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