I (respectfully) disagree with your assertion that is the "key". The challenge we have is that some of the legacy volunteers feel obligated to "stick around" to "save the Club" from evolving beyond their comfort level. Again, we're talking about automating process that were once manual.
As a result, these folks consume a board position simply to maintain a vote so they can vote against evolutionary ideas (that aren't really that evolutionary anymore). One such instance was the implementation of a cloud-based shared drive for all Club docs vs individuals who have these items saved to a Desktop folder on some machine...
For the record, this is my second stint at the helm. I DO NOT want to do this forever, so I am trying to create systems and infrastructure that will allow me to "retire" from volunteering instead of sticking around for a decade and (eventually) being the one holding the Club back.
In our area we've noticed the opposite...
They have time to dedicate, but being inefficient with that time is wasteful. The younger generation can get more accomplished more quickly because we communicate more fluidly outside our meetings.
It is not uncommon for us to see a dozen emails flying around on a given day - not every day or every week, but when there is a topic worth discussing, we do. The younger generation is engaged and active, the older guys do not reply to the email conversations as much, so we have to rehash the entire conversation, often many times over, to bring them up to speed.
I am grateful for anyone that wants to dedicate their energy to this sport, but we simply accomplish more if we are aligned in our thinking and actions. Volunteering to dig a hole for me is great, unless you dig in the wrong spot...:\
