The Minutarian from Governor Nick
TO HAVE SOMETHING YOU’VE NEVER HAD, YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING YOU’VE NEVER DONE
Our district’s annual membership seminar was just the beginning. The ideas discussed must be acted upon or else by next week, they will be forgotten. We now have a better understanding of what can be done, but at some point that understanding must be translated into action. Furthermore, while ideas are a great starting point, it’s always best to base your final decision upon data, either yours or those of someone else.
An effective strategy would be to observe the results generated by a club that has already undertaken what you are contemplating. Thinking of switching your
meeting time? Offering family or corporate memberships? Then visit clubs that have adopted the changes you are considering and carefully observe. What do you like or dislike? Talk to those who have a family or corporate membership then discuss the pros and cons with them. Problems? Were they resolved and if so, how?
Of course one size doesn’t fit all so another club’s experience may be very different than yours.
What works at a large metropolitan club may be a recipe for failure at one in a rural location. So collect your own data by conducting a test. When I earned a
living as a scientist, I always explored a new idea with a small pilot study before committing a large amount of federal grant money to a time consuming and
expensive series of experiments.
If the small pilot study supported the initial
hypothesis, I ran with it. If not, I counted my losses and moved on. Discuss with your board trying that approach in your club. In short, use your club as a
laboratory as you experiment with different approaches in your quest to find the optimal formula. Along the way, make sure you collect feedback from the
membership so you can avoid unnecessarily stepping on the toes of tradition.
Adapting to change is paramount if we are to continue the successes Rotary has achieved since our humble beginnings in 1905. If you want your club to be
something it’s never been, then you have to try something you’ve never done! As long as the changes are intended to achieve the goals of our organization, and are consistent with the four way test and bylaws, then the district and Rotary International have your back!
Yesterday’s membership seminar was a big success, thanks to our membership chair, Ed Odom, who carefully organized a perfect balance of excellent speakers and topics.
