| Club Name | Sparks | | Country | United States | District | 5190 | | Region | USA:Western:Southwest | | Membership Element(s) | retention, retention, new member orientation | | Issues | Goal: Retain new members. | | Strategies | New members are welcomed into the club by a standing ovation. They are immediately assigned a job as Raffle Ticket Salesman or Greeter at the main check-in table. This allows them to meet all the members in a short period of time. A Red Badge Committee meets with all new members to answer their questions and educate them on Rotary subjects. Furthermore, Red Badges are asked to sit at a different table for each meeting and are individual introduced. | | Results | Membership retention has increased. New members are attending regularly and are becoming involved in committees more rapidly and stepping up to leadership roles in the club sooner. | | Contact | Wyn G. Spiller | Email | wspiller@ncwinery.com | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | Olympia | | Country | United States | District | 5020 | | Region | USA:Western:Pacific Northwest | | Membership Element(s) | retention, retention, recruitment | | Issues | Goal: Retain current club membership at 85% or better and build a strong new member base for future years. | | Strategies | The club used a tree as the campaign theme and coordinated with the landscape designer for Rotary Point (a park area run by the area's Rotary clubs). A 13-member Classification and Membership Committee was formed to flesh out the club's new campaign and form actionable strategies. As a result, an updated, online new member application and voting system were created. This allowed the club to find QUALITY new members. In addition, the club meetings feature "Membership Moments" in which members are requested to write down prospective names of individuals who could fill in the missing classifications (ex- clergy, pest control mangement, etc.). The committee then divided up the 73 prospective candidates provided by the club members for personal follow-up. Interested candidates were invited to attend a club meetings with a member. To speed the formerly sluggish new member recruitment/orientation process, a new candidate is given a personal Orientation Session by an enthusiastic past club president. The Orientation Session must be attended by the new candidate and sponsor. If the candidate decides to join the club, s/he is given a New Member Packet and a new, 1-page, easy checklist of "Red-to-Blue Badge in under 90 days." The sponsor is given a packet to explain teh steps that need to be taken for the Red-to-Blue Badge wihin 90 days. A new Red Badge Member electronic newsleter became an excellent monthly resource for helping new members to progress toward personal and club success. Furthermore, the Membership Committee held Red Badge socials wehre sponsors, new members and club officers socialed and learned about the club. Finally, the club used Arbor Day to really drive the tree campaign theme home. For the price of $10, each "family" bought a tree to plan in Rotary Point park. The tree symbolized the "family" with the newest member the leaf, her sponsor th branch, his sponsor the truck, and her sponsor the roots. The committee recognized the club sponsors for their importance in building strong Rotary Family Trees. | | Results | RC Olympia has recruited 26 new members in 9 months, retained almost 90% membership and had 6% net growth. Only $37 dollars was spent on the campaign. In addition to bringing in new members, the campaign brought much-needed recognition to long-term members who felt overlooked in club appreciation (by utilizing them for the 90-day mentor/sponsor program). | | Contact | Brian Beagle | Email | twobees2@earthlink.net | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | Lusaka Central | | Country | Zambia | District | 9210 | | Region | Sub-Saharan Africa | | Membership Element(s) | retention, retention, recruitment | | Issues | The Rotary club of Lusaka Central is the biggest club in Lusaka and possibly in Zambia. Due to the high number of non-Zambian members, Lusaka Central has always had a high mobility of members. Expatriate staff come and go. Membership rentention and recruitment of qualified new members is, therefore, extremely important. | | Strategies | Each Rotarian is given a role to play in teh various functions undertaken by the club as this promotes a sense of belonging for each and every Rotarian. Furthermore, residents of Zambia are being targeted for future membership as their permanence of residence increases the likelihood of retention. The young professional and young executives are also being targeted in order to bring down the average age of Rotarians. These young Rotarians will also insure longer rentention of membership. Our club works hard to promote club projects that are family-friendly and involve the Lusaka community. As for recruitment, Lusaka Central has a wide and varied classification list, which can accomodate qualified new members. This list comes from the past when the club held as many as 75 members (as opposed to the present 35). The club works with the local media to promote the club's projects (focusing on larger-scale, community projects). Furthermore, each member of the club is asked to aim for introducing at least 3 new people to the club. When dealing with the transitional member of non-resident members, who have to relocate and leave the country after their duty of service, the club attempts to invite the successors of the members who had to leave. Most of these are working for international or UN agencies. The club keeps a running count of the movement of expatriates into the country and Rotary wheels are to be placed at the International Airport arrivals and departure lounge. Meeting days and times for all Rotary clubs are to be shown. | | Results | The club hopes to decrease the average age of the club's Rotarians and increase the number of long-term members. | | Contact | Joshua Chimhanda | Email | jchimhanda@africaonline.co.zw | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | Picton | | Country | Canada | District | 7070 | | Region | North America | | Membership Element(s) | retention, retention, recruitment | | Issues | Goal: retain current members and recruit new members | | Strategies | The president opted to engage his club in the community in a novel way. He asked local residents to opent heiir homes or properties to the public as a way of fundraising and also to bring the community closer together. For example, one resident has a property that is park-like an has a waterfall. As this is private property, locals have never experienced this lovely area of the country. Guided tours were arranged on a specific weekend and Rotarians were engaged to act as leaders. Similar tours have been arranged at other venues. | | Results | The project has provided the Picton Rotarians with opportunities to share their knowledge of the community, has reinvigorated the club and has resulted in 100% retention. Furthemore, the club increased their membership by 20%. | | Contact | Michael Phelan | Email | mike.phelan1@sympatico.ca | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | Rotary Club of Fremont | | Country | United States | District | 5030 | | Region | USA:Western:Pacific Northwest | | Membership Element(s) | retention, retention | | Issues | The Rotary Club of Fremont has hired a Rotary Nanny who will provide child care for the children of members and guests attending weekly club meetings in Seattle. Among the 22 members, approximately one-third have children or grandchildren under seven years old who frequently attend meetings. The Rotary Nanny was hired because the club invites its members to bring their young children to weekly meetings, and several do. | | Strategies | “It’s very important that we give child care at our meetings a try,’ said Jean Withers, president of the club, talking about the Nanny Pilot which began in early July. “Having childcare for our kids means our younger members can choose to join an after-hours Rotary Club, be of service to our community, and still enjoy their children before the kids go to bed. Several members also bring their husbands and wives, and the kids beg to come to Rotary to see their friends.”
‘We have already seen attendance at our meetings begin to peak this fall,” said Withers.
She noted that several enthusiastic members---one the senior member of the group who has no children---have donated puppet theaters and screens to entertain the children. The children eat dinner with the Rotarians and retire to ‘RotaryLand’ with their nanny while adults enjoy a speaker about local or international issues and conduct Rotary business. The children then ring the bell ending the meeting.
| | Results | “This is just one more way we have integrated children into our Rotary Club,” Withers said. “When we clean up the Burke-Gilman Trail, there are always 3-5 children working along side our members. Do you really think those kids will ever litter?” | | Contact | Jean Withers 206.819.5326 | Email | baywolf@isomedia.com | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | Cuttack East | | Country | India | District | 3260 | | Region | India | | Membership Element(s) | retention, retention | | Issues | Our club was on a downward trend and members were losing interest due to inactivity. | | Strategies | Our club decided to hold a District Level Seminar on Membership Development. After consulting with the District Governor, the President took up the task of organizing the seminar. He visited other clubs in the region who had conducted such events for ideas and support. The idea of holding such a seminar enthused the members and all were excited about it and quickly got involved in organizing the event. The members not only eagerly participated in the seminar but they also contributed financially to make the seminar a success and uphold our club's name in the district. The seminar was a huge success with more than 150 delegates from 36 clubs from all over the district. Plus, we had delegates from neighboring districts, making the event multi-district. | | Results | The biggest gain was 5 new members for the club and the interest and enthusiasm which was rekindled among the existing members to once again function as a proper Rotary club. The club now has a 100% retention rate. | | Contact | Dilip Patnaik | Email | dilip_rotary@yahoo.co.in | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | Beaumaris | | Country | Australia | District | 9810 | | Region | Australia | | Membership Element(s) | retention, retention, recruitment | | Issues | Goal: Recruit new members and retain current members. | | Strategies | Club set up an Investment Group (education + game) as well as a Wine Appreciation Group (education + fun). Interested members conceived the extracurricular activities and started the groups based on points of interest of the members. Furthermore, the club utilized a quarterly newsletter at the local Bendigo Bank to recruit new members. The club leveraged the relationship of the Bendigo Bank manager, who is a member of the club, to run recruiting stories in the bank's quarterly newsletter. | | Results | The club would have lost 2 members were it not for the Rotary Investment Group (RIG) and Wine Appreciation Group (WAG). Furthermore, the club's utilization of the bank's newsletter has created regular publicity and the club has gained 6 new members. | | Contact | John Barnes | Email | jba25492@bigpond.net.au | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | Exeter Southernhay | | Country | England | District | 1170 | | Region | Great Britain and Ireland | | Membership Element(s) | retention, retention | | Issues | The club was beginning to loose members. | | Strategies | First, the record of members' attendance would be reviewed monthly and any member who had missed two meetings without reason was contacted by the club president. If the reasons were related to health, this was passed on to the club so that a visiting rota could be arranged. If the absence was for other reasons, the President would meet with the members and discuss these reasons and try to find a resolution. Second, regular social events were organized to which all spouses were encouraged to attend. Third, a mentorship program was implemented to aid new members and broaden current members' knowledge of Rotary at the club, district, and international levels. | | Results | No members have left the club in the 08-09 Rotary year. | | Contact | George Kempton | Email | george.kempton@lundybay.net | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | Ashkelon South | | Country | Israel | District | 2490 | | Region | Middle East and North Africa | | Membership Element(s) | retention, retention, recruitment, public relations | | Issues | Members and potential members questioned the relevance of the club vis a vis the impact it had on the community. | | Strategies | The club nurtured a spirit of friendship, cooperation and mutual concern among its members, enabling personal initiatives and fulfillment by: 1) Encouraging members to carry otu community projects; 2) Fostering international solidarity--participation of club members in family events and celebrations; social activities for club members; 3) Carrying out community projects which involve all or most members. | | Results | Increased exposure in the community. Increased membership. Attained support of Rotary Israel and Rotary International for club projects and needs. | | Contact | Yael Lazarus | Email | yaki44@gmail.com | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
| Club Name | Overland Park South | | Country | United States | District | 5710 | | Region | USA:Central:Plains | | Membership Element(s) | retention, retention | | Issues | Goal: Retain members. | | Strategies | A mentor program was implemented to improve rentention among new members, therefore gradually increasing membership. The Membership Chair is responsible for managing this program. S/he conducts and maintains a list of potential mentors, so that a mentor is ready and available to begin immediately upon the induction of a new member. The mentor is given a set of specific actions/steps to take (as previously approved by the club) that ensure the new member feels welcomed and is able to build friendships and grow in service. | | Results | Increased rention rates and membership growth. In 2 years, club grew from 76 to 94 members. | | Contact | Vickie Randel | Email | vickier@firststateks.com | | Phone | | Fax | | | Website | |
|
|