Thanks to Grant and Lana for all the hard work of getting the student bursary awards out!
The Rotary Ride for Hearing on July 10th is well under way. Our club will volunteer for one station – on Spanish Banks. This one is for early risers - our slot starts at 6am and set up is also required. Thanks to Dianna, her niece, Christine, Chris, some spouses and partners and Michael “If I wake up in time” says he.
The drive for early and mid-career members
We heard a presentation from our soon-to-be new member Moritz Hirche.
Moritz, who is an Executive Recruiter, spoke on Young Membership initiatives … from a strategic location in Tofino where he was camping. Grant was able to project his well-prepared slides from his home office – oh, the wonders of Zoom!
Moritz’s plan gives a nod to the focus on greater visibility (including participation in local community events), a key goal for the in-coming Presidents. This goal will support membership drives in an on-going fashion.
One of the first steps is to improve our social media profile, which Moritz has volunteered to do, getting us on several on-line platforms including LinkedIn and Instagram, as well as on Trello or Slack for in-house communication and planning. Good material is needed, particularly for Instagram. So look up what you might have in the way of photos and get ready. Moritz also suggested visiting other clubs to glean their best practices, analyzing local businesses, focusing on what our target groups are, updating our onboarding process, setting up a club manual, having top speakers as a draw and many other great ideas.
Hans, our Membership Chair, has folders from past campaigns that will be helpful and Leigh immediately sent out an earlier club brochure example. We will focus on our projects and plans. Our websites will get a polish with some well produced materials and lots of pictures.
Lydia reminded members that Rotary International has many great materials which we can access and adapt.
Discussions were lively as people recounted their own experience with membership issues. Moritz suggests there be a membership update at each meeting so our focus is maintained. Christine noted that she has experience with an on-boarding program they used in Calgary. Let’s access that knowledge.
The general discussion concluded that younger members will attract other younger members so we need to keep that in mind.
The challenge of getting the true messages about Rotary out into the world appears to have been taken up. Christine is ready to help with social media and offered the opinion that we should look at this as a “myth-busting opportunity”! Mike also voiced his enthusiasm, reminding us that our activities should always be front and centre. And Grant, always the thoughtful one, said that we need all members to commit to contributing a certain number of hours every week to Rotary so we put meat on the bones of all this great enthusiasm. A Membership Committee report at each meeting should lend some focus.
And here’s an idea: we all use a note on the bottom of all correspondence that says:
“Proud member of Rotary Vancouver Arbutus”
Perhaps with links to our website and/or photos.
In closing Lydia mentioned that she’d like to have a Sergeant-at-Arms for the coming year. Dianna Smith has volunteered. Thanks Dianna!