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Member Survey
Last July, the Membership Committee emailed a “Member Satisfaction Survey.” Eighteen members of our club responded and I want to thank those of you who did respond! It is important to know how members are feeling about their club if we have any hope of improving it. Respondents were given the opportunity to write comments regarding the questions asked within the survey and this week’s bulletin message is my response to those comments. In bold you will see the specific section question and the related comments are below that heading. My response to each comment is below the comment in italics. I am responding as the current Club President and am not responding with an answer because I take a question personally. This message will be fairly lengthy and one of the comments was that the messages can be a little wordy. I entertained the thought of making this a multi-week message and breaking it down into sections, but I think that if I do that it will lose some of its cohesiveness. So, my apologies for the length.
Overall, how satisfied are you with your membership in our Rotary club?
I wish I could make more meetings. Will try.
It seems as though people’s lives are getting more and more busy. Luckily, Rotary International has taken the emphasis off meeting attendance and placed it on project participation! The club is always thankful for all the help that it can get so help out with those projects as often as you can.
I am happy to be a member of the club. I particularly enjoy the social aspects and the opportunity to meet new people. I think we do a lot of good in the community. We could always do more but we are limited by the amount of time and energy we have to volunteer. I would like to see less turnover in membership. I wish we could do a better job of engaging members so the they stay involved and participate more.
Thank you! You basically hit the nail on the head when it comes to our club and in fact most Rotary clubs.
I feel like we have a great club, with a great culture. I am proud to be a member.
Thank you for your comment and for your time and energy as a member!
I like having more younger and active members, and continue to value Rotary's local, national, and international endeavors.
Thank you as well!
Considering our club’s culture, members, and meetings, indicate your agreement with the following statements.
Rotary is fellowship and for me the fundraising is a big part. more would be ok Little work lot of money.
A big part of Rotary is fellowship. I am sure you must be someone who helps out a lot at fundraisers so, thank you! If not, you should make yourself known so that we can call upon you more often!
How would you rate the following aspects of our weekly meetings?
I would prefer to meet in the early morning for breakfast. We could certainly improve on the speakers and programs but it takes input from all of the club members. There are many opportunities in BH to hear speakers besides Rotary. In some respect, we are competing with these other groups
The “best” meeting time is an enigma yet to be solved, however, we are working on it. Speakers and programming are one of the most challenging aspects of our meetings. Scott Hammond is currently in charge of this, doing a great job, and if you have any ideas please let him know about them.
I don't like the evening meeting. I don't think we accomplish much. Some of the speakers are outstanding. Others not so. How can we increase the quality of our speakers? Who is in charge of securing speakers?
Please see above. Thank you!
I am curious if we did an evening meeting (after work) instead of a lunch meeting, if we would have better weekly meeting attendance. It doesn't effect me, but I know many of our members, especially younger ones can't make the lunch meetings, but are very involved and dedicated members. Just a thought?
I think this is the main purpose of our current evening meetings. As I said above, some meeting time experimentation can most likely be expected in the near(ish) future.
"My club's members care about each other" is duplicated. Was this a test?
More than likely either a computer glitch or a simple mistake by our volunteer Rotarians who put this survey together. I think most likely a computer glitch.
I can't attend noontime meetings as often as I would like due to work commitments. Evening meetings work much better for me.
Thank you for your input! Perhaps meeting time availability should be the subject of another survey?
What are your opinions about our club’s service projects?
I want to see more of our fundraising money spent in Hancock County not all over the world or subsidizing the town of B.H. Playground etc. the town should be footing the bill.
We have some members who strongly agree with you on the local aspect and hopefully it will be growing soon. As far as the playground, well sometimes Rotary projects are a onetime effort that are extensive and have a huge impact. As far as the town footing the bill, sure, but you know, who should be footing the bill for Polio eradication? By that I mean politics are a boundary which will never go away but sometimes aren’t important enough to fight with.
This doesn't mean I think everything is perfect. It just means I don't think there is the commitment or energy to increase the number of projects we are doing without people stepping up to lead.
I am not sure about this response and its origins. I apologize.
Thinking about communication and responsiveness in our Rotary club, indicate your agreement with the following statements.
So far, we have never seen board minutes, and the new by-laws give the secretary too long to get them out.
Board minutes are available on ClubRunner. They do have too much of a delay before they are posted but we are working on improvements which will make them available much sooner after a board meeting.
The Board could be more transparent. For example, a portion of the club has no idea why the (name removed by Shaun) chose to resign. Piecing together the few facts I have, I surmise it may have been (in part) a disagreement on policy and/or direction. ALL club members deserve to know such facts....not just "insiders."
The Board is extremely transparent. You can read the minutes or just ask any board member if you have a question about something. Why somebody resigns is their business really. It is only the club’s business if it is a point of dissatisfaction that can be analyzed and improved upon to better the club. There is no better way to have a question answered than to ask the subject of the question.
We need to have non profit status. and set up an endowment. I say it to every president
I actually totally agree with this one but I have never heard anyone express their support for this to me.
It is slow.
This is a comment regarding the “pace of change” within our club. My response is; Long term, lasting change does take some time. It is just like losing weight.
Great to have a new core of younger members.
Thank you! It is like the cycle of life; birth the young ones so they are ready to (try) and fill the shoes of their elders.
We are updating the by-laws to be in line with RI and what we are actually doing in the club. Adding the associate member program and 1 evening meeting per month are attempts to meet the changes in society and bringing in new members
I do not know who wrote this, but it is very true, as well as the possibility of many other changes to help meet the needs of members and Rotary International.
Joe works....
Yes Joe does and I am very appreciative of it! There are a few, other than Joe, who devote a lot of time to our club and receive very little recognition for it.
More often than not, it feels as if changes are solely in response to dictums from Rotary International. The effect on our local club is usually lacking.
I have to both agree and disagree with this statement. Yes, historically, Rotary International’s changes were not great at the local club level. Some were, such as the Associate Membership Program (Yes, I know it was a pilot program and we were lucky to be one of the very few clubs chosen to participate). It benefitted our club a lot during the period when it was a viable membership choice. On the other hand, some of the most productive changes will come from within the club so don’t sit back on your laurels and be content. Especially if you have a good idea!
Considering our club's major communication media, please rate the club WEBSITE
I use the website primarily when I want to communicate with members
This is one of the primary uses. A wonderful one at that!
Only use it for the membership directory
Please see above.
I mostly use it to look up members contact info and to send out messages.
Please see above.
I am very appreciative of the work that Joe puts into the website. I think he does a very good job. I can find anything I am looking for. I learned to find my way around when I was club president. If there are limitations it is based on the software
Did Joe write this? Just kidding! I agree with the entire statement.
The look of the website seems a little dated, but I understand that Club Runner is the company RI is using. It is much better than if we were to create our own site.
The actual look of the website has changed a bit. Everything else, I agree with. It takes some practice to learn your way around it.
Really don't care
At first I thought this was a highly negative response but when I checked back and learned that the subsection was if you thought the website was visually appealing then I immediately knew that you meant that the website was so incredibly awesome that you just don’t care what it looks like because it doesn’t matter.
Considering our club's major communication media, rate the club FACEBOOK PAGE
don't use
I don’t use Facebook much either, but it is a common and practical way to share information in today’s age.
I "Like" the site, but only see posts. I rarely go into the site.
If you like and share the posts you will be doing so much for the public image and the public image chairperson (Carrie)!
I do not visit THE PAGE. However, club stories regularly appear in my news feed. I always pay attention to those.
Thank you for paying attention and please see above.
Never seen it
Don’t have a Facebook account or just never have gone to the club’s Facebook page? If the answer is the second choice, you should look.
don't use
I don’t really blame you for not using Facebook!
Considering our club's major communication media, please rate the WEEKLY BULLETIN
Is this a trick question?
This response is in regards to looking forward to receiving the weekly bulletin each week. I will say that there are multiple people who regularly contribute to the bulletin (anyone can actually) and I appreciate all of their efforts each week.
Don't see it
Do you have an email account? Is it in the club’s directory?
Can be a little wordy.
Trust me, I try to keep them short but sometimes I do get carried away. Just keep reading this one.
Often are long on philosophy and short on substance (not just the current president - this is a recurring theme).
This is not an argumentative or “I am offended” response but, most humanitarian efforts are based upon philosophical thought and theory. So…………….
Perhaps include ways to inform us about aspects of how to contribute to our club beyond donating and volunteering in current service projects?
I think you just gave me my subject matter for next week’s bulletin message. Thank you!
More substance, less philosophy.
Please see two above. I will try and give more substance, but I really hate regurgitating information which is already available in other places or about what we had for lunch.
Indicate your agreement with the following statements about club engagement
I haven't done a very good job of inviting prospective members to meetings recently. I should do more of this. I do invite my wife to attend the evening meetings but she isn't very cooperative.
In regards to the above response, I have no way of knowing which sub-question it pertains to. I will say thank you for your statements and that realizing these types of things is the first step towards betterment.
I would probably feel more engaged if I could attend more meetings, but I'm not able to because of my work schedule.
Totally understood and thank you for what you do!
Indicate your agreement with the following statements about the value of your membership.
Thanks to Joe and everyone else who takes time out of their lives to help better the club and to just keep it afloat. We all need to remember that this is a volunteer organization, perfection should be not be expected nor should people be faulted for trying and not reaching their goals or what you (any random club member) thinks their goals should be.
This was a really well-designed survey
I agree but I must question the identity of the author of this comment.
My work also sees value in my Rotary membership.
That is amazing and awesome and I wish all employers felt the same!
Our Rotary club no longer attracts community leaders, it is predominated by retirees and mid-range business people and professionals. This not necessarily a bad thing, but it feels less compelling to attend....
I am not sure that I understand why it would be less compelling to attend? There are many business contact organizations out there. Rotary was basically created as one but has moved away from that concept being its primary purpose. Then why do we have the classification system? For diversity. For ideas and input from all walks of life and levels of income and power. If any person in this club feels that we are lacking in a certain membership area then they should be the very first one out there knocking on office doors and trying to recruit!
Once again, thank you to all of the respondents! It doesn’t matter if your comment was positive, negative or totally neutral, the fact that you took the time to complete the survey shows that you care, even if you think that you don’t. If you didn’t respond but wish to now, maybe Joe and Susy can resend it. I am sure there are many changes or possible changes on the horizon. Change is a must to stay viable and productive, so if you have any ideas for changes, big or small, please let myself (or Steve or Carrie since they are the leadership lineup after me) know so that we can get working on them!
Thank you all for being who you are! I mean that both substantially and philosophically!
Shaun
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