Use this general overview to make evidence-based decisions about where to focus your club’s membership efforts: Club membership profile.

Submitted by Barbara Mifsud, Regional Membership Officer, RI staff

When we make decisions about where to focus our membership efforts or formulate a membership development plan, it’s essential we base those decisions on facts.

At this time of year, in the lead up to the new Rotary year, incoming club officers are making decisions about their club’s future direction as they set goals.

Membership goals should be top of mind, seeing as expanding our reach and enhancing participant engagement are two of the four strategic priorities which make up Rotary International’s Action Plan.

For better outcomes, we need to avoid decision making that is based on ‘gut feeling’, assumptions or ‘intuition’. Rather we need to focus on data and experiential evidence.

For example, a club may think they have an issue with attracting new members. When they look at statistics over the last 5 years, they see they attract members, but have a larger issue with retaining new members. They can adjust their goals to not only focus on the important goal of attracting new members but look for ways to better retain new members.

Club membership profile provides an accurate picture of a club’s membership in a historical perspective. It provides:

• 10 year membership trends
• Comparison to 1 July start figures over last 5 years
• Demographics such as age, gender and alumni
• Existing and new member retention rates
• Membership gains or losses for new, readmitted, and existing members
• Membership terminations by years of membership
• Reasons why members left the club, as reported by club officers.

Who can access?

• Every Rotarian or Rotaractor for their own club
• Club officers for their own club
• District officers for each club in their district
• Zone leaders

How?

• Go to Rotary Club Central in My Rotary

             o Rotarian, Rotaractor and club officers

            o District and zone leaders

Also available is a District membership profile.