With membership dropping in all Community groups and not just Rotary, there are so many challenges facing those of us tasked with finding new members and retaining them. We hear about an economic downturn, being time poor and a multiple of reasons for not wanting to commit.

Article by Past President Shalini Penny, Rotary Club of Emerald and District

When the Emerald Dandenong Ranges Association (EDRA) approached the Rotary Club of Emerald & Dist. along with 22 other Community groups to run a Rotary stand at their Community Groups Expo on Saturday 20th May, we were of mixed feeling as to how we were going to be able to “man” a stand from 10am to 4.00pm plus cover another event that day. And it crossed our minds that perhaps no one would attend - would it only be the Community groups circulating within the Hub to view their rivals? However, the public did come. And we were prepared for them!

Membership Chair, Kris Ash with assistance from Ian Ash pulled together all the marketing materials we required - videos of our Club in action at events (with background music) PowerPoint of what to expect in Rotary plus our latest brochures and business cards were available to be taken home.

We then set to work by encouraging everyone who came anywhere close to the stand to engage with us –on what they were looking for in a Club, what did they know about Rotary or had they had any dealings with Rotary previously? (a few had participated in a youth exchange program or had received a grant from Rotary). We were pleased with how many people showed genuine interest in becoming involved with our Club. The great takeaway is that we had 15 strong leads of people in the community genuinely interested in finding out more about the club.

Kris created a docs. google spreadsheet for the membership and marketing committee to work on. The team were allocated a few leads each and contacted them by phone or email and documented the progress and which meeting the leads were to attend. Some wanted to leave their visit until the new Rotary year – that was fine, just needed to be managed by further follow-up at the appropriate time.

By providing a list of guest speakers over a period of a few weeks has given the prospective members something of interest to attend for. It is then our role as Club members to make them welcome and feel that they would like to return.

The Membership committee ensures that any prospective member is provided with adequate information about what we do, what is expected on both sides and a “fireside” chat occurs to cover off these items. We also provide a power point document of what to expect in their 1st twelve months along with a list of Rotary acronyms.

We are very conscious that recruiting new members is great but retention is a priority. Our Club works on ensuring that they feel involved, engaged, and having fun.