MEMBERSHIP MANTRA: KEEPING MEMBERS ENGAGED

Posted by Debi Bush (Denver Cherry Creek) membership@rotary5450.org

Closing the Back Door

It’s a new Rotary year so let’s attract more prospects and keep our current Rotarians engaged and involved. This year’s presidential theme is “Rotary is a gift to the world!”

It can be very exciting to induct new Rotarians and watch them get excited and passionate about a club project or activity. It’s just as exciting to witness tenured members (e.g. past club leaders who had become less involved) come back into the fold of being engaged, active and involved in the club. The biggest secret to making this re-engagement occur is to have a 1 on 1 conversation with each tenured member and ASK that Rotarian to share their talents with the club and individual members.

Our new District Governor, Mary Kay Hasz, told me and my team that her main goal for this Rotary year is to get people engaged with their passion. She wants Rotary to be exciting and fun. Her motto is “play hard and work hard together.”

The other day I was on a conference call with District Membership Chairs (DMC) in the Zone (clubs form a district and districts form a zone). Our RI Director and now RI Vice President Greg Podd (Rotary Club of Evergreen, CO) was emphatic that we must get the responsibility of membership activities to the club AND to the member levels. Rotary is an organization that flourishes and makes a difference from the member level upward.

Education is one of the ingredients that will help take our clubs and district to a stronger position to realize net growth in membership. One of my DMC (District Membership Chair) peers stated that she is asking her clubs in her district to work on engagement and education using Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI). RLI can help keep the members we have and encourage them to share. Educating Club Membership Chairs is another goal for this year. We will use in-person trainings, phone conversations, video conferencing, monthly newsletter articles, resources from Rotary International and more to help our membership chairs succeed and enjoy their very important role. Together, we can grow! No one is in this alone and most clubs share the similar success stories and challenges as evidenced at our recent Membership Seminar on May 30th.

My DMC peer, Howard, from Dallas, Texas shared his three (3) ingredients that have led to his large club’s positive growth:

Retention through Fellowship
Mentorship
Helping new members find their passion

Membership is not easy; however, it’s critical to the livelihood of your club. We need to engage all members in at least one aspect of membership whether it’s being warm and welcoming to visitors, bringing a guest or proposing a new member or helping to engage existing members.

This year’s mission is to Engage Members and Close the Back Door! We don’t want to lose any members for lack of involvement, engagement, passion, or fellowship. I’d love to hear your ideas as to how to engage members further that has been successful in your club.

Get your Rotarians emotionally involved and committed to Rotary for that is Engagement!

Let’s make membership the flame to attract new Rotarians and engage our current Rotarians and light up our district to continue to be at the forefront of membership initiatives and growth.

Exemplary Membership Growth (in alphabetical order)
Centennial
E-Club One of D5450
Erie
Gilpin County Peak to Peak
Grand Lake
Kremmling
South Jeffco