I received a rather disheartening email today from HAAM (Humanists, Agnostics & Atheists of Manitoba) announcing their plan to disband the organization due to lack of volunteers willing to head the organization.

Though I live in Manitoba, I admit to having limited interaction with this Manitoba based organization (despite being from Manitoba myself). This was due to an unfortunate limitation of geography. The organization (and most of their volunteers and activities) is based in and around Winnipeg, whilst I am in Brandon without any means of easily traveling to the city. Though I once sent an email to the organization inquiring about activities (if there were any) in my area, I never received a reply.

As such, my interaction with the organization has mostly involved reading the monthly newsletter. Which will (along with the website) soon go dark, which is very unfortunate for all the youngsters coming up in this provinces bible belt. An area that has proved problematic when it comes to vaccine uptake during our recent globally shared hell situation.

I am indeed aware that posting this here won't help out the organization (though that would certainly be nice). My goal is more oriented around figuring out if this is just a local phenomenon, or if secular organizations all over the place are having similar participation issues.

What sparks the question is this happening on the heels of Manitoba's largest 2 cities (Brandon and Winnipeg) recently going though municipal elections for mayor, councilors and school trustees, and with both having an extremely low voter turnout.
While I am apt to blame a big part of the lack of participation on not reaching voters due to changing media consumption habits (more people using various social media platforms and less watching local news/reading newspapers etc), it also occurs to me to question whether people even have the time to worry about these things. Most of my life is spent in a work uniform. Is this a shared existence (particularly post covid, in a shifting job market)?

I still suspect that a big part of the problem of local politics is reaching an audience regularly enough to inspire engagement. This may well be on account to incompetence on the part of people running the elections (members of previous generations unwilling to accept changes in the media landscape). However, if people don't have the time to devote to civic (let alone volunteer) duties, hitting local eyeballs via Tik Tok, Snapchat, YouTube ads etc may not be enough.

So my questions for all is:

1.) Is lack of participation afflicting your organizations?

2.) Is this a a more pronounced problem in smaller communities?

3.) Could this be a good thing (teenagers growing up with less religious social media influences resulting in less need for intervention of organizations like HAAM (at least in Canada)?

4.) Anything else you feel like adding.