Association treasurer Roger Gardiner said the association had always struggled to attract new members and he believed a committee meeting to discuss the future of the association next Monday would most likely recommend it be "wound up".
"We don’t seem to be able to attract people in their 20s or 30s. I think they’re either too busy trying to hold down two jobs or keeping their kids educated and happy to be able to give the time to represent or get involved in an organisation like ours," Mr Gardiner said.
He said the Wanaka association had achieved a lot over many years but given the size and scale of the town now and the average age of the membership (which he estimated at over 70 years old) it would be hard to believe it was representative of the Wanaka community. Albert Town Residents Association chairman Bruce Hebbard was unavailable for comment but the organisation ran a membership drive in the Wanaka local media recently.
Hawea Residents Association chairman Paul Cunningham said their membership base was "thriving" but like all resident associations they would welcome new members.
Mr Gardiner believed the Hawea, Albert Town and Luggate residents’ associations would continue as they had a stronger sense of community and focused interests within certain catchment areas.
He said Wanaka suffered from having a wider catchment area and people with independent projects and ideas which made it harder for them to come together and agree on what Wanaka needed.
"We had the situation recently with the proposed new water sports facility on the lakefront where some members supported it and others were opposed to it. There were just so many different points of view," he said.
Mr Gardiner said if the committee meeting on Monday night recommended the association be disbanded it would be put to a special meeting of the membership after the annual meeting at a date yet to be fixed.
