DG Blog 30th July 2020 – Growing Rotary
What’s been happening:
A trend over several years has been, for many clubs, a gradual decline in membership. This has been exacerbated by a 5% loss of membership at June renewal, no doubt influenced significantly by the coronavirus lockdown and the interruption of physical meetings. At the District Executive meeting last Friday we agreed to form a task force comprising the existing membership committee plus the District Executive and – importantly - co-opts, to further our objective of growing Rotary in this coming year.
What are we going to do about it?
This group will act as a focus on this challenge facing so many of us. Crucially, we will be asking clubs to share with us their ideas and promotional material of which they are particularly proud, have had a demonstrable impact, or are concepts in the making. We feel it’s vital that, as part of the service we offer at District, we help by acting as a conduit, to review and re-distribute the concepts and ideas as a framework for clubs to assist in their efforts to grow Rotary. We want to give you as much material and support as possible to help you achieve your own membership objectives. No plans to tell you what to do!
District is your support mechanism, so please, please forward your ideas to Ric Canham, our membership chair, ric.canham@btinternet.com, and copy me, rory@fulfordhouse.co.uk
Thank you - membership opportunities arise daily so don’t wait to submit any ideas and thoughts – the time to pull all this together is now.
A starter for 10:
Here’s your starter for 10: one initiative, two weeks ago, was a three-district collaboration with a great presentation from Dave King, editor of Rotary magazine, on communications and growing Rotary. This would make an excellent presentation for a club meeting or a standalone presentation for any member interested in membership – the youtube link is https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3QQJWk2Mugg&feature=share
His advice was so thought-provoking, informative, and humorous. In fact when anyone who references Baldrick’s ‘cunning plan’ almost at the outset, you know you are in for a presentation which isn’t boring! I urge you to check it out – and it demonstrates the wide range of expertise and talent we have sitting within Rotary already! And those of you on Facebook will notice that I have learned from him and am venturing into the world of social media I hadn’t explored before. So bear with me whilst I learn and watch out for more updates!
And coming soon:
PDG Brian Murray’s daughter is offering social media training free-of-charge and we hope to arrange a session in the next few weeks.
Rory, District Governor