FogHorn August 24, 2017  - Focus on Membership

Warren passed out some literature, touching on Rotary's expectations, induction information and the importance of bringing people into Rotary. Linda offered ideas on how to get people interested in being part of Rotary and how to make attending Rotary within reach easily for prospective members with busy lives. Ideas included setting up ways by which co-workers can come to meetings if members are unable to attend, smoother ways for returning members or under-(age) 30 members just establishing themselves in work and careers, to attend Rotary. "We come from a diverse group, so different circumstances prevent coming regularly, and we want to keep things open for everyone to come in," she pointed out. She described possibilities for membership including split membership in partnership with other clubs, commercial membership open to co-workers in the same office, or family membership, in which family members may join Rotary at half-price. 
Something to think about, she said, is how big do we want to be? And key to club growing and thriving is, showing people that we have fun. 

 

Charise McHugh suggested getting people interested in Rotary by telling stories about the causes that Rotary and our club supports, as a way to spread the word about what Rotary does. She offered the suggestion that if you can't make it to a meeting, send someone younger in your place, who might  become interested in joining (and after all, everyone is aging.)

 

Shana "Rusty" Reilly-Pond pointed out the need for people to do good work in the world. Ralph Ely pointed out that key to membership is people wanting to be a part of our club, and noted that maybe we don't do as much as we could around following up with club guests, encouraging them to join the club.

Members were encouraged to email Warren or Linda to be part of the membership committee. 

Ginger Minoletti pointed out that we don't charge for a guest's lunch if they are a potential member, and also that joining a project qualifies for attendance. Along those lines, Charise encouraged members to volunteer for Pumpkin Festival.

Vanita spoke about member retention and her own experience: She had been involved in Rotary for four years and was nominated as president-elect after two years. She recounted how she was invited to a Rotary lunch at a particularly down time in her own life, went on to attend a lot of trainings and wound up as president-elect. While in that office, she told of how she saw members drop out of Rotary, so she held a membership-boosting party in which she asked members of her club to invite three people each to attend an upcoming Rotary event. Out of the scores of people who did attend, she said, her club got "a magnificent seven" new members.

She gave some math: for every member that we lose, we need two new members to show growth. She described her experiences with the Rotary Club of Chinatown, and added suggestions of how to promote interest in Rotary and make attendance possible for a variety of schedules, such as changing around the meeting day or time or place. She also suggested inviting participants from another NGO to visit Rotary or visit a Rotary activity.

It was suggested that in chatting with prospective or new members, we should definitely point out how special our club is. Then Vanita took a selfie with the club in the background, to the delight of the Half Moon Bay Rotarians.

                                                    

Losing members is a common ailment when it comes to nonprofits, she said, citing that all nonprofits -- service or volunteer groups -- lose about 20 percent of membership every year. Why do members leave? Several reasons: some move out of the area, some die, some simply lose interest. What to do about it?

To begin with, she said, identify underlying issues that may contribute to members leaving. Develop a club membership culture, and focus on "repairable," controllable losses and deflecting them. Appealing activities such as a club social without a specific agenda, offsite membership meetings or a joint fund-raiser with another NGO, were suggested.

She defined "controllable losses" as things that we can do something about, such as possible problems with leadership, personal issues, or conflicts. She urged us to embrace the club and Rotary, through stewardship and invitation to others to join. She also suggested remedial action like trying different meeting formats, bringing in guest speakers with particularly interesting or inviting topics, developing club socials or events, and rewarding membership with some sort of membership-boosting event. 

It was suggested that speakers, even club members for that matter, can turn personal interests into intriguing presentations that stimulate interest and imagination. Other suggestions were to have the club "own something" interesting and fun, such as a mobile art cart with which quick art lessons, and to "exercise becoming inviting."

The meeting wrapped up with a lot of wheels turning  as Rotarians thought of possibilities.

 

        

Article by   Bill Johnston