Membership and Promotions

Membership & Promotion Report

 

At the start of the Rotary year the committee consisted of the following members:

 

Graham Lough (Chair), Bruce Cole, Ken Roscrow, Terry Tierney, Laura Richter, Ray Smith. 

 

With Ray Smith resigning and both Bruce Cole and Laura Richter being on extended leave from Rotary, the remaining members have worked tirelessly throughout the year in various promotions. 

 

Unfortunately, previous promotional initiatives that were put on hold at the start of the outbreak of Covid-19 in February 2020 were not able to be restarted.  These included the Business Sponsorship package, Club information stall at the Christmas Fair, Membership and Promotional nights at the RSL, local Rotary Newsletter distribution to the business community and participation in the Blackwood Christmas Pageant.  In addition, the loss of the Rotary Art Show in July and the Christmas Fair in November also affected the Club’s exposure to the larger community.

 

However, new initiatives to attract new members were held including several in conjunction with the committee overseeing the 50th Anniversary celebrations.  These included:

Along with most community activities, our efforts have been severely limited due to the Covid – 19 pandemic.  This has also restricted our membership drive activities.  A request for current members to nominate people who may be responsive to an approach by one of the Membership committee members resulted in just one name being passed on.  This person was approached but declined the invitation to attend a meeting at this time.  The future membership committee needs the support of all members in identifying prospective new members. Without new members we will not have a viable club in the next few years. Please pass on names.

 

Our membership efforts were rewarded with one new member (Pam Bennett) being inducted.  Unfortunately, for various reasons, we also lost some very valuable members (Michael McLaren, Bernie Morgan and Ray Smith).  Their contributions will be sorely missed, but it has been noticeable that all three were helping out in some capacity during the year so not all contact has been lost.  For this, the club is most grateful.

 

Looking forward, it is vital for our club to attract new members.  It is hoped that our approach to both the Blackwood Bowling Club (providing BBQ’s on Night Owl bowling nights) and the Blackwood Golf Club (assisting with their art display) will result in at least getting names to approach with a view to membership, or at least recruit able bodied people to help out with the occasional Rotary activity.

 

One area of attention next year must be our digital on-line presence.  This does pose some difficulties for many members who are not comfortable with Information Technology.  This lack of familiarity also affects the internal communications and general business of the club.  It is hoped that this can be overcome with some regular input by those who are computer literate.