MCA NextGen

The Future of MCA

By Richard Wajs, MCA Board Member and founder of MCA NextGen

After acquiring a condominium in Naples in late 2019, I soon started hearing about an outstanding and popular community organization with which I would want to join and become an active member — the Men’s Cultural Alliance (MCA). I decided to inform myself about the activities and events of this organization and was simply flabbergasted with the variety and professionalism of the organized activities. I joined MCA for walks, lunches, tours, and more. It was all very impressive. I could see how my days could literally be filled by participating in the many activities listed in MCA’s calendar.

I realized, however, especially through the input of other community members of my generation (which is somewhat younger than the current average makeup of MCA members), that many who were fairly new to Naples had not yet developed social circles and wanted to generate relationships with persons of their ilk and age range, with similar life issues to discuss, to exchange and to learn from others in this regard. Many of us have ongoing careers, children’s issues to deal with, financial challenges and other issues in common.

I had also witnessed the recent successful launch of the Women’s Younger Division of WCA, which was serving the demographic in which these people and I found ourselves, so the creation of MCA NextGen was, in turn, a no-brainer and made great sense.

As such, about a year ago I started having discussions with MCA leadership, including outgoing President Les Nizin and incoming President Michael Sobol in terms of the establishment of an MCA NextGen group. They were highly supportive, and we successfully launched the group at that time.

Since then, we have rapidly expanded our membership and started planning activities. These include monthly lunches, monthly joint dinners with WCA NextGen, tennis, pickleball, shooting clays, golf, book club, tours, boat trips, fishing, and more. The men who have joined us have very broad and diverse interests and we look forward to many more types of activities and events to come from them.

Truly, the most gratifying aspect of MCA NextGen is the feedback that I receive regarding new relationships that have been built within the community as our members join together to participate in our events and activities. It is simply a delight to hear them express their excitement about the new social networks and friendships they are developing, which makes coming to Naples and Southwest Florida that much richer and more rewarding.

The other comment that I really enjoy hearing from our members is about how impressed they are with the other members they’ve met, in terms of their careers, depth of character and, simply, the overall learning they obtain when meeting others in our group.

I am delighted to witness the active participation of our MCA NextGen members in the activities and events of the Greater MCA. I have obtained wonderful feedback from our members who are actively involved in MCA’s superb programs. We are building, from among our members, the eventual new leaders of MCA and will continue to encourage our members to play active roles in MCA going forward.

Since our inception, we are made up of mostly snowbirds/seasonal Floridians as well as a significant number of people who reside in Naples/Southwest Florida on a full-time basis. We are literally growing our membership with new people every week.

We very much welcome new members and invite anyone who is interested to first join MCA by going to the website, MCA - Home (wildapricot.org). Please then email me, Richard Wajs, at the MCA NextGen link on the front page and we will get you involved. Thank you!