Capitol Hill Rotary Club Achieves 50% Membership Growth in First Quarter
Capitol Hill Rotary Club Achieves 50% Membership Growth in First Quarter
By Quentin Wodon 
Let’s admit it: achieving a high growth rate (negative or positive) is easier with a small club. Still, after more than five years of almost continuous decline in membership, the Rotary Club of Capitol Hill seems to have turned the page. We had 18 members on July 1. Now we have 27, with 9 new members inducted in the first quarter of the new Rotary year.
How did we do it? Let me share our recipe in case it may also be useful for other clubs.
Ingredient 1: Less meetings, more service and public events. Rotary’s Council of Legislation has given a lot of freedom to clubs on how they organize their meetings. So we decided to reduce our regular meetings from four to two per month, which gives us more time for service work and organizing public events.
Ingredient 2: Better service opportunities. Many Rotarians are professionals and business leaders, yet most do not use their skills when they volunteer with their club. We changed that in our club by creating teams of Rotarians and non-Rotarians combining their skills to provide pro bono advise to local nonprofits on the strategic issues they face. This is not only more interesting in terms of volunteer work, but it is also more impactful to create positive change in the community.
Ingredient 3: Lower cost. By the standards of Washington DC, our membership dues are not very high, at $600 per year. But this is too much for many. So we created two new membership types – a membership at half the regular dues for young professionals under 35 years of age, and a spouse/partner membership at one third of the dues. We may also reduce our regular dues in the future as we have more members.
Ingredient 4: Stronger public image: We are now organizing better and more regular public events. Our last two events were on September 20 (a seminar with great speakers on education for peace and social change at the World Bank), and September 24 (a stand at the Barracks Row Festival in Capitol Hill). We are also writing articles for the local blog and the local magazine for our Capitol Hill neighborhood in Washington, DC.
Ingredient 5: Strategic planning. We have now a strategic plan, the first drafted for the club since its creation in 2003. The plan gives us a vision, as well as clear milestones and targets that we are trying to achieve (the plan is available on my website RotarianEconomist.com if you would like to read it).
Ingredient 6: Pure luck. Part of our gain in membership was just luck. For example, two new members transferred from other clubs due to changes in jobs and the location of their workplace. What’s great is that they bring with them a lot of experience in Rotary.
It remains to be seen whether we will continue on the path of membership growth for the rest of the year. We expect some members to relocate, so we will need to recruit more members to compensate... But we are making progress, and we have exciting initiatives coming up that should help us become better known in the community, make a larger difference for the less fortunate, and hopefully grow further.