Rotary Membership

Posted by Dan Fox 
on Sep 24, 2013
 

by Lorine Parks

Membership was the subject of the club program, and President Paul Velasco began by describing the historic arc of Rotary membership.  After Paul Harris founded the Club, Rotary doubled in numbers for the first decade.  Rotarians from Chicago came out to the west coast, and clubs in San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle and Los Angeles sprang up, and then a sixth in New York, a seventh in Boston.  “L A Five” is the fifth club to be chartered in Rotary history.

 
Rotary went international in 1911 with the addition of a club in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in the then Dominion of Canada.  In the first nine years, from 1905 to 1914, 100 clubs were founded to form our marvelous organization.  What is remarkable about the first 100 clubs in Rotary history is that none of them have failed.  All of them are alive and active.  They have weathered two World Wars and are in five countries.  Let’s do as they have done, and keep on growing.

Rotarians have always been seen as leaders and trend-setters, and member- ship continued to grow robustly, increasing by 10% every decade, until the 1950’s-1990’s, when increases of only 1% were seen.  Membership has been stabilized at about 1.1 million, since 2003.

What this means to us today, in terms of recruitment, said President Paul, is that Rotary needs new ideas to encourage membership, and to find more  “invisible” Rotarians, as Angelo Cardono likes to call them.  By that he means people who have all the characteristics of Rotarians, who know that to serve is the real profit to be gained in any organization, but who haven’t yet realized they should become Rotarians.

Just as the view constantly changes when you are sitting in a scenic restaurant that rotates 360 degrees during dinner, so President Paul pointed out that we need to seize new opportunities to get and keep members.  The view is changing all the time.

Kevin MacDonald then showed a lively video on the accomplishments of Rotary, and then each table was encouraged to have a brain-storming session.  What we want is not only new candidates for membership, but ways to keep new members.  This reporter’s table suggested rewarding membership by club recognition, with certificates again and a ceremony for perfect attendance.  Another way to keep members interested is to have hands-on projects.  The Pancake Breakfast, coming soon, is a great example of working together and having fun: getting up and meeting early in the morning, no matter what the weather that day; pouring batter, turning sausages, serving plates full of lightly browned pancakes and crispy sausages to the ever-moving line of Downey citizens who come that morning to support us.  It’s our most visible community contribution.

Fittingly, two new members were then inducted; the ceremonies fittingly presided over by Angelo Cardono.  New members are Kitty Thompson, sponsored by Rich Strayer, and Ray Mesler, sponsored by Barbara Lamberth.     

Angelo stressed that new members can get the most out of membership by first, attendance at meetings, so you can share the experiences, laughs and learning, and second, always applying the Rotary Four-Way test in your personal and professional life.

Being there was not enough time for each new member to introduce themselves to the group, that will take place at the new meeting.  But the new members were the ones honored by being chosen to sign the library book.  Welcome to the Club!