The big news in memberships this month is the violent reaction to AARP’s alleged and abrupt shift, from their long held stance on the Social Security issue.

AARP’s membership, purportedly dedicated to the interests of senior Americans, was comprised (according to earlier accounts) of nearly 40 Million active subscribers. To put things in perspective, shockingly, this equates to approximately thirteen percent of the entire US population.

Arguably then, it may be considered the biggest “singularly focused” membership effecting the political landscape, in the United States.

Unlike the Catholic Church whose membership comprises a whopping twenty-two percent of the US’s population, AARP’s membership is comprised of a tighter, more focused demographic, consistently more likely to vote as a block.

AARP’s members are also generally in consensus around a small handful of core values and hot button issues, and have constantly shown an extraordinary ability to organize protests, and raise money for political advertising.

Having been credited by friends and foes alike, as the major force behind thwarting the privatization of social security in 2005, AARP as a membership has enjoyed a legendary, almost folk lore like status, as the Robin Hood-esque protector of its senior members and the bastion of fiscal wisdom for the retiring community and the entire country!

How is it then, that in the past few days, its members have been inflamed into fits of rage!

Recently there have been incredible accounts of reported calls for membership card burnings, unprecedented refund requests, and hate mail delivered to AARP’s Washington DC address, via those complementary self-addressed envelopes included along with their publications.

Well, it all started with reports featured in the Wall Street Journal and on CBS – essentially stating that AARP is ready to cave-in on the Social Security issue, and is ready to make some kind of a deal.

What will this all mean to AARP’s membership, and what lessons about memberships in general, can we learn?

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Well, here it is another milestone of the year -JUNE.

As I sit in my office with a stack of envelopes stamped, addressed, and ready to go out to the utility companies, another seasonal stack of mail awaits.

Every friend, relative and acquaintance it seems, has had someone in their family either graduate from high school, or college, or is getting married (or remarried), this month.

June is here at last, it would seem, in full force, and with each announcement, an invitation to participate in yet another summer celebration. As my wife and I look over our monthly calendar to decide, which functions we can, with confidence RSVP to, another stack of envelopes are prepared for the ones we will need to politely decline.

One wonders how a month with thirty days in it, can seem so much shorter than a February.

The spring rains have given way to sunshine, delivered in a daze of days, in rapid succession.

It is a time to seriously reconsider the landscaping plans made in midwinter, and actually pull together enough resolve to get out in the hot sun and do it – or formulate an excuse to get out of it.

So, whether it is the thought of dutifully eating fatty ham sandwiches slathered in yellowed, sun-ripened mayonnaise, while dodging the sweat-dripping smooches of “Aunt Gertrude” at the family picnic, or the desire to go AWOL on the backbreaking raised bed garden idea…

Strangely, the urge to “get out of Dodge”, grows stronger this time of year.

You would think that since finally, when the Midwest is experiencing the kind of weather exotic vacation destinations boast all year round, that we’d want to stay-put, however, at every table in every restaurant and coffee house that I frequent, the conversations unanimously center on making vacation plans, to go elsewhere.

This is an opportunity for the enterprising owner of membership software!

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