If you are a member of Junior League (or another service organization)..r/o...please

[AnnieW625]

how many years did were you actively involved before you became a sustaining member (or whatever your organization calls non active or alumni members)?

My league requires 8 yrs. of active service before becoming a sustainer (I joined in July, 2005, I was 28), but I am 36 and if I go sustaining after this year I will be the youngest sustainer at 36 (a month shy of 37). I think a few of my classmates (there are 10 of the 13 left) might go sustaining as well and there is one who is a month younger than I am, but most are between 38-45. Most of the sustainers range in age from 45 to 85 or 90. The bulk are probably my mom's age (60-65), and they meet at 4 pm on a random weekday some months and throw parties for those who are 65 and over. They do have a young sustainers coffee group, but I haven't seen that advertised lately. They have a travel group and a garden group because they are all retired. I am 36, I have two kids under the age of 8 and I will be working for at least another 20 years.

I know this is going to be a fairly niche topic, but I was just wondering if there was any input from anyone else.

I thought about transferring to another league in the county I work in two years ago for new experiences, but now I am not so sure I want to go that route either.

[Momit]

Not my experience personally, but a friend of mine went sustainer in her early 30's. She wanted to focus on her kid's activities and try for another baby. She was younger than many of the sustainers but she didn't have much in common with the 25 and 30-year-old active members, most of whom were single and childless, either. She was happy with her decision.

[wellyes]

I'm in a GFWC club - which is similar - we do not have non active members. I'm curious about the concept. Do all members be one inactive after a certain number of years? What is the advantage of it?

[candaceb]

I went Sustainer in the Junior League when DS was born. The closest Leagues are an hour from me where we currently live. I joined when I was in a city that had its own League and then the next city we lived in did too. I found it really helped me make the transition easier when we moved to be instantly part of an organization, and that is the only reason I am maintaining my membership at this point. I suspect that we will move from CT within the next few years, and if we move somewhere with a League I would probably go Active Gold again and be more involved.
I have done nothing as a sustainer. I really don't have any interest in it at this point and I'm just paying the dues to keep up my membership in case we move.

[Zansu]

I went sustaining after 10 years, went active again a few years later to fill a Board position, and am now a sustaining advisor. I see my close JL friends once a month at GNO, and others at whatever meetings I attend as advisor.

I don't usually make it the sustainer happy hours (mostly the under 60 crowd), and never go to the Sustainer Tea. The GNO is my primary connection to my friends.

Why not organize a dinner meet-up and tell people to invite their friends? We have a group of about 20 and usually have about eight show up. We trade off picking restaurants. Some people just come for a drink and leave after an hour.