Mark's ReMarks 4
Thank you to all who attended District Governor Allan's visit last week. I was a great turnout and I think made a very good impression of our club.
Allan met with the board for an hour before the meeting to
discuss our leadership plan and our plans for the coming year. He made some
good suggestions and was very positive.
A couple of very simple points he made have stuck in my mind and I think are
worth passing on.
"Social fellowship is as important as club service."
I agree and of course the challenge is to get the balance right. Let me know
how you think our club is going in this regard.
" All members need to take ownership of member recruitment and retention."
We can have interest meetings and compile classification
lists which are good but the most powerful membership growth will come from
each of us asking the people we come in contact with every day.
It takes time and you have to be prepared for lots of rejections but in the end
it is the way to grow the club. Likewise
retention is up to each member – make sure new members are not left on their
own at meetings and are made to feel welcome. I would love our club to have a
reputation as a friendly place to be.
I can also announce that with the board has agreed to relocate our meetings back to our traditional home the Heidelberg golf club.
Over the last few months a significant number of our members
have expressed a desire to return to the golf club if suitable arrangements
could be negotiated. As you will recall the golf club intended to lift their
lunch charge to $33 which was unacceptable .We have been able to negotiate the
provision of a two course set meal for $25.00.
Most importantly there are no minimum numbers, which was always a problem in
the past. They have also said that we will have to change our meeting time to
11.30 for a 12.00 o'clock start to close the meeting at 1.00. I know these new arrangements don't suit everyone
but I would like to thank those people very much for graciously agreeing to go
along with the change which I think will benefit the club as a whole.
The first meeting at Heidelberg golf Club is Wed 11 August.
The Monty R.S.L. have been very generous and helpful to our club and we will be conveying our appreciation and gratitude to the management and staff at the RSL.
We will also review the new arrangements and invite feedback
after the first four weeks.
In closing, I was especially pleased that our new member Simon Flower could be inducted by Allan and that his wife Jenny could also attend. Simon being a travel agent has joined Tony Bramley's international service subcommittee and I think he has a great mentor in Tony to learn about the workings of Rotary .