In Gear | Rotary in Southern New Zealand Issue 2 | Page 43

TONY’S TOP TIPS Why am I telling you this story? If nothing changes, nothing changes. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Rotary International has lots of material available about how to build and retain club membership. Hours and hours have been spent putting together surveys as to why people join Rotary and the importance of growing our clubs. A simple pathway to attracting more members to your club: 1. Put together a business plan that you can implement over a three or four-year period. Remember, people won’t join Rotary clubs unless they can assess what’s in it for them. How are they going to benefit from being a Rotarian? It’s not until later they realise they’re getting more out of being a Rotarian than they could ever put into it. 2. Identify your target market – e.g. Rotarians’ partners, Generation Y, over 40s. 3. Once you’ve identified your target market, you have to ascertain what these prospective members want and assess whether your club can adapt to meet these needs. This is the most difficult part as there will be club members who like it just the way it is and take a ‘this is the way we’ve always done it’ stance. Unfortunately, without adapting and doing things differently, you cannot expect to get a different result. Work out what is tradition and what is habit. If it’s just habit it can be changed, as long as it’s replaced with something better. 4. If you’re a club president, go to your directors and get their approval to implement the business plan, and get their full support to make any necessary changes within your club. 5. Identify a motivated and energetic member – preferably someone that meets new people on a regular basis – to front the membership team, and then select a small team to work with them. 6. This is most important: do not try to introduce new members until the changes have been made, and you are fully confident and satisfied with your club’s new structure. You’ll know when the time is right: your club will be buzzing with enthusiasm, and people will want to be part of it