Aging members. Declining numbers. Fewer young people with time to spare.

What's a do-gooder to do?

Even as the need for good works continues to grow, civic-minded groups like the Kiwanis or Rotary clubs face greater and more complex challenges. Community service groups across the country, as well as here in Hawai'i, still spend millions of dollars and countless hours on projects to help the less fortunate.

Take, for example, the $18,000 renovated lanai ... er, make that "grotto" ... of the Hale O Honolulu clubhouse, a project for the state Department of Health's O'ahu Community Mental Health Center.

Here in a patch of sun just off Beretania Street — with a cascading water feature, blooming impatiens, kukui-nut tree and prettily matched patio furniture — some are at a loss about what they'd do if this respite for the mentally ill wasn't here, keeping them comfortable, occupied and off the streets.

Ask Debbie Chang how she'd feel if she didn't have this place to spend her free time and she stops puffing her cigarette long enough to emphatically toss out, "Depressed!"

"Bored!" chimes in her friend, Marcial Tomas Jr., whom she has brought along for the visit.

Kathleen Rhoads, a social worker, smiles as she sits and chats with the group, listening with pleasure as Chang adds that she likes to come to the clubhouse's garden to pick herbs, which she uses to make soup.

Rhoads, a psychosocial rehabilitation coordinator, was so impressed by the work the Rotary Club of Metropolitan Honolulu did for Hale O Honolulu that she joined Rotary.

CHANGING NEED

This project and others like it may be key to helping ease the troubles of the troubled. Today, there's an evolving response to growing needs.

"In a society like ours, there will always be needs," said Chris Gates, president of the National Civic League, a Denver-based nonprofit organization that advocates community democracy. "The question isn't whether they exist, but how we respond. We're seeing different levels of democracy. It's not just the government trying to resolve needs now."

There's been a shift in how the community works since the post-World War ll heyday of the Lions, Rotary and Kiwanis clubs, he said: The downshift from federal-to-state-to-local responsiveness mirrors the shift in community services. While we expect the federal government to concern itself with the money supply or the war in Iraq, when it comes to helping on a community level, we look to the community to respond.

"The most innovative work on society's problems occur at the state level," he said. "We've gone from government as unilateral actor to partner in finding creative ways to get things done. The nonprofit sector now is doing many things that 20 to 30 years ago, the government was doing."

These nonprofits are better in touch, more efficient and critical players in the game, Gates said. "There's a larger need for other institutions to step up and get involved," he said. "While we don't want a government big enough to solve all of society's problems, the corollary is, we must ensure that other institutions, that other groups are involved and engaged."

But getting people to join those "other groups" takes work.

RECRUITMENT CHALLENGE

Several things affect participation, said Jonah Pak, president of Honolulu Kiwanis Club and a member for a decade. He'd like to see better branding for the club, but there are other challenges, too.

"We have members who've been in for 40 years," he said. "One of our challenges is the aging of our members. As they age, they get less able to participate. We're looking for Generation X or Y, younger people who would like to get involved."

Ask Carl P. Hennrich, president of the Rotary Club of Honolulu, the "mother club" of Rotaries here: "The biggest challenge? Right off the bat, it's getting new members to join and retention of members, who die off, move, drop out through disillusionment — and getting new, quality members to join and stay in," he said.

That wasn't always a problem, noted Valerie Southwood, past president and member of the Lions Club.

"In the heyday, back in the '50s and '60s, some clubs got so large, they weren't taking in new members," she said. "Today, we're looking at the effects of that."

Kiwanis member Pak agrees recruitment is hard, and suspects he knows why: "People are so busy with work, family, etc. It's not often you find an individual who donates even more time. ... The pace of lifestyle today is so frenetic. We used to meet weekly 10 years ago, now we meet bi-weekly."

While time is the biggest reason people won't join, Hennrich knows cost is another, especially for prestigious clubs like his.

"With the cost of living, some don't have a few grand to shell out to join," he said. "Between dues, luncheons and if you want to become a fellow, it adds up."

TARGET GROUPS

Optimist International's junior club adviser and board member Harvey Ouchi knows how to get new members: hook them in at a young age. The Lions have their student Leo Clubs; Kiwanis have their Key Clubs. Ouchi started a junior club eight years ago at Kaimuki Middle School.

"I wanted to try to build a base of volunteers out there for the club," Ouchi said. "I sort of got that idea from watching volleyball clubs, with their constant seed of families and youngsters."

Southwood has a different approach. She goes after singles.

"They find by joining the club, they've got a built-in family," Southwood said. "That's my secret for recruitment. They also have the income to spend."

Hennrich, of Rotary of Honolulu, hears the concerns of older members about the importance of keeping the prestige factor high at his club.

"The time was, that (this club) was the place to go, with all the top business members," Hennrich said. "If you wanted to see what was going on in Hawai'i, it was the place to go every Tuesday. It's changed quite a bit."

Gates, at the National Civic League, said it's possibly a generational change, a change in tradition.

"For sure, memberships in groups like Rotary, Kiwanis are in decline," he said. "In the last burst of civic renewal in this country, you had the rise of modern civic groups. (These days), it's the Neighborhood Watch, the parent-teacher organizations and the like. The new town square is parents standing on the side of a soccer game. That may be this generation's Kiwanis and Rotary."

But don't count these organizations out just yet. If you ask recent Rotary member Rhoads, basking in the afternoon sun back at the Hale O Honolulu lanai ... er, make that grotto ... the good these do-gooders do will keep on going, once others recognize the importance of civic clubs.

"I was so compelled after learning what they do," said Rhoads, who moved to Hawai'i just a few years ago. "... These folks really understand 'ohana."