DINNER MEETING 1764 Thursday 7th August 2014
Guest Speaker: District 9520 Membership and Public Relations Chair – Mark Huddleston
ACCESS THE SLIDES CONTAINING FULL DETAILS OF MARK'S TALK - CLICK HERE
Mark began by reminding us to look after the members we have – we need to involve them all. We tend in Rotary to spend our time filling the bucket, but we fail to fill the holes and the bucket leaks!
Globally there are currently 1.2 million members and this remains largely unchanged. We recruited 100,000 last year – but lost an equivalent number. Between 2003 and 2013 we formed 2552 new clubs, but the membership gain over that period was actually a loss of 252 members. Australian leakage over that period was 5260 members!
Rotary is battling for relevance. For those in the Western World, why join Rotary? In other parts of the world there is a humanitarian need that is building membership.
There is a decline in our own district. In 2010 there were 1480 members. Now (2014) we have only 1360.
Our focus therefore is to focus on both RETENTION and RECRUITMENT.
RECRUITMENT: Clubs need to build their networks, and take advantage of the ripple effect we create through our supportive activities.
- Who have we touched over the last 10 years? (students, alumni, awards etc)
- Who have we involved in our programs (Speakers, GSE, Peace Scholars etc)
- What charities and organizations have we supported?
We should immediately establish a DATA BASE and keep in constant contact with these people.
RETENTION: Why do people leave us?
There are some ‘uncontrollables’ – death, poor health, relocation, competing priorities.
We need to focus on the ‘controllables’. Is there a lack of involvement, engagement, inclusion, and leadership opportunities? Are we meeting individual needs?
CLUB ROTARIAN SURVEY: To assist our club, Mark conducted a personal needs survey for the board to analyse.
WHAT THEN IS THE SILVER BULLET?
All clubs can offer
- Diversity in membership (Gender, race, etc)
- A good meeting venue
- Structured, informative and punctual meetings
- Good communication within and beyond the club
- Quality projects
- Mentoring for new members
- Links to the business Community
- A vibrant Social Calendar
- Information about Rotary
- An environment which is inclusive (all people and all ideas valued).
OUR VIEW OF WHERE WE HAVE BEEN MUST NOT OBSTRUCT WHERE WE ARE GOING! Recorder: Peter Manuel
|