Corporate or business membership of Rotary
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Corporate or Business Membership is being trialed by clubs who choose to be part of the pilot worldwide. While not a formal type of membership yet, the Rotary Club of Warragul believes corporate (or business) membership offers the opportunity to broaden the understanding of Rotary with local businesses and potentially to increase club membership. The club is currently recruiting four staff from the local ANZ bank branch as its first business member.
Membership of a Rotary club is people based and in particular a membership is for one person. Our approach has been to appoint the senior member from the business as the primary club member and they will be the person registered with Rotary. Other staff from the business will be called Associate or Friends of Rotary.
The primary member has all membership benefits including voting and office bearing rights whereas the Associate Member(s)/ Friends of Rotary can participate in all club activities but can’t vote or hold office. In reality the business membership and associated paperwork only exists at the club level. Our club is seeing business membership as a way of raising awareness and membership development and so only a normal club membership subscription is being charged for the business member. Some clubs may wish to pursue corporate or business membership as a fund raiser and charger a higher membership fee.
Business membership attendance should be at least 50% with attendance shared between the primary and the members of the business. Business membership will be trialed with two or three local businesses for twelve months and then the approach will be reviewed with the primary member of each business member.
An induction and support plan is being developed for the primary and associate members and will include the appointment of a mentor along with an education and training program on the role and activities of the club specifically and Rotary more generally.
The district membership committee provided corporate membership templates that were modified with the above issues. For more information (including the business membership form) contact the Rotary Club of Warragul President Richard Habgood on habgood@dcsi.net.au
