Is your Rotary club a "meet, greet, eat, and retreat" club?
A "meet, greet, eat, and retreat" club is one in which members gather each week, shake hands, share a good meal and, after a very brief business session, go home.
According to Past District 6740 Governor Bill Crawford, these kinds of clubs pose a threat to the recruitment and retention of Rotarians, especially new and younger members. "Most of the people we want to have in our Rotary clubs are already busy people, and becoming a Rotarian is one more commitment of time and interest," he says. "We persuade them to become a part of Rotary's extraordinary humanitarian efforts, and then they experience the meet, greet, eat, and retreat' reality of too many meetings of the club and too little of what they expected.
"Making the meetings more than a weekly gathering is the key to both recruitment and retention," Crawford explains. "We need to have a program each and every week that informs and excites a Rotarian to want to be an active partner in what the program is about. It is up to us, as active Rotarians ourselves, to change in such a way that new members learn the whole truth about Rotary and want to be a continuing part of it."
Crawford also feels that too many Rotarians don't know about Rotary's work around the world or feel personally involved in Rotary's mission. He says this lack of knowledge and personal commitment leads the average busy Rotarian, who joined the club "to do more with his or her time and [money] than meet, greet, eat, and retreat," to lose interest. "And that loss of interest leads to the loss of a member."
Crawford offers this advice: "We need to make it more interesting for them, through almost-immediate involvement in a project that benefits individuals in the community and through programs that offer an education about Rotary and what it does outside the boundaries of the community in which we live."
Take a look at your club
Research conducted by the RI Membership Development Division has shown that poor club programs, projects, and leadership are consistently ranked as some of the top factors contributing to membership losses. For example, a former Rotarian from Austria recently shared this comment with RI: "I quit my Rotarian membership because at that time, our local club had no program. They were just eating [at their meetings]... so I changed to a [service] club with a goal." To make sure that your club's programs, projects, and leadership are addressing your members' current needs, it's important to periodically take a critical look at various elements of your club.
Ask yourself the following questions and consider solutions to those questions to which you answer no:
Club Meeting/Program
Does your club have entertaining and diverse guest speakers?
Is each meeting interesting and well conducted?
Does the president give everyone a warm welcome when they arrive at the meetings?
Do your members sit with different people at every meeting?
Is the club meeting room appealing, with appropriate sound equipment, podium, flags, banners, and other Rotary items?
Are visiting Rotarians welcomed warmly and recognized at the club meetings?
Do your members have fun at your meetings?
Club Administration
Does your club have a good balance of social, fellowship, and service activities?
Is the club bulletin published and distributed to all members weekly?
Does your club have regular, well-planned assemblies frequently throughout the year?
Does your club respect your members' time by keeping meetings on schedule?
Does your club have an impressive induction ceremony or procedure when a new member is introduced and welcomed into the club?
Does the board of directors meet regularly with a well-planned agenda?
Member Participation
Is your club's attendance percentage high?
Do all of your members participate in club activities?
Club Activities and Projects
Does your club involve family members in activities?
Are your club's service projects effective and relevant to the needs of the communities they serve?
Does your club conduct enough social or networking activities to ensure that members are connected to one another?
Club Assessment Best Practice
Before June 1997, membership in the Rotary Club of Evergreen, Colorado, USA, had declined from a high of 51 members to 32 members, with the number of women declining from 40 percent to 10 percent. Attendance was low and participation in service projects had also declined.
Members decided that they had to make some difficult decisions to save the club. They surveyed members on the issues of membership, business environment, community, meeting location, meeting time, costs (dues, meals, fees), service projects, fundraising projects, and operating budget. The survey results were provided to the members, and a critical meeting was scheduled to decide the club's future. The focus was placed on increasing the accessibility of Rotary to existing, as well as future, Rotarians in the community.
After much discussion, the club voted to become a strong service club (as opposed to a social club), move from an evening meeting to a breakfast meeting, seek a more central location at a lower cost, and reduce meal costs from $15 to $6. Club leaders then continued to charter a new course for the club by developing and implementing a comprehensive membership development program, including an updated classification survey, new member orientation program, mentoring program, emphasis on diversity, updated club brochure, Rotary information guide for new members, Rotarian-of-the-month program, greeter program, and more.
These sweeping changes initially resulted in the loss of several members. However, the club's decision to re-engineer itself has ultimately paid off. By 1999, membership had grown to 81 members and today is at 120 members. The changes have not only saved the club but helped expand the service of Rotary in the community.
Member Satisfaction Questionnaire
Has your club noticed a downward trend in membership, attendance, or project participation? Perhaps your club could benefit from distributing a questionnaire to your members to assess their satisfaction with your club's meetings, programs, and projects. Being aware of your members' satisfaction with various elements of your club can help you keep your club relevant to their needs.
Consider using the Membership Satisfaction Questionnaire found in RI's Membership Development Resource Guide (417-EN) to create or revise your club's own satisfaction questionnaire. The Membership Development Resource Guide can be ordered for US$3 or downloaded for free at www.rotary.org.
Editor: Jana Bodensteiner, coordinator, Membership Development
The Membership Minute