What does 2025 look like to our Club?

Minnetonka Rotary Club has experienced a 35% increase in membership since 2015 and realized the time was right for a repeat Visioning Session.  At our 2015 session, we formulated five goals to guide the club’s direction for the next 3-5 years:  Every Rotarian on a committee, 100% participation in the Annual Fund for Rotary International, 90% retention rate of members, schedule excellent weekly speakers, and increase the use of social media.  The general consensus was that those goals had largely been met and it was time to take on new challenges. 
 

To prepare for this exercise, members were asked to complete a short survey that captured their views of the club experience, reasons for joining and staying, the club’s perceived strengths and weaknesses, and suggestions for improvement.  Sixty-one percent of members responded.  Most replied that that they joined Rotary for service, citizenship in the community, and friendship and most felt these were also the club’s major strengths.  Perceived weaknesses included the existence of cliques, personality conflicts, and insufficient communication.  Most felt the cost of meals and membership dues were appropriate.  The majority were satisfied with the opportunities for fellowship at weekly meetings and got their information about the club from the weekly meetings.   Although many members do not work or live in Minnetonka, they serve on a committee and felt our service projects have a positive impact on the community. 
 

With this information in hand, the District supplied four seasoned facilitators, including our current District Governor, for the Visioning Session. Using a new format, Minnetonka Rotarians were asked to envision the club in 2025 and answer 6 questions:  What has made membership in the club desirable, how many members are in the club, what has been going well, what has the club outgrown , what ineffective things did the club eliminate, and what brand new ideas did the club adopt?  
 

After an hour of brainstorming, here is how we see the future:

1. Membership is valuable because of the quality of the people in the club, Happy Bucks, and social events.  We have energy!

2. We have 75 members.

3. We have impactful community service projects, fun and frequent social activities, and still enjoy Happy Bucks!

4. We have increased fundraising to $80-100K, our service projects involve families, and we have a bigger presence in the community

5. We eliminated starting all meetings at 5:00 PM and considered other types of fundraising

6. We have regular international service trips, we adopted a community signature project, and we have an annual family picnic.

 

We further examined our club’s future and agreed on 5 specific goals for the next 3-5 years:

1. Analyze our community service and its relationship to our signature project.  Form a focus group to help define/select our club’s signature project

2. Expand our public image in the community

3. Form a vocational service committee to leverage the professional skills of members

4. Increase our annual fundraising goal to $80-100K

5. Design service projects that include family members