Many Rotary leaders in Zone 8 have asked how I attracted younger people to Rotary in D9640?

Article by PDG Andy Rajapakse Assistant Rotary Coordinator

Many Rotary leaders in Zone 8 have asked how I attracted younger people to Rotary in D9640? Of our 1375 members, 250 or 18% are under 49 years. 34 of our 59 clubs have members under 40 years of age. We have 85 Rotaractors too in 4 clubs. 38% of our Rotarians are female. 

Since 2018 we invented and formed 8 new styled flexible Rotary and 3 Rotaract Clubs to attract younger members and females. This trend motivated other clubs too to adapt and change. RI’s current flexibility policies allow us now to be creative with our club by-laws to innovate new club styles. We were blessed with brave district and club leaders who had the willpower to change.

2021 Deloitte Global research across 45 countries including Oceania, found 70% of under 40 want to volunteer. 46% aged 18 to 35 rated “Flexibility” as the No 1 incentive to join an organization. They found 21st-century young people volunteer for “causes” they are “passionate” about rather than for an organization’s cause. These findings are a great opportunity to form new Rotary clubs with more flexibility, creativity, technological savviness to attract cause-centric young people.

A good example is Gold Coast Passport Rotary that is now a global benchmark in attracting the “Selfie Generation” to Rotary. The club was featured this month in "The Rotarian" published in the USA, in September in the German Rotarian and in August in the RDU. Charter President Candice Olivier and I as Governor Nominee started this club with 21 members in 2019 to provide a platform for “action for causes” under ’40s are passionate about. They embraced the latest social media and communication tools to make Rotary more engaging, fun and informative to their members. 

They meet once a month for a $10 wine and cheese evening at a cool co-working space and pay dues monthly. During the month they act in teams on their passionate projects. Check their FB and Instagram. The club has grown membership by 57% in the past 2 years to 32. Young people of today are not attracted to weekly meetings, heads and tails, spot fines, toasts, singing the national anthem nor sausage sizzles and raffles to raise funds for other charities.  

The club focuses on domestic violence, homelessness and the environment and has partnered and completed a Global Grant with India and Taiwan. This May their members enthusiastically participated in a district-wide Rotary Australia 100-year Baton Relay with a cause “Rotary says no to Domestic Violence.” It was a project of Ballina on Richmond Rotary NSW in our district that as Governor I promoted across all clubs as a strategy to engage local communities with Rotary. After the relay, they wanted action and invited DGN Dave Harmon and wife Rtn Robyn from Ballina to guide them to a hands-on project to reduce domestic violence in Gold Coast. Robyn shared her journey as a Love Bites Facilitator delivering skill-based educational programs in NSW to help high school children to build meaningful relationships free from violence and abuse. 

2 weeks ago 7 of their members between 24 and 35 years in age volunteered to attend a 2 full day Love Bites Facilitator Training in Brisbane conducted by NAPCAN (National Association for Prevention of Child abuse and Neglect). Today they have the largest number of Love Bites Facilitators in a Rotary Club in Queensland and are ready for action to create an impact. If young people are attracted to causes they are passionate about, they will spend time and money to volunteer. Rotary can open this opportunity to them. I am happy as your ARC to follow this trend and help start a new style club in any town in your district to attract this selfie generation to Rotary! Let’s act now. Email me at; andyrajapakse@gmail.com