Why we need new members
Why we need new members
Sincere thanks to Assistant District Governors Stephen, Mickey, Yves, Diana, Rupert, Richard and Ron who responded to my request for help in updating me on club membership figures, as the figures in the District Newsletter seem so inadequate for lack of reporting.
The trend throughout the District is for a lower-than-required recruitment of new members. The good news is that, with four months to the end of this Rotary year, with an all-out drive from all the Assistant District Governors, all the Club Presidents, and all the members, it is possible for all of our Clubs to exceed the five-member-per-club-per-year net growth. I am appealing for this effort to be made.
A good starting point in achieving this is to list all the businesses and professional activities within your community and see how many of these are represented in your Club. Those that are not represented are vacant classifications. The next thing is to make an effort to get suitable people to become members to fill these classifications. To go further, Rotarians who know representatives of these classifications can be given the task of bringing them into the club. Of course it is the responsibility of the Club President and the Board to mobilize their members to become active in bringing in new members.
There are very good reasons why we need new members.
Membership dues provide over 60% of RI's budget, and also support our District budget; therefore if we have more members we are less likely to have dues increased.
The volume and quality of service that Rotary performs is directly proportionate to the amount of Rotarians there are.
The more members we have is the more support for our Masterpiece, our Rotary Foundation.
The more Rotarians there are to participate in the programmes of The Rotary Foundation, the more improvements can be made to our communities.
New members bring new perspectives, new ideas, new energy, and new life into our Clubs; bringing in more Rotarians provides more friends, and extends our Rotary family, providing us with a wider network of an extended family.
Membership in Rotary is strictly by invitation and only Rotarians can invite someone to join Rotary. It is the duty of every single Rotarian to find suitable candidates to propose for Rotary membership. It is self-evident that, unless Rotary grows, Rotary dies.
Retention is another important aspect of membership growth, and the broad answer to this is involvement. Design projects interesting enough to hold members' attention and get everyone involved. Ensure that every new member is integrated and put to serve on one or more committee.
Yet by far the quickest way to get more members is to establish new Clubs. And remember that a Club only needs to have 20 members to sponsor a new one.
Fellow Rotarians, let me once more appeal to you not to let your Clubs down; not to let your District down; not to let your District Governor down; and not to let our beloved Rotary down. We need a concerted effort to see that our membership grows. We must all do our part.
Garfield Thomas ( gbthomas@cwjamaica.com)
District Membership Development & Extension Chairman
Governor 1998-1999
The trend throughout the District is for a lower-than-required recruitment of new members. The good news is that, with four months to the end of this Rotary year, with an all-out drive from all the Assistant District Governors, all the Club Presidents, and all the members, it is possible for all of our Clubs to exceed the five-member-per-club-per-year net growth. I am appealing for this effort to be made.
A good starting point in achieving this is to list all the businesses and professional activities within your community and see how many of these are represented in your Club. Those that are not represented are vacant classifications. The next thing is to make an effort to get suitable people to become members to fill these classifications. To go further, Rotarians who know representatives of these classifications can be given the task of bringing them into the club. Of course it is the responsibility of the Club President and the Board to mobilize their members to become active in bringing in new members.
There are very good reasons why we need new members.
Membership dues provide over 60% of RI's budget, and also support our District budget; therefore if we have more members we are less likely to have dues increased.
The volume and quality of service that Rotary performs is directly proportionate to the amount of Rotarians there are.
The more members we have is the more support for our Masterpiece, our Rotary Foundation.
The more Rotarians there are to participate in the programmes of The Rotary Foundation, the more improvements can be made to our communities.
New members bring new perspectives, new ideas, new energy, and new life into our Clubs; bringing in more Rotarians provides more friends, and extends our Rotary family, providing us with a wider network of an extended family.
Membership in Rotary is strictly by invitation and only Rotarians can invite someone to join Rotary. It is the duty of every single Rotarian to find suitable candidates to propose for Rotary membership. It is self-evident that, unless Rotary grows, Rotary dies.
Retention is another important aspect of membership growth, and the broad answer to this is involvement. Design projects interesting enough to hold members' attention and get everyone involved. Ensure that every new member is integrated and put to serve on one or more committee.
Yet by far the quickest way to get more members is to establish new Clubs. And remember that a Club only needs to have 20 members to sponsor a new one.
Fellow Rotarians, let me once more appeal to you not to let your Clubs down; not to let your District down; not to let your District Governor down; and not to let our beloved Rotary down. We need a concerted effort to see that our membership grows. We must all do our part.
Garfield Thomas ( gbthomas@cwjamaica.com)
District Membership Development & Extension Chairman
Governor 1998-1999
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