How to create OUTSTANDING GROWTH in your Rotary Club!

From time to time, I find an excellent "best practices" idea. Following is a report from the Rotary Club of Springfield, Oregon (D511)) who had a spectacular year of bringing in new members in 2009-2010 and seems well on their way to having another great year. Read on.........

Rotary Club of Springfield, 2009/2010
Membership Co-Chairs: Jim Eckman and Ronda Schleicher

In reviewing the success of our club’s membership growth for the year, there are two factors that have contributed to our achievement. First, our club moved our meeting place to a very attractive facility in Springfield. Our members feel good about bringing prospective members to our new location, The Holiday Inn. Second, our Membership Committee and Co-Chairs are actively engaged and membership is always in front of the club. We worked diligently at forming an active membership committee that is diversified – from past presidents to those just completing the red badge process. We formed our committee at the beginning of the last Rotary year and the following are highlights of what we implemented during the year:

1.Membership Committee meets regularly – once a month!

2.The club is aware of our membership goals. This year our goal is to end the year at 115 ACTIVE members. (Note: the club increased membership by 13% and is looking for another 10% growth this year.)

3.To support and defray the costs associated with bringing in a new member, our club adopted a version of another club's “Free Lunch Program”. The club buys breakfast for the proposed member and the sponsor at the New Member Orientation breakfast. Also, when the new member is inducted into the club, the club buys lunch for both the sponsor and new member that day.

4.We made a minor change to our New Member Orientation. Our orientation was informational and relevant, but we now purposely wait one week before inducting a new member into the club. The purpose of this is to give the proposed new member time to really think about the commitments and obligations that come with Rotary and discuss this with significant others.

5.To help with membership retention and addressing the issue of members facing hardship in the midst of a recession we created a scholarship program. We created an “off budget” pool of funds, which are donated from members of the club at their discretion. The purpose of the funds are to help with annual membership dues and if necessary meals. We named this fund in honor of a member that passed away unexpectedly last year. Members of the club that are facing hardship have the opportunity to discuss their situation discretely with a select panel of Rotarians in the club. The fund is being used!

6.We always have membership in front of our club! Here are some examples:
a. Weekly membership moments in our bulletin
b. Recognize members with 90%+ attendance
c. Membership vocational minute – opportunity for members to share with the club exactly what they do in their classification
d. We formed a red badge committee to actively mentor all red badge members to see they complete their requirements in the allotted time.
e. Attendance – we have used different methods to reach out to members with attendance below 50% to encourage them to improve – letter from club President, post card from club Secretary and calls from past Presidents.

Do these ideas sound simple? Like Basic Rotary? YEP! But just proof that consistency in some of our basic skills will pay off great rewards - in this case, a club that is reaping the benefits of new Rotarians and new friends with whom to share Rotary service and camaraderie!

Rotary Training Talk for July

Here's the link Rotary Training Talk for July. It's loaded with great leadership ideas about training and how to create Bigger, Better, Bolder Rotary clubs!

Especially interesting are some of the links to the RI Website where you can learn about other clubs "Best Practices" and "Solutions" to common club concerns. "Add your input to help create a Rotary knowledge base of best practices and new ideas that will help Rotarians around the world improve their clubs and their service to the community."


www.rotary.org/RIdocuments/en.../training_talk_1007_en.pdf

"Say Hello" - Best Practices

The Rotary Club of Sherman Oaks Sunset, California, USA has implemented a successful program tied to International Mother Language Day since 2009. The project celebrates Rotary's World Understanding Month and UNESCO's annual International Mother Language Day (in February, but can be implemented any time), and encompasses all five Avenues of Service.

Volunteers teach 11- and 12-year-old students (New Generations Service) how to say Hello, Thank You, Please, Peace, and Love (Community Service) in 44 different languages (and still adding) (International Service). The translations were gathered from many sources; Club Members include natives of Japan, Bangladesh, and India. A frequent visitor to the Club from RC Stockholm-Borgen, Sweden provided Swedish. Everyone in the Club was involved (Club Service) in tracking down friends who could provide translations. A former Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar pitched in, as did Rotarians in Israel, Thailand, and Ghana.

Thinking outside the box, Project Chair and 2009-2010 Club President Mel Powell contacted an old friend, Bob Miller, the Hall of Fame television announcer for the National Hockey League's Los Angeles Kings, and obtained translations from Kings players native to Latvia, Slovenia, and Slovakia. "The Kings have a Swede and a Russian as well, but we were already covered, "explains Powell. "The team went on a winning streak after we got the translations, with our translators scoring some key goals, so Rotary must be good luck."

During the second year of the program, the presentation yielded a surprising result. After Rotarians taught three languages chosen based on the students’ history studies, a student raised his hand and asked to teach classmates his birth tongue, Farsi, and he came up and did so. That evening school principal Claudia Moreland, a member of the Rotary Club, arrived with tears in her eyes—“that boy is not a good student, is not popular, never raises his hand or wants to be singled out”--but our Rotarians moved him enough to want to volunteer, because here was something he could do that his classmates could not, so he could teach them.

The project caught the notice of the publications department in Evanston and was featured in Rotarian Magazine’s World Roundup in late 2009. Any Club in the world can implement this project, and Sherman Oaks Sunset is happy to share our collection of languages.

Want more information? Contact Mel Powell at rotarymelpowell@aol.com

Why Did They Really Leave??

From Paul Kiser, District 5190, PR Chair:

I have a challenge for every North American Rotary club that is at least ten years old:

Step 1. Look up all the new members that were inducted in the last three and a half years, excluding the new members inducted in the last six months (e.g; members inducted between January 2007 and January 2010.)
Step 2. Determine how many of those members left the club.
Step 3. Contact them (if living) and ask the following questions:

* Why did you leave the club?
* Why did you really leave the club?
* In a time when more connections with business people would be more critical, why didn’t our club offer this to you?
* What type of person would you recommend to join our club? (Age, gender, personality, etc.)
* What irritated/disappointed you about our club?

Step 4. Hold a Board Meeting to discuss the results.

Rule One is that no one is allowed to diminish or discount the statements of the former member (e.g.; “She never was really happy with us.” or “They just wanted to network.” or “He joined for the wrong reasons.”)

Rule Two is that no one on the Board who has served over three years is allowed to participate in the discussion for the first 30 minutes.

I think you’ll find the results interesting and tell you the public image that your club projects to others. Why? Too many Rotarians are looking for members who think, believe, talk, act, and look like the existing club members. New members who don’t fit the mold are the first to leave. The question is whether the club is ready to adjust their behavior to be more inclusive of business professionals who may not fit the mold.

The reason to limit the participation of long-term Board members is because members who have become entrenched in the decision-making process of the club tend to have too much say and tend to try to preserve the status quo.

Let me know what you discover about your club’s public image.

http://paulkiser.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/rotary-membership-challenge

Creating Dynamic Clubs

Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I'll remember. Involve me and I'll understand. -- Confucious
(Excerpts from a post by Joe Brownlee, Manager, RI Strategic Planning)

"Rotary Coordinators are key to helping clubs and districts understand the connection between their success and the organization’s mission and vision." Following are a few of our goals where we can use your ideas and assistance:

Find clubs with innovative programs and activities and share what you’ve learned with RI and with the clubs and districts you visit. Send your "Best Practices" to Zone 25 RC Judi - judi5110@comcast.net or Zone 26 RC Don Kremer - dekremer@pacbell.net

Promote club planning so that clubs can see how what they do connects to a strategic priority or goal

Engage clubs in understanding what “signature” projects and activities are. What does a club do best? Can they do it better? Are they known in the community for what they are passionate about?

Encourage district leaders to help clubs collaborate, encourage planning and public relations efforts so they can learn from each other

How a club interprets the priorities will vary by geography. There is no “right way” but the one that fits best with a club’s community.

The strategic planning web page provides information and resources. E-learning modules on the strategic priorities are being prepared to help clubs and districts find their focus, offer ideas and ways to become bigger, bolder and better.

Contact the Strategic Planning Office at SPO@Rotary.org for more information.

The Measurement of a Rotarian

"I don’t have to tell you that the measure of a Rotarian is not calculated in dollars and cents but rather on a more finely tuned scale.Character. Values. Commitment. Achievement. Experience. Passion
These are the traits, which set Rotarians apart."

Paraphrased from a book on copy-writing by Denny Hatch.

Membership Best Practices

During the last days as President of RC Eugene Delta, I stumbled across a link on the Rotary International web site. It provides a listing of terminated members - by club. Might I suggest that the current president and/or secretary of each club, download and print page by page this list. Give it to the membership committee and have them contact these ex-members. The printout provides reasons for termination. Many of them left Rotary because of business or personal time conflict(s). I suspect that there are several people wanting to come back to Rotary - just need the ask. If your club's meeting day and time do not support the person, suggest an alternate club(s). Below are the directs to get to the list mentioned.

Go to: http://rotary.org/en/selfservice/Pages/login.aspx

-> login
-> click on Update Membership Data
-> click on Terminated members,
-> Print it out, one page at a time.

Thanks to AG David Klindt, D5110 for this idea!