PDG Stephen Lamont has been appointed to the role of Rotary Coordinator for Zone 8 commencing 1 July 2022.

Article by RI Director Jessie Harman

Stephen is a member of the Rotary Club of Kardinia in Geelong, Victoria and was Governor of District 9780 in 2016-17. He served the Zone as Assistant Rotary Coordinator from 2017-20. Stephen is a pharmacist by profession and owned and operated his own pharmacy in Geelong for 34 years prior to recently selling the business.

Stephen’s interest and involvement in Rotary membership has been longstanding. He has been Membership Director at his club and involved in Membership development and promotion at District level. Membership retention was also a major focus during his Governor year and he was actively involved in training a District 9780 membership task force to assist clubs with developing membership strategies.

As an Assistant Rotary Coordinator Stephen assisted in the training of District Membership Chairs within the Zone and he attended various Multi-District PETS (Presidents-Elect Training Seminar) discussing membership as well as presenting on conflict management and code of conduct issues.

Stephen holds engagement and friendship as central to Rotary’s success. "Rotary is different things to different people - but the core theme to membership success and involvement is engagement and friendship” he said. “My belief is that we must be bold and contemporary in the way we approach membership - and we already have the tools and flexibility to do this with different club models and categories of membership. The key is to simply begin a conversation - people join Rotary because they are asked; we need to find out how they can engage with Rotary and then discuss the options available to them” he added.

According to Stephen, Rotary is essentially all about the people. “On a personal level, it is the people that excite me about Rotary. Meeting and working with likeminded people who have become friends is the key to my engagement with Rotary. In conversations that I have begun, I am not alone. We all need to be bold enough to begin these conversations and not leave it to others, if membership is to grow".

We wish Stephen every success in the new role.