Generation gap

The Pew Internet report, Older Americans and the Internet, says 22% of Americans 65 and older use the Internet. The percent of seniors who go online has jumped by 47% between 2000 and 2004. In a February 2004 survey, 22% of Americans age 65 or older reported having access to the Internet, up from 15% in 2000. That translates to about 8 million Americans age 65 or older who use the Internet. By contrast, 58% of Americans age 50-64, 75% of 30-49 year-olds, and 77% of 18-29 year-olds currently go online.

I know this. I follow these trends, as a self proclaimed infogeek.

I took a leadership position for a local chapter of a national nonprofit organization. Because I had so much free time to spare. No really, because this group does some amazing work for women and children in our communities. But here’s the rub. The volunteer base is aging, as it seems to be in many organizations. And it needs an infusion of younger volunteers.

According to U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, Volunteering in the United States, older volunteers devoted the most time to community activities–almost double the national median for all ages. Compared with the U.S. median commitment of 52 volunteer hours annually, those 65 and over contributed 96 hours.

The same report shows, however, that there are younger volunteers. They just don’t, obviously, put in as much time.

So how to get younger people to invest more time? We’re all busy, but…

Just food for thought. I digress…

The real point of this post, or at least my intention on starting it (before I got caught up in statistics), is that the members of the Board of Directors that I now lead are older. Only one is younger than me — and the next older than me is over 10 years older. And some could be 30 years older (though it seems a bit rude to ask, I am curious).

I had been frustrated with the group previously since they sent email attachments all the time and gave out printed budgets and notes at meetings. It seemed to me there was a better way to ease into technology. Since my mom and others I know are quite savvy, I assumed (you know what happens when you assume) that I could post pdf’s and send links to the group. And that I could provide a site for the group where documents are housed to save paper, updates, time, and money. I designed an electronic newsletter to replace the printed version. (That was approved last year – but not easily!)

So now, I get emails every day asking me how to print pdfs. How to access documents. And the pièce de résistance is that at this month’s meeting people were talking about printing out the new newsletter to snail mail to members. And not just those old ladies without email addresses. To anyone who would prefer not to click a link. Without even sending out the first month as a trial. In fact, someone even asked me to send an email to the membership to let them know that the newsletter was coming next week as a link in an email. My question was “wouldn’t the email saying this is a link to the newsletter” serve as a heads up?

The real problem is that I moved too quickly. I’ve had to retrace my steps and send some documents via email. I need to slow down and let these folks catch up. A little at a time.

Patience is not my strong point.