Membership Corner - January 27,2014
Posted by Thomas Sturiale
Club Size?
What is the ideal club size? How many members should we have in our clubs? What do you think? Are you satisfied with the size of your clubs? Do you think it would be beneficial to have at least 50 or so members at a meeting to greet the speaker?
Have you thought about how many community service projects, or Interact Clubs, or RYLA'ns, or scholarships, or food pantries you could support if you had 60 - 70 - 80 or more members in your club? Really, what holds us back from addressing this opportunity? What indeed? Is it organizational inertia? We've done that. We've tried that. It doesn't work. We could identify a hundred reasons why we are where we are. The simple truth is we need members? Let's go get them.
We are approaching PETS and the annual change of leadership in all our clubs. This really is an exciting time for Rotary. We will have almost 500 incoming Presidents joining together for their indoctrination at the Sheraton in Framingham March 6-8. As you current Presidents know, they will be very busy folks preparing for their year. Why don't you help them by committing to lead the membership charge during the next year? You have had a year of great training and you recognize the problem. Here is your opportunity to be a hero(ine).
There are some really great initiatives starting to take place. Several clubs are getting together in Leominster on February 25 to listen to Satya Mitra speak about his success in the Worcester Club. Representatives from 20 clubs in the north central part of the district have been invited to a get together on March 11 to talk about member initiatives. Our intention is to expand this effort throughout the district. What we want to do is to search out and take action on 3 or 4 initiatives at each club aimed at attracting new members into Rotary. This is not an easy task and it is a very difficult task for smaller clubs. If any club would like to have some help in addressing this issue, please let us know.
A powerpoint presentation and a compilation of membership notes is attached to this note. Anyone is welcome to use them as discussion tools in your clubs. Talk about membership issues at assembly meetings. Reach a consensus. Set an objective. Develop a strategy. Take action. Monitor the results. Enjoy the new members. Click Here: http://bit.ly/1bqDm72
Tom Sturiale - Membership Chair District 7910