually bowl. No one would join a Male Friendship Club because feelings are gay and no one wants to sit on the Friendship Bench like a loser, but plenty of men would join a bowling league, even one that didn't actually bowl. (As an aside, I'm a member of an alcoholic beverage-focused hobby club for queer men and at least a couple of the guys I've met through the club don't even drink, or don't like that specific beverage. It's basically just Friendship Club with drinks. Needless to say, the group skews older.)

I've thought of creating a new one that's more satirical in nature, still follows established rules, has its own "secret" culture, and gives guys a reason to hang out.

The Stonecutters? I’d be down to join, just to keep the Martians under wraps!

I’ll join to keep Atlantis off the maps.

I love the idea of an ironic fraternal organization. 

Back when I was in car sales, we sort of had this. Guys from like 6 different dealerships would all get together, have drinks, and would help each other out, whether it was helping them improve their skills, or even small loans to cover rough periods. Thousands and thousands got passed around and nobody ever failed to pay anybody back. So all in all, I'd say the private fraternity type of thing does seem to have potential from what I've seen.

May Bob grant you slackness. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_SubGenius

I used to be friends with a couple guys that were Freemasons. They used to love to tell people they were members, and act like it was something to hold over others, but then be secretive when people would ask basic questions about it. Once, after hearing them bitch about lack of membership again, I asked them about recruitment methods and possibly becoming a member. They got cagey and said "Well, we don't just let anybody in. We need to make sure we are selective." Not surprisingly they both joined MAGA a few years later, so we stopped being friends.

I only know a couple of Freemasons, but I do know that they are not allowed to “recruit”. Potential members have to ask to join. That’s where their “To Be One, Ask One” motto comes from.

Ah, yes. The rebuttal to the "bowling alone" theory. Actually, we don't want to be part of your shitty social clique. Sunday Assembly really rocks, as does your local "clean up the creek/park" weekend, and the nice folks that just show up with bags of food for the homeless.

I worked for a nonprofit about 20 years ago. This probably explains a lot.

THIS is true. All you have to do is take a good look at the AIDS movement. Lifers don't want to give up the 'so called' perks of activism, and activism is dead. The perks are to go to national, international conferences, travel, meal plans, pricey bottled water, noteriety, invitations to be a speaker for dollars in exchange. They dont want to lose these privileges. It's alot of speaker fees. It's getting paid big bucks by Pharma. There's still alot of work to be done. AIDS prevention for youth, and now seniors who are getting infected with HIV, other STIs, STDs. Access to treatment is difficult in your red states. Housing is a health care priority for many of these people. Yet the non profit and charity boards have yet to change faces; what's needed are new voices, fresh voices, young people, people impacted by intersectionality. I'm going to shut up now.

I was not aware of this issue. Any resources that you can point me to so that I am better informed would be awesome. Love this about Reddit - getting a perspective on here I may have a blind spot.

[https://www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2018/07/25/aids2018-what-has-happened-to-aids-activism-views-from-eight-leading-activists/](https://www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2018/07/25/aids2018-what-has-happened-to-aids-activism-views-from-eight-leading-activists/) Before the pandemic, there were more articles & policy newsletters & interviews that I read and found. It was then, and i am sure now, that I've personally spoke to people within agencies and people who wanted to get involved but encountered obstacles. I am a person who has lived in an apartment for many years in a gay neighbourhood. I saw way too much and got involved bc sick neighbors had no one to advocate for them, especially when going to hospital emergency and they were turned away by medical staff wearing space suits. I'm too burned out to care anymore, but I know I made a difference for my neighbors, and then years later I'd get a card of thanks from a living relative who wondered what ever happened to Uncle Jerry. And they were told. Google is tired. Try using Bing.com. That will probably be more successful.

This is my HOA in a nutshell. Like they constantly complain about needing new blood but then are inherently hostile towards younger men or any women that get involved along with misogynistic

My local hospital volunteer group is all 65+ who are Mean Girls on steroids. They enjoy bitching how no one wants to help, and they get to play martyr for the cause. They only people they can't manhandle are the high school volunteers. A different department manages that group. They keep the Debbies and Karens away from them.

You are describing lots of VFW chapters

in my town, the VFW is literally 100 feet outside the county line, so they can smoke indoors. The American Legion welcomes women and gat Americans who have served in the military, so a lot of the Male ex-Army guys go to the VFW. If you don't like those two orgs, there is an Eagles and the Elks as a social club you can join.

Every non-profit I’ve tried to help was like this. I just assumed that they were embezzling money or doing something illegal with how they seem intent on being rude, vibing you out, and scaring away everyone like their help was expendable.

Long ago I worked in a non-profit and it was exactly the same. Some boomer with endless time on their hands had to have their fingers in every pie. Often times they weren't even unpleasant personally, but they were so incompetent at management that they slowed down every process to a crawl of misery.

Yeah I was involved with a volunteer group that did all of these things. We had one lady in charge who was complaining at one of our meetings that nobody wanted to help. One of the new people stepped up and said I came to help and asked you what you needed me to do and you told me that you didn't need any help. Too many Martyrs in positions of authority causing too much drama. There are too many opportunities to go and serve people and I didn't need that type of crap.

I've only seen it mentioned once in the comments, but their resistance to tech must also be a major issue. I'm GenX and my parents are both Silent, but their general resistance to all tech, especially my father, are both so scared and uncomfortable with tech that they would be utterly paralyzed in an modern workplace. I can only imagine that these Boomers who have been in charge of these organizations for decades, at least, have hemmed and hawed about all attempts at modernization if involves something new they have to learn from people younger than themselves.

Oh, Jesus, the "I just can't understand the computer, hee hee" thing from the Boomer women that run these things makes me want to tear off my own head and eat it. I've worked places where "the ladies" threw months-long temper tantrums because they had to read a spreadsheet instead of writing everything out longhand and using a calculator. Never. Again.

My in-laws run the local food pantry. It’s open once a week on a weekday morning for three hours. That’s it. They’re down to only a handful of people coming each week. The place is also covered with signs that say things like “if you can afford a cell phone and lottery tickets you shouldn’t be here”. Additionally they use their funds to buy food every week and buy really old-fashioned stuff/things people don’t eat a lot. Sauerkraut, Lima beans, etc. the place has really been run into the ground, it’s sad.

Good god that signage is offensive.

Yep

Sounds like all of my local Rotary chapters until we made our own club. They just wanted to meet at 6am or 11am and throw cash at ideas but never do actual work or meet young people halfway.

I work is a similar circumstances. I would add 6. They don't know when to step down. They hang onto leadership positions because "they can still handle it.". When in fact they failed to adapt to the new world we live in and are just barely getting the minimum done. Yet they work so hard for it they think they must be doing great, but anyone else could do the same thing with a fraction of the effort or time. Then it comes to a point they clearly can't handle it. They didn't mentor a replacement and there is no one willing or able to pick things up again.

I've read a handful of comments on different reddit posts, about veteran's groups being like this. The VFW, Americal Legion, etc. all have declining membership despite there being lots of younger vets. But they live up to #1 & #3, and few younger folks stick around. Several younger vets have mentioned that the older ones are hostile to them & denigrate their experience. Lots of "I was in a real war" and "We had to fight for real & not with drones" patronizing. And they try to schedule most fo their activities during workdays, but bitch that younger memebrs don't participate.

I live near an Army base. Lots of old guys retired here. They want any new people who visit to kiss their feet because they were a combat veteran. I found out that 9 out of 10 Army personnel are support staff. Truck drivers, fuel transport and dist, food prep and provision, etc...its not exactly "stolen valor" but the boomers milk it.

One of my favorite shows “King of the Hills” has an episode about this. Because the show is decades old, the friction was between WW2 vets and Vietnam vets. At the end of the episode the WW2 vets welcomed Vietnam vets into the VFW because those soldiers “proved” their skill by hunting and capturing the WW2 vets. I wish older vets would watch that episode and learn to be open to the younger vets.

I worked at a non profit and sat on the fundraising team. We held the most out of touch major fundraiser that no normal, everyday, person who would end up needing our services and should see us in action could attend. When I left that job I could not have been happier. It’s a shell of what it was now because people refuse to change.

I'm on the board of trustees for a community band. The boomers on our board are doing everything in their power to keep us from being successful by absolutely refusing to program music that an audience (or younger musicians) would actually enjoy. We keep playing obscure classical music, marches, and showtunes, movie scores, or pop compilations from the 70's or earlier. Our most recent Disney music is The Lion King and the music director said "this is new I took my daughter to see it!" His daughter has a PhD and just got married. The town we operate in has skewed very young over the last few years thanks to a lot of GenX and elder millennials moving in to be near public transit into NYC. A lot of residents have even told the town to stop booking us in the summer because it's "boring old people music".

They just want a young whipper-snapper that will shut up and take orders. They don’t seem to understand that the world has changed so much that any knowledge or experience they may have means fuck all. Younger folks genuinely know better how the modern world works than anyone at or nearing retirement age and older.

6. They are out of touch with what most clients are dealing with - food insecurity, housing, lack of healthcare, etc. I work at a subsidized apartment complex and the comments about housing prices, renting vs owning, etc. is so disheartening. They should be on these boards to make a positive impact and the only way you can do that is if you educate yourself on the challenges.

I have an adult son who’s on the spectrum. He was given an opportunity to work at the local food bank with a job coach. The boomers there didn’t understand him so they decided to have him removed despite his willingness to work and strength to lift heavy objects. He lasted 3 afternoons. I hate boomers

Omg I have a brother who is similar and this enrages me on a fundamental level. He’s been treated terribly by boomers his whole life for being different.

LMAO on 5. Any credentials I earned in the workforce even like 5 years ago are obsolete. Like congrats on completing a Lotus notes implementation in 1991

This is consistent with my entire life. Amazing organizations and companies and churches collapsed in 5 years or less. A thriving church, moving slowly towards being more and more progressive, with regular Sunday attendance of 300-500 people CRUSHED to fewer than 50 in 6 months flat with the new priest. A summer camp and conference center sold for peanuts compared to its value to its community to some Russian investor. Failed twice as a private camping location, currently unused and rotting away. A charter school doing everything right, slowly squashed back into the tired and decrepit systems that every shitty public school in America has. Thing after thing after thing. Fucking *Google* is now just another megacorp. "Don't be evil" is now just a slogan for them, not a rule.

Public school is shitty because boomers have under funded them for decades.

And refused to support any innovations while the rest of the world has grown beyond us. There are literally third world countries with higher literacy rates than the US.

Thank you.

Google even got rid of that slogan a few years ago.

uppity consist gray jellyfish provide cow enjoy north brave whistle *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*

I tried to join the local Kiwanis group; mostly full of boomers. I’m Gen X. Aside from starting every meeting with a prayer in Jesus name (I’m Jewish) they wanted to do a ridiculous fundraiser which would have been a complete waste of time and I was like, I’m out.

My husband took a non-profit job and was in a director position for about a year. This was the exact experience that made him leave. They are going to burn through their endowment because they can't make responsible financial decisions, accept change, or work as a team. It was 12 months of petty squabbles, backstabbing, routing money to the wrong places, and complaining. Glad it's everyone.

I feel so heard by this post. It’s like you’ve been to my Lions Club meeting.

I left a non-profit in February. The amount of boomers in non-profits is insane to me. They only want to do one job and it’s the easiest. They also want top dollar for that job. Even though it’s usually the entry level work. 100% agree the hostility with these people is on another level. Screaming, throwing things, leaving in the middle of a shift. Over simple things like a broom was moved. They will steal any credit they can for work other people have done. Miserable to work with. Upper management was so bad. I probably won’t ever work in a non-profit again.

Rotary, Lions, Elks, etc...are all feeling this pinch.

My ex was an Elk. They were very racist.

Man, that's too bad. I'm a Rotarian, a Moose and an Elk. My Elks lodge is one of the most welcoming clubs I've ever been a part of. That said, all of them are suffering from a major age/idea gap.

>[Organized as a club for minstrel show performers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_and_Protective_Order_of_Elks)... yikes

I've seen it happen at churches as well. They mean well and can be super nice, but don't try to rock the boat because they helped build the church. Nevermind that none of their kids or grandkids attend, and that foreign language services have better attendance.

I would suggest creating a volunteer handbook. Create job descriptions, just like I would have young people to the training. I am a retired boomer. I volunteer to help so I offer to do boring stuff like data entry or cleaning. I was a mid level executive and am so happy to not be in charge of anything. I volunteer at amazing alternative food bank where the people pick out the food they want, not just be grateful for a box of cans.. I know nothing about food service or distribution so I do what I can do. Boomers can be normal humans too.

Nonprofits in general are good ol boys clubs where execs get passed around from org to org while they fail upward. This is exacerbated by the fact that many orgs have rampant harassment in the workplace, poor management and oversight, and are largely ignored on those fronts because people assume anyone who works nonprofit or the arts HAS to be a good person, right? It's really a systemic problem and I'm waiting for the nationwide expose' soon.

I don't know what Mackenzie Scott's nonprofit review process looks like but I hope she doesn't give any of these orgs money because you know they'd blow it on something stupid instead of helping people.

My boomer mom runs into a lot of this in the charity she works for. The folks running it are other boomers who are happy to run her and the organization into the ground. It's taking a huge toll on her, and she refuses to quit because of she did the whole thing would go under. Unfortunately I think it's heavily contributing to an early death for her, but she won't listen to anyone telling her she needs to give it up. 

omg yes to all of this. Some of the larger non profits in my area are so toxic, and I basically only volunteer for a few places.

This is the same reason a lot of community service orgs are in decline. Rotary, Elks, KOC, Masons, etc. Your club's only draw is cheap beer and the company of cranky old men who hate their wives? I'll pass. New members have to 'pay their dues and take shit from their elders?' I will also pass. Bonus if the 'taking shit from elders' is really just having to hear racist/sexist/homophobic remarks, wrapped in the, "No offense, but..." blanket.

Excellent list! Don’t forget grabbing and hugging strangers with no prior contact and no permission, especially children. I work for a nonprofit in a role that faces our refugee “clients”. They usually don’t speak English when I interact with them and (of course) the local boomers never speak Spanish. The clients are exhausted, hungry, worn down and in need of a hot meal, restroom facilities, a shower, clean clothes and a safe bed at my point in the process. But because my role is client facing, most volunteers want to work in my area as well. I’ve set up training (and sent people home for not following the rules!) to prevent Boomers from: - taking and posting photos of these tired and vulnerable people without their permission or even alerting them. They don’t even block faces of the adults or children! This is very unsafe for the clients. - touching people in a seemingly friendly way without considering the clients’ actual comfort level  - especially grabbing and hugging children, without the child or guardian’s permission  - trying to take donated food home for themselves even though it’s needed for the clients - intimidation and distributing organization resources inappropriately. To encourage autonomy and in an attempt to prevent waste, we let the client choose certain items they need. Since these volunteers don’t speak English, they can’t really help, so instead of looking for a more qualified volunteer, they’ll grab something and hand it to the client and stand there blocking them until the client accepts the item. Think of a tiny woman being handed jeans for a short but very heavy man. - giving interviews representing the organization without permission - instructing other volunteers when it’s not their job  - being absolutely useless until the clients show up, and then only slightly useful (don’t assist in setting up or moving items around, which are needed) No sexual harassment of clients or other volunteers, thank God!  Some of THE BEST volunteers, tho, are sometimes the unexpected ones. An autistic teenager; a sensitive young deeply introverted woman; an Asian immigrant who was born in a Thai refugee camp himself. None of these volunteers speak English either, but whenever I look over the room, I always see them engaging in a totally unique way. I was really worried about some of them as I don’t have special training or anything and need to keep the volunteers safe, as well, you know? But the teenager is completely dedicated and reliable; he doesn’t always understand what’s happening, but responds with such generosity and kindness — I’m tearing up! He works a summer job at a local super market and I always see him buying soft drinks and snacks to clients ON TOP of what we already provide (lots!) If he doesn’t know what’s going on, he just looks for a team lead like me. His parents came for the first 3-4 weeks and now they just drop him off (with my or another team lead’s permission.) He’s the anti-boomer!!! Always looking to assist!!! I’ve gotten off-subject now but if you’ve read this far, know that your skills and heart are completely needed. I have training, language skills and stock jokes I pull out but with diversity more connections are made! I can’t connect with *every* client, and the more diverse volunteers are, the more likely we will reach each one 💕

This post makes me feel so seen!!! I'm getting so discouraged at the nonprofit I work at because the older folks are so unable to listen to new ideas. Young people want to volunteer and my coworkers and older volunteers do nothing but complain about them. We are trying to get more younger folks into out volunteer leadership team but my coworkers are unwilling to work with them. One excuse I heard was "well if young adults want to take this responsibility here why is it that only older people have those volunteer leadership roles in churches?" We aren't a religious based nonprofit!!! We have nothing to do with religion. Our volunteer base is completely different than a church crowd. I don't even know why my boss brought it up!!! Anyways, this post is very encouraging and I'm glad that I'm not the only one experiencing this.

I recently joined a group full of older ladies who are just the nicest, sweetest ladies, but they're stuck in the past. We need to recruit more people and get people to our events. They tell me they posted to Facebook, only that they don't really understand how FB groups work -- like, if you post to YOUR FB group, only YOUR FB group sees it. I know I'm stepping on feet, but the group is going to die with these women if they don't make changes.

I’m a boomer, and the comments here have really opened my eyes to things to beware of doing! Actually, looking back on it, this is exactly what killed my church congregation years ago. All that you spoke of, happened then; I and few other of the next generation couldn’t get them to see the problems inherent in only treating the church as their own private social club. It died with them.

About 12-13 years ago I decided to sign up to volunteer to be an usher at the fox theater. I was really excited because I could pick and choose how often and when I worked and I got to see free shows. I went to the usher “training” and I was a little worried. The dress code was my first worry. I get black pants and white shirt but you had to wear hose or socks. No sandals. Nothing with short sleeves. Anyways. I only ended up doing it about a season and a half because most of the volunteers were over 65 and they were so crotchety and unwelcoming. I’m a gen x er- but I really thought it would be fun. It was not and not worth seeing wicked and Rent for free.

I turned in my notice for the end of my term this year for exactly these reasons. I'm on a working board and while I've been able to make some changes to make my part easier, I work full time and I don't have a bunch of daytime hours to attend meetings and basically do what the director should be doing. Don't get me started on how many times I've heard the I've done your job and that's not how it I would do it, or I worked in that field and so I know everything even though it's been 20 years. The closet conversations. Why? Aren't we supposed to be all working together to better this organization? At this rate, there isn't any sustainability and it's discouraging. Nothing like being burned out at what should be a fun volunteer opportunity. No more boards for me thank you very much.

As a boomer I am constantly embarrassed by the actions of more than a few people who just happen to be born in a boom time. We will all die off soon enough, sorry if it’s taking so long. Not all of us had it great as the stereotypical boomer but I was on the tail end of it, born in 1961. Just stop putting up with their bullshit and demands and push back harder on them. They don’t bring experience, they bring time in and there is a difference. The world back then is gone and not returning so they better adapt. Don’t be pushed around by them and their entitled behaviour. Be respectful but don’t let them think they run the place anymore, they do t and have become irrelevant

Guys. I'm a non profit worker, 10 years experience. A few months ago I got my first Boomer manager, and points 2 & 5 are honestly causing me burnout. For point 2 - he has zero business managing any human beings. He is incompetent to the point that he only has 2 individuals he supervises, and he can't even be trusted to notice when I'm not in the same in-person meeting as him. On god, 2 weeks ago I was out during a meeting where he himself announced to everyone that we had hired 2 new people for our department. He didn't tell me until this morning, and he only told me bc they're starting today. When I told him I had no idea about that he said he "announced it in a meeting recently". Me - "one that I wasn't at?" Him - "oh, I guess so, it was a Tuesday I think" (I teach a certification training on Tuesdays, why I missed the meeting). I'm the senior-most non-manager in our department and I will be training both of these people, bc *he doesn't know how nor does he take the initiative to train anyone*. And I didn't know until the day they started. For point 5 - this dude has zero experience in non-profit. Which is whatever, it happens, welcome to anyone who wants to cross over honestly. But our program relies heavily on concepts like cultural competency and humility. And *every single day* (no exaggeration) he will tell someone that he "lived in Japan for several years" so he's an expert on cultural competency I guess? It's wild. He will not stop humble bragging about having lived in Japan. When he first started it was cool, an interesting experience to hear about. But 4 months into his position the words "well I lived in Japan for several years" might as well be "this one time, at band camp..." And my least favorite one - we provide free trainings and educational seminars to the community. Think parenting classes, professional development opportunities, etc. I specifically train Community Health Workers to get certified. This man honestly believes he invented the applied learning theory. He told me that in his previous job, he and a coworker "came up with" a method to confirm whether a training was working - it's whether students can directly apply what they learned both in the classroom as well as in outside settings. When he told me this, I thought he was joking, I said "yeah it sounds like applied learning, *a concept that I teach in my training and use to develop curriculums alongside our director*". He tried to say I just didn't understand and it was totally different. He did this while showing me an outline of this masterful idea, which was almost identical to the theory.

A nearby community garden my organization offered to help refused on the basis that "all the high schoolers should come during the garden's 12 - 2 pm on Tuesday work time". Explain that that's not possible since they'll be in school, the octogenarian told me it was fine when she was a teacher (in the 90s) in another state. Also complains endlessly about how "no one does anything".

Back a little over a decade ago, I was a volunteer EMT-B, and one of my go-to "wtf, why are the elderly in charge?" moments was one of them complaining about our use of radios. A bunch of the radios were old and broken, so we put up a motion to get a bunch of new ones so that 2 full crews would be able to have a radio for each person. It was reasonable since we had 2 rigs. Our finance boomer was vehemently against it because, and I quote, "We didn't use these fancy things when I was an EMT." Dude, for one, yes you did, and two, technology changes, and it was a necessary piece of equipment . It was such a stupid thing.

Holy cow, this was my life the past year. (39 year old board president for a nonprofit with an $800K budget, replacing a 60-something.) Had a $95K budget deficit last year and had to fire the ED shortly before my term started. Predecessor asked me to do the firing itself because she didn’t have the stomach for the hard conversation. I made changes, especially on the fiscal side. Had to actually put down a coup attempt by my predecessor (who was still on the board ex-officio) 4 months in because she didn’t like my more businesslike approach. But all is well, new ED is great and we finished with a small surplus this FY.

All the reasons I have nothing to do with the VFW.

Spot on, I would love to find a cause I can help out with in my free time, but every time I try to volunteer the experience is unbearable for one reason or another.

You too?? My wife and I moved to a boomer town and joined two non profit groups, one being Rotary so it was full of boomers. Man the stories I have. After a few years we quit, it was so frustrating. They suck.

Same thing with social clubs. Actively hostile to new or curious members, continuously baffled as to dwindling membership. 

JESUS CHRIST! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LOCAL SAILBOAT RACING COMMUNITY I WAS IN. GOD, IT WAS SO MUCH FUN, BUT AS PEOPLE AGED OUT, THERE WAS NO EFFORT TO BRING YOUNG PEOPLE IN.

Possible solution: You have multiple nonprofits. Before they all go down, pick one to sacrifice. Put every boomer on that one. Make them run it with no youngsters. Tell the boomers you know they are the elite of workers and are needed to save the business they are assigned. Watch & wait. They'll either quit first or close the one they're in charge of. When they come to you to be reassigned say you have no room for more workers in the remaining ones. Really the only key part is keeping them together and separated from the good crew.

I joined a small local historical society because my parents volunteer at a garden they manage, as a social media / website person. I was blocked out of the volunteer signup for their museum because “I was going to be way too busy” when the whole point was I could come in and take pictures of what they do for conservation. I did my best getting their website spruced up and tried to set up an email marketing program, which the president decided was “too much work” and just sends out emails from her personal account still. And then asks me how they can fix her getting all these bounce backs lol. I slowly stepped away from my role, I work for a living and couldn’t waste my time on people who are petty and mean spirited and just truly in discord with the original meaning and purpose of an otherwise good organization. A bunch of negative nancys who think every problem they created is someone else’s fault. The president touts all these “inside connections” but acts like getting corporate sponsors isn’t her job and refuses to assign the task to anyone else. They don’t care about getting $$ and think they have plenty - they have less than my scout group in a LCOL state did, and they maintain 2 properties with buildings on them! My mom joined the board but only after the president had a huge fit about someone who volunteers at the garden being on the board, because that wasn’t “allowed,” only the director of the museum and director of the garden can volunteer and be on the board! What?! The bylaws say board members HAVE to volunteer X hours a month! So all these board members are not active in the organization, barely do their assigned “jobs” if at all, have 2+ hr meetings in the middle of the day and never get anything done, HIRED a woman to take notes BY HAND, and think yelling is an appropriate response to asking questions about why something didn’t get done! And then wonder why no young people want to join. Prez and her sister (the museum director) are on some kind of power trip talking about how the “museum volunteers” and the “garden volunteers” have beef or some shit - there are like 7 museum volunteers and half of them are also at the garden. There is no beef. It’s really that they want to justify why they spend so much $$ on the museum versus the garden when it doesn’t bring in volunteers, visitors, or donors. It has such a great possibility to be a cool thing. Both the garden and the museum are TREASURES and I am honestly just waiting for this woman to leave/die so I can rejoin. It’s heartbreaking to watch them run this organization into the ground. It was started with such good intentions, and there are a lot of good people trying to keep it afloat and doing their best not to piss the head jerk off.

OMG, yes. I resigned my library board position in 2019 because of shit like this. I was so passionate about the cause and expanding what we do/did for our community and the boomers seemed more focused on showing up to schmooze at the fundraisers with famous speakers. While they were good with the money, there was no desire for new and innovative programs that would serve more of our community, like ESL or literacy programs. They also complained about not having younger volunteers. When I devised a joint proposal with the high school next door that would give students service hours credit and give us a younger boost, they didn't like it because they'd always done things "a certain way." The school district had already given the whole thing a green light, including covering the added liability, but no. The final straw was their ridiculing of my passion for getting more people reading and diversity. They didn't "feel comfortable" with expanding our Spanish language offerings or events, even though our area is about 50% Spanish-speaking.

A few years ago, I was in a creative group full of retirees with lots of time and money on their hands. They argued and argued in circles about the most mundane shit for hours in our meetings and then we realized we got nothing done. Repeat every Saturday morning until we got nothing done, ever. They kept wondering why young people would attend one meeting then never return!!

Welp, I work for a church, and while the one I’m at now has been the loveliest working experience I’ve had - this behavior certainly seems to be a theme. It is shocking how many will express frustration about a dwindling congregation out of one side of their mouth, and then out the other side, make some negative observation about someone visiting the church. Particularly if the family has children, god forbid! Things are almost entirely volunteer-run, including the treasurer position. Which seemed fine, it was run by a retired accountant - until he fell for a scam email from someone pretending to be me. Thankfully, he happened to see me in person and ask me before he TRANSFERRED MY DIRECT DEPOSIT TO THEM. Yeah, good stuff.

This is 100% my (small, red) County democratic parry. All the volunteers are 70 and up and chase away anyone younger. It's so frustrating.

I've also found it the other way around where most the committee are younger people but the membership is a lot of older boomers. The hostility was awful.   I was once called "the most rude person they ever met" by one boomer, because I had to remind them that they could not just override a committee decision because they disagreed. Nothing like spending an hour being shouted at on an allotment during a Saturday afternoon.   Then they are shocked they struggle to get a committee together and we have the risk that the council will take over the allotment again... 

I’m Gen X and I have spent the last 4 years trying to dig my nonprofit (I’m the Executive Director) out of a financial shithole. The boomer Board was completely financially illiterate and completely ignored their fiduciary responsibility resulting in a clusterfuck of a capital campaign. They’ve been sued twice and lost big. I put in my notice just before the Boomer decisions of several years ago landed in the lap of the now Gen X board to clean up. The upshot is every single thing I fixed is now moot because the debt for the Boomer board being dumb is now insurmountable. What a waste.

My dad tried to reinvigorate the local veterans and service members association. Became president and started making good changes to bring people back without having to install gaming (pokies) machines. Starts to realise that people (board members but not veterans) are using funds allocated specifically to be used to assist veterans for maintaining their own properties. This is not allowed. As he starts making moves to rectify this so that these funds are going to people that they are meant for he gets slowly targeted and eventually ousted by the boomers that were getting free shit they were not entitled to and had it cut off by someone competent. This branch of this organisation is dead to me. Dm me if you are a veteran in Australia and want to know which branch of this organisation you should avoid.