The road to a healthy membership and the growth of Rotary begins with Diversity of Thought. Through healthy open dialogue with our members and the community we serve, Rotary will develop more engaged Rotarians.
Casey Eaglespeaker, a Blackfoot Elder, spoke quite eloquently about the times we live in, where we need to move our society from “Doing To and Doing For, to Doing With”. While this resonates clearly on relationship with our Indigenous People, it is relevant to how we engage with our local communities and quite frankly with our Membership. Diversity of thought leads clearly to diversity in membership, listening to learn leads to equity and understanding, having people with “lived experience” in the room leads to inclusion.
Strong focused leadership is essential to create the environment where we understand our members, their passions, as well as their frustrations with Rotary. Strong leadership and diversity of thought allows for us to create a culture where our members feel respected and empowered, which leads to engagement.
Membership growth is a “team sport”, and like all sports it requires a system and plan that involves each member, club, and District. RI President Shekhar Mehta challenged Rotarians to “Each One Bring One” to experience Rotary and the impact we have in the Community. If each member cannot answer “YES” to the statement “I Brought Someone”, then our question needs to be “Why not, what is stopping you”.
Being open to feedback, new ideas and ways of thinking will lead us to a more engaged membership. As leaders the acknowledgement of our members gifts, strengths, and contributions, while listening to concerns, problems, and obstacles, will lead us to new possibilities for growth. The creative tension is healthy if we focus on “challenging ideas/feedback and not people”.
As Clubs grow through diversity and inclusion, and there is a focus on “Doing With”, Rotarians can live our motto “Service Above Self”. The social issues and the communities we serve are changing. It is important that we have those we serve alongside us to develop our strategies of engagement. Community Assessment processes are as important for local community projects as they are for International.
How often have we heard that we are members of Rotary for Community engagement and fellowship? The reality is that Community Engagement combined with Fellowship is magical. The more members a Club has engaged in the community the healthier the fellowship. Conversely the more supportive we are of our members passion; the more clubs will be active in creating a positive impact in the community.
Celebrating the impact, we as People of Action have in our community, accelerates our member engagement. The visibility of our actions will drive greater collaboration with our community partners, as well as piquing the interest of community members to join Rotary. What better way to show Rotary’s value than creating active betterment of our communities, profiling issues and solutions, showing our financial investment, and most importantly the lives we impact.
Let’s grow Rotary through strong leadership, defined goals, community impact, celebration, and an engaged membership. Let Diversity of Thought drive the process.