| Club Name | New City | | Country | USA | District | 7210 | | Region | | | Membership Element(s) | organizing new clubs, retention, recruitment, organizing new clubs, retention, recruitment | | Issues | we have large requests of lawyers which the Rotary Classification at times causes concerns. The financial offices are subject to local, national and international market condition. Retention was very difficult due to the current market condition (sub-prime loan concerns et al). | | Strategies | The leadership looks into all the situations, market and other businesses to develop strategies to make our club move ahead with growing membership and effective Rotary services to the local, national and international communities. The rention was a major theme of the leadership this year. Apart from the traditional approaches the club leadership undertook several initiatives and attempted to implement as and when applicable: 1. mentorship: Each new member, from its inception, has a mentor. The mentor makes every effort to communicate and make the member feel at ease without club activites and answers all pertinent questions regarding club activities. 2. Participation: Active participation is the key factor for better retention. Participation to various club activities is encourages both formally and informally. Each member's strength and weakeness are considered toward individual and group participation. 3. Family Involvement: We've several activites where family members are involved which provides a gestalt of community participation. 4. Selection of Projects: Various projects are chosen not only from the need of the community but also from the member involvment in the specific area of concern and interest. This diversification has improved member participation and satisfaction enourmously, this improving retention. 5. Policies: Established several policies to retain memberships such as: Bereavement leave-pf-absence policy: The secretary will grant a 2-week bereavement leave-of absence for attendance purposed if requested by a New City Rotarian who has lost an immediate family member. If the request is not made in advance of a missed meeting, it must be made within the 2-weel period RI allows for make-ups to be recorded. Credit for missed meals during the leave-of-absence will be applied to the following quarter's bill. Members Experiencing Temporary, Significant, Financial Hardship: If the Board is advised by a member that he/she is having temporary/significant hardship, but would like to retain membership in New City Rotary, the Board may consider the following circumstances and relief: 1. The member's prior contribution to Rotary and the Club 2. The member's prior attendance record 3. The member's dues record prior to the hardship 4. The likelihood that if/when the temporary hardship passes, the member will return as an active Rotarian, able to meet all his/her responsibilities. If the above conditions are met and the circumstances are evaluated positively, the Board may offer the following relief: 1. Credit the outstanding account for any billed and unused meals after the last meeting the member attended 2. Offer the member a leave-of-absence of up to 6 months during that period a. attendance is not required b. Current dues will be paid, and if the member attends any meetings or events, payment will be made in advance or at the door so that no additional debt is incurred. 3. The leave-of-absence would be contigent upon the member agreeing in writing to a payment arrangement for any outstanding balance due the Club. The treasurer will have the authority to postpone collection of any prior debt for up to 4 months, and the total outstanding balance may be collected over the following 12 months 4. After leave-of-absence expired and the member is prepared to return, usual membership responsibilities will resume. However, until all areas are paid in full, the member will continue to pay for meals at the door and events in advance. If the member does not accept or fulfill the terms of the agreement, his/her membership will be terminated. So farm we are very successful in retaining membership. Maintaining RI's goals and theme, the club undertook the membership drive by using several strategies: 1. Education: The leadership is constantly educated about the importance of the growth of club membership. Several memberships in the leadership categories attended seminars and brought back pertinent information that enhanced the continuation of membership drive. 2. Payment: The club pays for lunch for all the potential new members whether they join the club or not. 3. Implicit approach: The leadership, informally (without any pressure) requested all members to bring a new member every month. This approach materialized very well. We had 7 new members installed in 10 months with a success rate of 70%. 4. Explicit approach: During the membership drive month, we are using group membership drive approach, where a team (membership is divided into several teams) will work to bring more members. We were very successful last year and we are hoping to do the same this year. The result is not out yet - because the process is still continuing. 5. Timeline: From our experience this year, we'll initate the membership drive program next year in the first week of January so that we'll have a clear idea by the end of March. Organization of new Rotary Clubs: There was a request to form a new club, which was referred to our district governor | | Results | We were able to retain and increase our membership by 14%. | | Contact | Anjan Bhattaacharyya | Email | | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | Kuriyama | | Country | Japan | District | 2510 | | Region | | | Membership Element(s) | recruitment, retention, recruitment, retention | | Issues | Our membership decreased from 43 in 1999-2000 to 26 in July 2005. This brought challenges to maintaining the club to function properly, as well as in developing activities. To overcome this situation, the club decided to address Membership Retention and Development as its top priority. | | Strategies | Fortunately, our club has been actively involved in the nation-wide campaign to prevent death from traffic accident. By standing on the streets to raise public awareness on this matter, we were awarded a citation from the campaign chair. Also, the efforts our club put forth to protect kindergartners and elementary school students from crimes in the community were reported in ""Rotary-no-Tomo"" (the regional magazine) and the ""governor's Monthly Letter."" These involvements show the club's deeply rooted relationship with the community, as well as how the community appreciate and recognize us. Membership development relies heavily on relationships among people. | | Results | As such, I would like to particularly express my deep appreciation to the member of the Membership Committee, Matsushita, for his active efforts in resulting in 8 new members in July 2005-April 06. We are expecting an additional 2 new members to join by June 2006. | | Contact | Tadahiko Kabasawa | Email | | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | Oroki-Osogbo | | Country | Nigeria | District | 9130 | | Region | | | Membership Element(s) | retention, retention | | Issues | | | Strategies | They have been able to convince some neighbors, friends, collegues, fellow professional collegues, church and mosque members to join and they developed strategies to assign responsibilities to new members to carry out and encourage such new members to invite other to join. They have also tried to educate lots of people through radio and television programs about Rotary. They have tried to make fellowship more lively and affordable. | | Results | | | Contact | Adebayo Oni | Email | docbayooni2@yahoo.com | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | Columbia | | Country | USA | District | 7620 | | Region | USA:Eastern:New England | | Membership Element(s) | recruitment, retention, recruitment, retention | | Issues | Challenged by retention of old members as well as recruitment of new members. In Rotary year 2005-2006, we lost four members. Some of the factors affecting membership are that many of our members are getting older, and retiring and considering whethery they can afford to continue paying the cost of membership. Others are considering moving to retirement communities in Florida or elsewhere. One of the main considerations of potential new members is the cost of membership, with the cost of weekly meals being the largest concern. We have not been able to solve this as the restaurant forces us to commit to a certain number of meals each week; therefore members have to pay irregardless of whether they attend the meeting. We bring this up at Board meetings but have not found a solution. | | Strategies | To have a better chance of keeping members, we keep all members active in one way or another. Each member takes turns in being assigned a weekly responsibility of transporting the durable medical equipment to families in need (Loan Closet of Howard County). We also try to have fun events, e.g, special holiday parties at nice restaurants, special sweetheart ball at Valentine's Day, and special potluck dinners at club members' houses which everyone really enjoys. And we assign each member to position as a committee member or an alternative chair of a committee so everyone has an important job in Rotary. Our Club is a really friendly club, with members ""looking out for members"" and helping each other. For example, when one member is assigned to the Loan Closet and they cannot handle transporting two wheelchairs and a walker due to their car not being large enough or their muscles just not being strong enough, another Rotarian is always ready to help. Our club is continuing the process/procedures that were begun last year. We have three very special ""Membership Events"" per year at a special location and we invite prospective members to attend these informal but very nice events (hor d'oeuvres and wine/beer are served). Some of us bring spouses, and it is very warm and inviting evening that promotes the ""Family of Rotary"". Each member is encouraged to add a name to the list of prospective members who receive a formal invitation to the event. We also have a website that is updated weekly and we give that URL to all prospective members. If it is agreeable to any guest or prospective member, we include their name in the distribution for Club Newsletters which include a wealth of information about our Club (as well as the URLs for the District and RI). And we put photos on our website of fun events such as the Boat Float. (In fact, one of our recent members (young and he later brought his wife in as a new member!) who moved to the area from NC, said that the reason he chose our Club is because of our website and the photos!). Most all of our members have been involved in the membersip process. We have good attendance at the membership events and we receive a lot of contact information for prospective members. Everyone is supportive and approves the budget which includes a cost for membership development. | | Results | The membership development process has been succesful as we have introduced seveal individuals to Rotary through the membership events (at the last event, we had 6 new prospects). We have brough in three new members since July 1 and we have others that we are hoping will join (we lost one member to retirement to Florida). We continue to send them Club newsletters and invite them to future membership events. After each event, we have a committee that makes personal calls to each prospective new member. When we first began the membership events, they were held at Belmont but we now hold them at an ""easier to get to"" location. Our last event was t Caf� de Paris in Ellicott City. Belmont can be a challenge in icy weather as the road is very curvy and narrow and it is alo very pricey. We are flexible and willing to make changes to make this program more successful. Three membership events may cost our Club an extra $1,200 per year but we feel that the cost is worth it. In addition to the monetary cost, there is also a lot of planning that goes into making the events succesful. We are confident that with the continuation of our efforts and our willingness to be flexible to make changes to the program as we go forward, we will be even more succesful in bringing in new members. And we are encouraged by the fact that our last three new members have been young members. We are hoping that this will encourage more young members to join our Club in the future. | | Contact | Pamela Kumar | Email | | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | Sugito Chuo | | Country | Japan | District | 2770 | | Region | | | Membership Element(s) | retention, retention | | Issues | Rotary club of Sugito Chuo celebrated its 10th anniversary last year. There were 26 members when the club was founded; however, going through increase and decrease in membership for the past 10 years, the number of members has decreased from 32 to 21. As an anniversary project, we planned for a goal of 10 member net increase. | | Strategies | In July, the club established a ""Net Increase Team,"" in which all the club members are the participants, and aimed to increase 10 members in 2 years. To foster retention, the club implemented various service activities. The largest of which was ""to Build School and Dig Well in Cambodia."" the project was well supported by both the new members and long-time members. Other service projects included: Drawings by junior high school students to promote Crime Prevention, club meetings held at members' work places, patrolling for crime prevention, etc. The activities the club conducted were more of service nature than fellowship nature. | | Results | We believe that service activities have impact on membership increase and retention. The meaningful service activities supported by the members were most effective on membership development. | | Contact | | Email | | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | Keswick | | Country | United Kingdom | District | 1190 | | Region | Great Britain and Ireland | | Membership Element(s) | recruitment, retention, recruitment, retention | | Issues | Membership falling due to the inability to effectively serve the community due to members other commitments and in some cases physical ability due to age. | | Strategies | Increasing awareness through publicity of its events and meetings. Each member was given a list of target member classifications and were asked to give 2 names we could approach, not necessarily people they knew well- to invite. An informative PowerPoint presentation was put together which was followed by questions and answers. To encourage potential members to our normal weekly meetings a policy has been put in place stating that a potential new member does not pay for the first 2 lunches- the cost is covered by the club. | | Results | 28 potential members were identified and invited to an informal evening in June of 2005. Of the 28 names identified, 7 attending the evening and of these 4 are now Rotarians. The other have all committed to join when bossiness commitments allow. 12 others of the original 28 have said they are interested in Rotary and are kept in contact with. 9 of the names said ""no""- but we haven't given up on them. | | Contact | | Email | | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | Tokyo Higashi-Kurume | | Country | Japan | District | 2580 | | Region | | | Membership Element(s) | retention, retention | | Issues | | | Strategies | To celebrate the club's 35th anniversary, we held a symposium, with ""Water, Green, and Crops"" as its theme, to address what the club can consider and do for the community, and why we are doing it. We believed such activity would increase public's understanding and awareness of Rotary. This year, as the club entered its 36th year, we took the initiative to implement and environmental protection project to improve the park located near No.57 Best Water and Spring Water in Tokyo. Though these events were implemented due to the necessity for membership development, they were very successful. | | Results | | | Contact | Kenji Nukui | Email | | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | Waimate | | Country | New Zealand | District | 9980 | | Region | | | Membership Element(s) | recruitment, retention, recruitment, retention | | Issues | One of my personal goals for the year as President was to increase membership by 2. | | Strategies | To date we have inducted 6 new members, which has given us a new membership gain of 3. The reason for setting this goal was to ensure that our membership levels continued to grow due to the 'erosion' that occurs naturally as people shift, resign, or pass on. The Rotary Club of Walmate has been fortunate over many years to have good number of passionate Rotarians who have worked hard at all levels of the organization to ensure its success. They have made it their role within the club to identify potential members in our community. They spend time with them slowly introducing Rotary into their lives and eventually invite them to join. This process may take weeks or even months. The relationships they have developed become personal and normally those new members quickly become contributing members. I guess the secret is having a small core group of dedicated, knowledgeable and reasonably experienced Rotarians who see the importance of membership growth. They should be involved and respected in the community, be perceptive enough to identify potential Rotarians, and be determined to succeed in turning those contacts into members. Most clubs have at least a few members who fit this description and if nit already doing it would probably be thrilled to be asked to do a job such as this. An often overlooked but valuable source of new members are the wives, husbands and/or partners of existing members. Often the only reason some spouses have not joined Rotary is that they haven't been asked. Our club has three husband and wife teams who function effectively as members. It means that they spend time together, share their common interest in Rotary while actively contributing to the club. I expect to see other spouses join in the near future because someone, not necessarily their spouse will ask them. The thing about new members is that they always change the dynamics of a club. The saying goes, ""if you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got"". New members bring new ideas, new personalities, they challenge us, but most of all they bring new life to the club. | | Results | | | Contact | Russell Wallace | Email | | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | | | Country | USA | District | 6220 | | Region | USA:Central:Upper Great Lakes | | Membership Element(s) | retention, retention | | Issues | | | Strategies | District 6220 (Wisconsin/Michigan, USA) conducted a survey of its Rotarians to find their reasons for joining Rotary, reasons for staying in Rotary, and reasons for leaving Rotary. | | Results | | | Contact | | Email | | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | Rotary Club of Kent Town | | Country | Australia | District | 9520 | | Region | Australia | | Membership Element(s) | retention, retention | | Issues | N/A | | Strategies | We have a new model Rotary Club of Kent Town in 9520 which has predominantly younger members. I too have found no lack of enthusiasm from these members for service projects, in fact their energy and achievements puts other clubs to shame at times. However the growth in membership has been disappointing because so many members move interstate each year because of promotional opportunities so they are running hard just to replace those they lose. Lets hope they are not lost to Rotary. Also Kent Town has found that the cost of membership and meals (the latter is about 4x the the former in most clubs) prevents some people from joining. Kent Town has set up a Friends of Rotary Club of Kent Town which uses such people on projects but they are not full members. They have twice as many Friends as they have members.
| | Results | N/A | | Contact | PDG Euan Miller | Email | empty@rotary.org | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
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