A New Rotary Year and a New District 5370 Governor Kevin Hilgers

 To the New Rotary E-Club of Western Canada!

A wise man discussed a business with me recently. It was a business like many others. Staff, bottom lines, challenges, success stories. This business was quite successful at day to day operations – but it had a looming challenge –it was not increasing sales. As the community around it grew, it wasn’t. In fact – to the contrary – it was shrinking. The CEO had quite a task. Because a large part of the staff and even management team didn’t really believe this was of importance. "We’ve done well for over 100 years. I’m sure we’ll be fine" If you haven’t guessed by now the corporation is – Rotary.

I too have concerns about our "sales". Our business is "Service Above Self". Our product is our membership and the work these men and women do. Over the years the population of our region has increased. Membership hasn’t.

Whenever I bring this up to Rotarians I get one of two responses. One - "our club is XX amount of members and we’re very comfortable with that" or two – "What can we do about this challenge?" Sometimes the first response comes from our leaders. "We’re comfortable with "40 members". To me that’s like Coke or Servus Credit Union saying "We sell enough cola.. We do enough mortgages. Don’t worry about it".

My feeling is "As long as the communities are growing, as long as the communities needs are growing – we need to grow as well. ". If we’re not growing – we are becoming less relevant in the world.

The second response "I agree – we need to get new members" can lead to more conversation including how about you - have YOU shared Rotary in the past year with someone new?" The challenge is - Rotarians have to consciously look for new members. With purpose, year round. All of us. So as you can see membership for me is an area of focus for 2012 2013.

But I actually have three areas of focus

 One. Membership growth with a focus on New Generations.

 My second area of focus is –getting back to the roots of Rotary – and that is – we are a business network. How did we get to the point where some clubs fine members for mentioning where they work? What’s wrong if one of the reasons members join – is to network for their business. Yes we do great things, we ARE changing the world... We’re a service club. But we are a business club as well.

 My third area of focus is - fun. When we recruit we are quick to say "Great place to serve the community "or "Great way to get to know people" or "nice way to meet other business people". I think we have to encourage, foster and underline that Rotary is FUN for members. And if it’s not... let’s change that.

Membership, vocation, fun. I look forward to serving you. Good luck and hats off to our newest Rotary Club. If I may be of assistance please let me know