We are at the halfway point of the Rotary Year and I came across this article from Zone 33 on Membership that I want to share with you:
1) Nothing Else Matters -- Rotary is a membership organization and our product is service; If you get Membership right, pretty much everything else takes care of itself. If you don't get membership right, everything else is a struggle for the whole year. Work on membership first, get your membership committee up and running first, and then attend to other priorities. Make sure your membership chair is 100% committed to membership growth, and to getting started in April or May (the April or May before the next Rotary year). And that the Membership Chair has a committee. NOTE: A committee cannot be one member!
2) Attrition is Real -- Membership organizations lose members, most at alarming rates. I know, you're thinking "Nobody would quit our great club". Wrong. The 5-year average annual termination rate for Zone 33 clubs is fourteen percent (14%) annually. Half of those leave for reasons you can't control. A handful of clubs have long-term termination rates below 10%. Build your membership plan around the assumption that 15% of your members will leave during this next Rotary year, and have a plan to replace them. Count your blessings (and your membership gain) if that doesn't happen.
3) Retention is Important for the LONG Term -- Retention rates can be changed over time, not quickly, and you can't retain your way from 20 to 30 members. Work on retention strategies, but don't count on moving the needle quickly. Find out why people leave through exit surveys, and fix those problems. | Hint: Most attrition casualties have been members less than 1, 2 or 3 years (<1 year = highest attrition). Focus your retention strategies on those members.
4) Clubs need membership growth every year -- It doesn't have to be dramatic. 4% annual membership growth will double the size of your club in 18 years. What you want to develop is a membership growth culture -- the fundamental belief that the club grows a little every year and avoids huge declines along the way. It's not a series of "membership drives", but a consistent, sustained effort. We have examples of clubs doing just this, year after year. Set your goal at 10% net membership growth (plus an estimate of 15% attrition).
5) It takes Intentional Strategies -- Discard generalities like, "Ask members to bring guests to meetings". Change that to, "Ask “x” members to bring “y” guests to a meeting about Rotary membership on mm/dd/yyyy", and you might have something, if the rest of the plan for reminders, follow up, etc. is in place. Lather, rinse, repeat. Likewise, financial and other incentives for membership recruiting are surprisingly ineffective -- you can't make the prize big enough to be "worth the effort" after a member thinks about it for awhile. It's a nice "thank you", but don't count on incentives alone.
Remember the 10:3:1 Rule -- It takes about 10 names or referrals (suspects) to get 3 prospects to a Rotary Information Hour or Rotary club meeting, to get one new member proposal. Lack of sufficient "lead generation" is a root cause of low rates of new member flow.
Here is the Zoom link for the next Zone Membership meeting on January 6 at 7:30 PM Oiling the Squeaky Parts: Strategies to Increase Your Club’s Ability to Adapt – a critical topic for club growth and sustainability!
Our next District Membership meeting is Tuesday January 14 at 7:00. Email me at rotarianjamie@gmail.com for the Zoom link.
Rotary On,
Jamie