Thursday, August 27, 2009

Rotary Membership Development


Weekly Elixir – Rotary Club of Parry Sound
…for the week of August 17, 2009

Rotary Membership Development


Everything worth doing is easier and more likely to happen with a written plan.

You may have just been elected Club president or Membership Development chair, or maybe you just love Rotary and want to share it. Take a few minutes to write down your personal goal for membership during your year. This goal should be personal, not the generic “plus one” that is sent out to the whole world. What is appropriate and possible for your club if you work hard? How many projects could you complete that would make the world better if you had ten more people in your club? What will it take to get your club there?

Goals should be written in the present tense, as if they were already occurring, and they should include dates. For example: “Our club inducts ten members by March 31 of my Rotary Year,” or “Our club has a net growth of three members by June 3.” Do not worry about the number being too large.

The most easily met membership goal for my club was the year we were expected to induct one member per month. We wrote a plan, we worked hard, and we measured results. We thought about the goal, looked for prospective members, and found them everywhere. People respond to large and challenging goals, especially if there is support from the people “at the top.”

The most challenging year for our membership growth was the first year that the international goal was “plus one.” We had worked hard in previous years; but, no one bothered to write a plan. Without a plan, we did not work consistently and wound up having to identify and induct 20 members in one month to meet Rotary International’s goal. What we discovered was that prospective members were there all along just waiting to be asked to join Rotary.

• Take a blank piece of paper and write your membership goal at the top. Brainstorm and list ten ways that you can reach this goal.

• Spend one hour a day for a week reading in the membership section of the RI website.

• Implement at least one new idea in support of membership development that you have written down.

• Purchase and listen to Brian Tracy’s CD “Goals.”

• Put all of the new members who have joined your club in the last 12 months on your “Membership Development Committee.” Print some “stuff” from the RI membership Development Data Base at www.rotary.org and give them a manual. Put the club goals on the first page and list their names on the second. These people are new. They do not know that many Rotarians never sponsor anyone. They are the one of your best opportunities for success.

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Source: Growing Rotary – A Personal Collection of Ideas that Worked – Mary Chapman, Rotarian. (Director of Membership Development 2008-09, District 6900)


(If you would like a copy of this publication, either printed or on CD, please email mchapman19@comcast.net or call 770-241-4127.)

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