Membership Seminar Challenges District 5790 Rotarians

Posted by David Hurt

on Sep 01, 2013

What is your clubs 3 Year Growth Plan?

“On August 17, 2013 at the District 5790 Membership Seminar, the District membership Team provided a complete Three-Year Membership Plan, complete with PowerPoint and Word Document materials. In addition to the Three-Year Plan presentation from Dave Hurt, the membership seminar also included success stories from Ross Paterson who highlighted their phenomenal club growth last year, from Nancy Smith who gave an in-depth presentation about attracting women to Rotary, and from Lance Winters who presented tips on how to succeed in getting publicity for club events and projects.

For the full content of seminar proceedings, click here District 5790 Three Year Growth plan.

Nancy Smith Presentation on Recruiting Women to your Rotary Clubs

The How to of Membership Retention

Membership retention has become an issue at a number of clubs. To minimize future loss of members, a four step action plan is suggested: 1) get all members engaged in club projects and activities; 2) develop and display three charts during club meetings to a) recognize new members, b) as a reminder why one joins Rotary, and c) to tell why one stays in Rotary; 3) having a focus on one day per month for potential member candidates and having a member tell their story about Rotary and what it has meant to them; 4) structuring a “Buddy System” within the club and pairing multiple buddies in a team with a team leader to have periodic get-together opportunities and to report on the team success in providing visitors and new club members.

The Five Step Growth Plan

David Hurt Presenting

To grow the club with new members a five step plan was presented. The first step was for the club members and teams to invite potential members to a meeting. All club members would introduce themselves and make the guests feel welcome. Second, The club membership team would provide a visitor packet to those who expressed interest in Rotary (details about the membership visitor packet in Section L of the Three-Year Plan). The club directors would meet following that meeting to approve candidates. The club president, or membership chair using the president signature, would send an “invitation-to-join Rotary” no later than 10 days from the visiting date. Finally, there would be a follow-up phone call to ask if there were questions...typically from the member who made the invitation.

It was concluded that this plan, or another one from the club, is needed to reverse the current trend of membership growth. Using the plan, it is anticipated to grow the club by a minimum of 10%. The District Membership Team and AG’s will help in every way possible.

For those clubs who could not attend, the presentations are provided in the District Newsletter for future reference.