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MEMBERSHIP
 
Objective: Increase and Maintain Membership of the District at 2000 members with 45 Clubs  
 
Utilizing these Strategies:
 
1)            Implement an effective Mentor Program: Active coaching for new members learning principles of Rotary.    
2)            Improve engagement of existing members who wants to serve as mentors- Ambassadors of Rotary.
3)            Open up service projects to the public and advertise them.
4)            Utilize social media campaigns to target younger members.         
5)            Explore the role of satellite clubs and encourage their development when appropriate.  
6)            Achieve a critical mass for younger members-encourage 3-4 to join together and create peer groups.
7)            Identify opportunities for development of new clubs, particularly in under-served areas of the district.
8)            Reach out to past Rotarians to see if they are interested in returning to Rotary.                    
9)            Identify and connect with alumni of Rotary programs to ask them to join Rotary.
 
Engaging and Retaining New Members -
 
Create an effective “Mentor Program” utilizing the skills and experience of existing members to help transition new members into Rotary.  Mentors would be known as Ambassadors of Rotary:
 
  • Empower District Membership Committee to create plan to work with all clubs to implement this strategy, including the creation of a prototype for clubs to use.  There are clubs in our district who already use a mentorship program or have used it in the past.  Guidelines would include principles of Rotary, member responsibilities, club history, advice on club activities and committees, and introduction to other members of the club.
  • Challenge clubs to implement a mentor program incorporating the prototype and guidelines suggested by District Membership Committee.
  • Ask each club to appoint a Club Membership Chair or Champion to oversee mentoring and to serve as a liaison to the District Membership Committee.
  • Use special badges for new members for the first year in Rotary and have a mentor assigned to each new Rotarian. 
  • Create a Membership Champion position in each club to serve as liaison to District Membership Committee.
  • Convene meetings of Club Membership Champions two times per year.
 
Who:  DG, District Membership Chair, Club Membership Champions
Success Defined:  10 clubs have started a new member mentoring program by July 1st 2019 
 
Attracting members to Rotary -  
 
Open up service projects to the public and advertise them; utilize social media campaigns to target young members and invite them:
 
  • Market our community service projects for to the general public and especially younger people to encourage their involvement; tie in the club’s communications to the hands on project leader or committee. 
  • Create a calendar of events that we share on local media, in church bulletins and in other media such as Facebook events. 
  • Capture information on non-Rotarians who are involved in Rotary events; pass that info onto the club membership champion. 
  • Make sure there is an Ambassador of Rotary at all community service projects we do. 
  • Invite people who were involved in past events to future events. 
 
Who:  club communications or PR Chair, club community service project leaders, club membership champion
Success Defined:  District Clubs are finding more ways to advertise and include non-Rotarians in their club events by July 1, 2019
 
Creating new types of Opportunities for Membership -
 
Explore the role of satellite clubs and encourage their development when appropriate.  Identify opportunities for the development of new clubs, particularly in under-served areas of the district.  Encourage the creation of new clubs by younger members:
 
  • Survey current and past AG’s to figure out geographic areas with a need for a new Rotary Club within the District. 
  • Encourage our clubs to consider other forms of meetings including virtual meetings. 
  • Consider starting after-work clubs, which may be more successful as new club opportunities for younger members as well as members whose daytime work schedule is not flexible enough to attend a lunch or breakfast meeting.
  • When building new club opportunities, consider option of no meals at meetings, especially after work meetings, to make membership cost less expensive, especially for younger members; food, if available, can be at member’s own cost. 
  • Create and promote a “How to Start Your Own Rotary Club” kit; if one already exists, find it and make it more accessible and user friendly.  
 
The District Membership Committee facilitates idea sharing, discussion and best practices for membership growth -
 
  • Communicate what’s working and what isn’t with the clubs by holding a membership meeting for the clubs in three different locations throughout the District at least once a year.
  • Promote the opportunity for clubs to create a business membership if they so choose; sell the networking aspect of Rotary as well as the service aspect. 
  • Approach businesses with a culture that is service oriented and invite them to join Rotary. 
  • Collect and disseminate success stories via social and traditional media.  
 
Welcoming back past members of Rotary and its programs -
 
Reach out to past Rotarians to see if they are interested in returning to Rotary and identify and connect with alumni of Rotary programs and ask them to join Rotary:
 
  • Create a “Welcome Back” program for people who left Rotary because they were not involved enough, their lives were too busy at that time, they had job pressures, or for other reasons beyond their control. 
  • Utilize the mentorship program and Ambassadors of Rotary to get past members back and re-energized about Rotary. 
  • Give each returning Rotarian a set of actionable items through the mentorship program. 
  • Suggest that Clubs set money aside in the club budget for a “class of 2017 service project”, and let the new Rotarians from a given year have their own small budget to devise and carry out a plan; recognize their efforts!
 
Recognizing our efforts -
 
Create a Governor’s Challenge:
 
The club with the largest % growth in membership has the trophy for that year.
 
When:  July 1, 2019
Who:  District Governor led and facilitated by the District Membership Committee, with input from AG’s and other seasoned members.  Consider creating ad-hoc Club Expansion Committee to focus on new club development.
Success Defined:  2 new clubs by 2020, 5 new clubs by 2022.  District membership of 2000 by 2022.