Membership
| Site: | Rotary District 9675 My Learning |
| Course: | Club management |
| Book: | Membership |
| Printed by: | Guest user |
| Date: | Saturday, 20 April 2024, 5:42 PM |
1. Membership
This is a great year for Rotarians and time to grow our clubs. The Director Membership for 2023-24 is Janice Hall, New Style Clubs, Stephen Knightley.
These resources will provide information for you to develop some key strategies for your strategic plan that will target the club becoming more vibrant and attracting new members. If we don't grow and adapt to change we will not be able to make Rotary what it can be in this new exciting world.
More resources are available on My Rotary. Please note you need to log in to access this page.
2. Membership committee
Clubs have different Board structures however it is important to have a Director on your Board responsible for Membership. Growing membership and retaining existing membership is vital for your Club.
The following guide explains the process of creating a membership plan and provides strategies and tools you can use to attract and engage new members. It also includes information about sponsoring new clubs and reviews the membership resources that are available from Rotary. As you work through this guide, you will evaluate your club’s membership trends, create strategies for attracting new members, and develop ways to make your club meetings more engaging to improve your club’s member retention rate. Finally, we’ve included a worksheet that has concrete steps your club can take to build a plan to strengthen its membership.
Resources
A guide for download:
Strengthening Your Membership "Creating your membership plan"
Learning centre courses
There are wealth of resources on building your club membership in the Rotary International Learning Centre. To access these courses you first need to log into My Rotary and then the Learning Centre (instructions are available in the topic 'Introduction and overview of the the program' in this course). Be patient the Learning Centre takes some time to open.
Go to the Learning Centre and search for the following courses. Please note: You need to sign in using your My Rotary username and password.
Courses
- Club membership committee
- Developing club membership strategies
3. Developing your membership plan
To develop your membership plan, you should first evaluate your club's readiness to attact new and retain members, then focus on the particular steps that address your club’s toughest challenges. When you’ve completed the steps, you will have identified
challenges and opportunities, developed a vision, and generated strategies for prospective, new, and established members.
Resources
Strengthening your membership: Creating your membership plan
Your membership plan worksheet
Learning centre courses
Go to the Learning Center and link to the course Your membership plan.
Please note: You will need to log in using your My Rotary username and password.
4. Membership leads
Membership leads route prospective members to you to help you grow your membership. By signing in to your My Rotary account, you can see a list of your prospective, referred, and relocating or returning members all in one place! It’s one way we’re helping clubs connect with prospective members in their community who want to create positive change.
Sue Hayward is the District membership leads contact.
Resources
5. Engaging and retaining members
Engaging and retaining members is equally as important as attracting new members. We encourage you to take the time to consider the following points and suggestions.
There are a number of resources available to you to access your club:
Club Health Check
- Your president elect is asked to do a club health check each year (hopefully they will have sent this out to club members). Ask them for a copy of the report if the results have not been circulated.
- This link will take you to a quick assessment of your club and you are able to download the results. Please note: You need to be logged into MyRotary.
Is your club healthy?
- There is a course in the Rotary Learning Center. In summary the course covers: club experience; service activities and social events; membership; your club's image (have an online presence, social media and use the Rotary Brand Center so you have the correct logos etc); and club operations. Please note: You need to be logged into MyRotary.
Club operations
- Succession planing - plan ahead and offer leadership opportunities to members
- Use committees to get the work done and involve members
- Find out what members like and what can be improved. A good topic for Club assemblies
- Complete the Club Governance checklist to ensure you have good governance in place.
Lots to consider! Worth the effort.
More information on MyRotary. Please note: You need to be logged into MyRotary.
6. Attracting members
Attracting members to your club take careful planning and working with your Membership Committee to have a plan that needs to run over a number of years. There are several ideas that have been sued by clubs:
- Host a prospective member event. Personal invitation work well for these events, also advertising on your website and in social media. Some ideas
- Finding people to invite-undertake a prospective member exercise with club members and then send out invitations.
- Make sure you have up to date promotional materials eg brochure, flyers etc
- be out in your community and advertise Rotary
More information. Please note: You need to log into MyRotary.
7. New members
Asking your fellow members about people they know in the community who would be assets to the club is an important step in membership growth. Prospective members are likely to rely on the experiences and opinions of their friends, family, or colleagues when considering joining an organisation like Rotary. Encourage others to invite prospective members to club meetings, service projects, and events so they can see how your club helps the community and provides opportunities to form connections and friendships. It may take a few conversations or several visits for prospective members to get a full understanding of Rotary and how they could benefit from membership. It’s important to allow that time to make sure that it’s a good fit for everyone involved.
ClubRunner
In ClubRunner there is the ability to create a New Member Program. To find out more go to ClubRunner Support
Resources
8. Diversity
Diversity refers to inclusion of people from many groups. It is a source of innovation, as well as one of Rotary’s core values. Having members with different backgrounds and viewpoints gives your club a broader understanding of the community, its problems,
and possible solutions. Strive to have a group of members who offer the club diverse skills,talents, and experiences. If your club includes different ethnicities, ages, and cultures, as well as a good gender balance, it will have greater capacity
to serve your community and communities around the world. Equally important is creating a culture of inclusion, where these differences are respected, supported, and valued.
Resources
Learning centre courses
Go to the Rotary International Learning centre and login using your My Rotary username and password (be patient the site is a bit slow to load) and search for the following courses:
- Committing to diversity, equity and inclusion
- Building a diverse club
9. Club extension
Do you want to start a Rotary club but don’t have enough members? Are you in a Rotary club that isn’t meeting your or your members’ expectations? Are there members who love your club but can’t keep attending when it meets? Would you like to start a new club with a small, energetic group committed to community service? Then you might want to start anew club.
Types of clubs
- Traditional Rotary club: Professionals and aspiring leaders who meet regularly for service, connections, and personal growth
- Next-Gen: Rotary's long heritage is blended into the new, information-rich world in which we live. The result is a new generation of Clubs that embrace the demands of a faster-paced environment and create the opportunity for more people to become involved in Rotary service to the community.
- Satellite club: A Rotary club sponsored by a traditional club but with its own meetings, projects, bylaws, and board
- E-club: A Rotary club that meets primarily online
- Passport club: A Rotary club that allows members to attend other Rotary club meetings as long as they attend a specified number of meetings in their own club each year
- Corporate club: A club whose members (or most of them) work for the same employer
- Cause-based club: A club whose members are passionate about a particular cause and focus their service efforts in that area
- Alumni-based club: A club whose members (or most of them) are former Rotary or Rotary Foundation program participants
- Rotaract club: A club of members ages 18-30 that is sponsored by a Rotary club and often works with that club on projects.
Resources
My Rotary - wealth of resources on types of clubs and guides to starting new club:
