Yegparian: The Gap

No, this is not about a clothing store, rather, a 20-year lapse in service that seems to be almost universal, at least in Armenian communities.

It’s the period that starts with marriage and ends around empty nest syndrome, ranging from people in their 20s to 50s.

For obvious and understandable reasons, those of us in that period of life are pre-occupied with career and family commitments and issues. Consequently, they tend to drift out of active involvement in whatever their organization of choice was prior to hitting that time crunch. Often, the decreased participation is attributed to loss of interest, both by the organization and even the person her/himself, when it is nothing more than sheer lack of time and higher immediate priority obligations (job, kids, spouse). This is a loss of talent to our community, but it need not be permanent.

Unfortunately, many, if not most, people end up drifting away and being “forgotten” by their organization and peers therein. So, even when they try to return, they find themselves in a somewhat alien environment. This usually leads to tremendous loss, and is usually permanent.

I know some of the most productive workers in our community are those who are successful at “returning” to active involvement after that life stage.

Given this unavoidable reality, our organizations really should gear their approaches to members/activists such that they are not forgotten and can return easily. Such gearing could be something as basic as sending materials via electronic communications to them or as complex as having annual get-togethers directed specifically at people in this class.

Please, start including this concern in your thinking, especially if you have not yet reached the stage under discussion. The loss in experience, training time, and, most of all, good will, is huge and not something we can afford.

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Garen Yegparian

Asbarez Columnist

Garen Yegparian is a fat, bald guy who has too much to say and do for his own good. So, you know he loves mouthing off weekly about anything he damn well pleases to write about that he can remotely tie in to things Armenian. He's got a checkered past: principal of an Armenian school, project manager on a housing development, ANC-WR Executive Director, AYF Field worker (again on the left coast), Operations Director for a telecom startup, and a City of LA employee most recently (in three different departments so far). Plus, he's got delusions of breaking into electoral politics, meanwhile participating in other aspects of it and making sure to stay in trouble. His is a weekly column that appears originally in Asbarez, but has been republished to the Armenian Weekly for many years.