The special guest today was Bala Naidoo, District Governor 2019-2020, and he commenced by congratulating our club on its award (recently reported upon in light of past-President Dianna’s receipt of the rather splendid instrument itself) though he did allude to the fact that we were somewhat assisted by the fact that only 11 Clubs actually sent in their statistics to Head Office. He also referred to the excellence of the coming District Conference (April 24-26), in particular culinary expectations, and then moved on to the central tenet of his presentation.
The theme of today’s discussion was the issue of membership, especially growth through the emphasis that he sought to place upon youth, and in particular upon Interact. As with many clubs, the programmes that operate to encourage younger aspirants are a bit lost on clubs such as ours, where the majority of members have neither the accommodation nor the vigour to handle the young in heart and energy. The age matter is apparently now somewhat changed, inasmuch as the age limit of 30 is shortly to be abandoned. In other words, the underlying message is that the focus of membership recruitment is now changed to the young in lieu of the older establishment that now, at least in North America, simply not applying to Rotary for membership.
In reviewing some ideas about new modes of recruiting valid candidates, Bala mooted the idea of a Club based upon the Airport (where there are transitory visitors in their thousands, the Universities (where ‘contacts’ are still valued) and a loosely defined Passport Club. He also suggested that cohesive groups of clubs are much more likely to catch the eye of prospective members (as indeed the Prince George clubs have realized), in arenas such as Vancouver itself, where there are 7 such clubs, who should, he stated, ‘Think Collectively’, even if only through the medium of a collective website.
Some useful comments were made from the floor: our welcome snowbird guest, Ken Pepper, noted that an Ottawa club holds 2 meetings per month at lunch, and 2 in the evening, an arrangement that apparently works well for those with variable schedules. One further suggestion was made by Hans who, with his usual wit and wisdom, suggested the exercise of a bit of ‘quid pro quo’. He did not need to expand upon this novel idea. The last area for exploration was the attendance of babies and working couples at meetings … again, an idea that requires development!
The theme of today’s discussion was the issue of membership, especially growth through the emphasis that he sought to place upon youth, and in particular upon Interact. As with many clubs, the programmes that operate to encourage younger aspirants are a bit lost on clubs such as ours, where the majority of members have neither the accommodation nor the vigour to handle the young in heart and energy. The age matter is apparently now somewhat changed, inasmuch as the age limit of 30 is shortly to be abandoned. In other words, the underlying message is that the focus of membership recruitment is now changed to the young in lieu of the older establishment that now, at least in North America, simply not applying to Rotary for membership.
In reviewing some ideas about new modes of recruiting valid candidates, Bala mooted the idea of a Club based upon the Airport (where there are transitory visitors in their thousands, the Universities (where ‘contacts’ are still valued) and a loosely defined Passport Club. He also suggested that cohesive groups of clubs are much more likely to catch the eye of prospective members (as indeed the Prince George clubs have realized), in arenas such as Vancouver itself, where there are 7 such clubs, who should, he stated, ‘Think Collectively’, even if only through the medium of a collective website.
Some useful comments were made from the floor: our welcome snowbird guest, Ken Pepper, noted that an Ottawa club holds 2 meetings per month at lunch, and 2 in the evening, an arrangement that apparently works well for those with variable schedules. One further suggestion was made by Hans who, with his usual wit and wisdom, suggested the exercise of a bit of ‘quid pro quo’. He did not need to expand upon this novel idea. The last area for exploration was the attendance of babies and working couples at meetings … again, an idea that requires development!
