New Drive For Membership
The Rotary Club of Frankston in the mid-eighties had 85 active members. Since that time our membership numbers have declined and our members had aged so at the beginning of the 2014/2015 our membership had reduced down to 39 and effective club management was becoming difficult. Our President, John Wright, promoted the action of membership growth as our most significant project for the year. He formed a project group of 5 of our best members to undertake the task of adding 10 new members to the club by December 2015, an ambitious task!The project team created a membership prospectus which highlighted the positive nature of our club including its achievements in the local community, its fundraising activities and also the social activities undertaken by Rotarians and partners. To help sell this message a 15 minute DVD was created by one of our Rotarians, using contributions from various members within the club which highlighted these positive aspects. To support this action, our President requested that a new, modern club shirt and hat be designed to promote our image. These actions were communicated and sold to the existing membership to gain their support and buy-in. Each member of the club was then required to propose a prospective member through the use of a prospective member form. The membership project team then took on the responsibility to approach the prospect, provide them with a membership prospectus and interview the prospect if the proposer was not comfortable undertaking this process.
Additionally, each new member prospect was offered free membership for their first year except for evening dinner meeting fees. Each new member was also assigned a mentor to ensure good integration to our club. Our project has resulted in 12 new members joining our club, has revitalized the existing membership and made us fully realise what a great club we really have. Article by Rotary Club Frankston President, Grahame Gordon
