President's Letter

 

When you became a Rotarian, you had expectations of what you would experience and how you would benefit. Reversing the viewpoint, Rotary has expectations of those who are members. There are expectations that are non-negotiable, such as paying dues. Then, there are expectations that have been modified over the years, such as attendance at meetings.

 

Summarizing seven ways to meet the Rotary expectations of your membership (beyond the payment of your dues)…

So which is more important than the others? It’s situational. One club has willing volunteers but cannot raise money. The next never identifies new members and eventually succumbs to attrition. Each club has to emphasize the element(s) in short supply.

 

It is not an expectation that every member engage via every method. It would be exceedingly rare that even one club member participates in every way, year-in and year-out. Play to your strengths. Use Rotary as an opportunity to acquire skills in new areas. Everybody doing what they can – and all doing something – will make us successful.

 

You will no longer see a “good” Rotarian defined as a person who pays dues promptly and attends 90+% of meetings. That archaic idea was never actually a recipe for a productive club. Dozens, scores or hundreds of people eating together and making sure dues were current – while doing nothing more – did not accomplish 100 years worth of worldwide improvement.

 

You can be an engaged Rotarian by participating a bit in several ways, or by helping predominantly in one area.

 

Is seven the limit of ways of meeting membership expectations? Do you have another idea of how to help in the cooperative efforts of Rotary to improve the community, the region, and the world? Let’s enlarge the list.