Over the last couple of years, and wandering in and out of various Croatian clubs in Sydney and Canberra, I have seen a significant decline in attendance and the increasing ageing demographic at Croatian Clubs and institutions.

Bringing up a couple of children, and running my own business, I was thinking back to growing up in Canberra as a first generation migrant, and growing up in the Croatian community in Canberra. It was a remarkably rich environment with tremendous learning experience that we are just not giving our children today!

Looking at the interaction of my father's generation, which was quite an active environment business community and, politically, we had to learn it all as they were doing. 

So what did I get from growing up as an Australian Croatian? A truly tremendous amount! I learnt how to run a  business, interact with a lot of people who did not know what I was, interact with people that despised us for being 'fascists', write to politicians and build a club and brand.

Why did we do all that? Because nobody catered to our needs, we were just slobs from southern Europe, just a mob of Slavs! The original settlers were also very socially minded, and knew the value of working together. This seems to have been lost along the way. So the following generations go all their own ways.

What did we do wrong? We forgot to plan what was going to happen after the first wave! It was just assumed they would follow. They did not.

Can we use the existing infrastructure to give our kids the same opportunities? Yes? Probably not! Why do that?

But if we were, we need to engage them in the institutions that we have and to engage them in the fields of management, board involvement and marketing.

There is always a ‘but’. All those institutions are dying and being wasted because no one gives a stuff. Soon they will fall by the wayside, and, unlike the pyramids, they will be re-branded as something else and we will be a footnote in Australian history.

So it's time we gave ourselves a good kick up the backside. We are wasting what our parents built and gave us and, more to the point, we are not giving it to our children. The current trend of calling Croatian clubs 'social clubs' is an indicator. It is the beginning of the end.

Who is at risk? Every club that is not generating a decent financial return is at risk. Look at the numbers. The memberships range from 300 to 3,000. How can this sort of membership actually do anything? The annual profits range from a loss to a couple of thousand in profit. Take 5% as a bank interest rate. The Club must make 5% of its value as a return to use in the community!

The value of the assets is immense, and if harnessed correctly can generate magnificent cultural (financial) returns to the community and really do what we need.

There is also a certain suspicion that these places are not being run correctly. My experience is that the structure is too ambitious, however a lot of Croatian Clubs are being run well... and honestly! But some have problems, and there is evidence of foul play. But let's not stop.

A lot of Croatians have the attitude that ''it is ours, I don't have to pay''!

I say: Idiot! You are not paying for today, you are investing in tomorrow!

The experience with the Croatian Credit Union reveals that Croatians don't necessarily see the value of shopping with their own. They still go to the banks, who have never provided one dollar of sponsorship, various mortgage brokers who operate out of old cars and turn up for every dance and picnic and again never return anything, and other Clubs.

Shop with your own institutions and the money goes around. Shop outside - and it goes down the toilet. But demand good service from our own, and work to get it!

The Message: Invest in our own, or the world will get it off us for free.

Being Croatian is OK, you can get a (HR) sticker and put it on your car. So you qualify.

Is that enough? For some! Not for me!

We need to get rid of the 'silo mentality', each Club, institution looking after its own interest. It is a joint problem. We need to ask our selves really hard questions, and look at what we have and what we want.

We need to reinvent the wheel, the definition of who we are and where we are going. We also need to put the assets in some sort of a trust that actually does something.

We also need to get rid of the 10th of April 'commemorations'! This is a significant sticking point in the wider community as it leaves us wide open to attack by anyone wishing to denigrate us. It also alienates our own people who do not wish to be associated with a regime that started well, but ended badly.

What do younger generations want..? Good question. If we don't manage it today, we will never have anything to hand over.

For the next generation to get involved it must be easy, fun, cost very little and must not take too much time. The social side and the sense of belonging is the most important to them. How we package this for them is the big mystery.

How do we do this..?

T.M. (name and details supplied)