Below are some thoughts from the Regional Council
Does our club want to better meet the needs of our current and prospective members, better represent the community we serve, or provide a more inclusive club experience?
Adopting flexible membership and meeting options can help us attract new audiences, diversify our club, and make our members more engaged.
Read on to learn about the three key tactics our club can use to become more flexible!
Offer alternative membership types
By offering alternative types of membership, you can attract members who traditionally were unable or unwilling to join a Rotary club due to factors such as cost and time commitment. Such people could include busy professionals or people with young families.
These are some types of alternative membership options:
Or we can create our own membership type to meet the specific needs of our members!
Each type of membership can have its own policies on dues, attendance, and service expectations, which must be documented in our club bylaws. Rotary will count these people as members of our club if they pay Rotary International dues and are reported as active members in My Rotary.
Change your meeting format
By changing how and where you club meets, you can make your meetings more fun and engaging, and more inclusive for members who can’t attend traditional meetings.
Your club can meet in person or online, alternate between the two, or offer a hybrid meeting.
You can also change the format of your in-person meetings from the traditional meal and speaker to include service projects, leadership development, committee meetings and social gatherings. Some clubs even rotate where and how they meet!
For more information, download the start guide for flexible meeting formats.
Relax attendance requirements / reduce meeting frequency
These simple measures can make it easier for members with busy schedules to participate to your club in ways that are meaningful to them.
By focusing less on attending meetings, your members can contribute in other ways such as working on a service project, adopting a leadership role, or updating your club’s social media channels.
If your club meets in some way at least twice per month, you’ll meet Rotary International’s meeting requirements.
This Friday just gone some Rotarians and family members met up at Government House. Despite the reasonably hot weather we had a very enjoyable stroll around the grounds led by guides who spoke about the variety of trees, which provided wonderful shade and plants. The vegetable garden was to die for - Simon what were the egg plants like? The zucchini’s were extremely healthy and very big. The gardener is trying to grow one to beat the world record.
Rob and I took several of our grandchildren to Monarto Safari Park. Despite the incredible crowds and the heat we managed to get to see Burma the Asian Elephant. She did look a bit lonely but another four elephants are arriving throughout this year. Her keepers from New Zealand were sitting near her keeping her company. Rob was suitably impressed by the rather large earthworks being undertaken to complete the elephant enclosure.
The following was received on 23rd December.
