I am a 22yr old membership director of my club and keen on getting other young people engaged in our great organisation.

Article by Rtn Nathan Stuart, RC Diamond Creek, Membership Chair

On the 3rd of April 2022 eager leaders across our district attended the 9790 District Assembly in the country town of Benalla. PDG Andy Rajapakse, a Rotarian and leader in the space of membership and public image, addressed those that came to the assembly and spoke about the journey which led to the success of his district and the huge growth in membership and new clubs.

My name is Nathan Stuart, and I am a proud 22yr old Rotarian who just moved across the district for work. I was very excited to hear what Andy had to say as I am membership director of my club and keen on getting other young people engaged in our great organisation.

Some key takeaways from his presentation that I had was to look at places in our district where there is a need for community or a need for help and target those postcodes or areas as somewhere where a Rotary Club could thrive. The other main takeaway was Andy’s commitment in time and networking when creating a new club and the importance for the commitment to encourage longevity and success for the new club. Finally, he talked about the importance of social media and public image in promoting what a new or current club is doing so that members of the community can see how joining a local Rotary club may benefit them and how they could use their unique skills to benefit the local community.

Andy had a variety of great statistics boasting the impact that he had helped create in his own district and being recognised globally as a district that was performing extremely well compared to other Rotary districts around the globe.

After our lunch break Andy hosted a workshop called “New Styles” where he went through his 5-step action plan for creating a new club. Andy’s 5 step action plan is the following:

1. What is our pitch?
2. How do we communicate?
3. Where is the money?
4. Venue options?
5. Who is our team?

We then split into groups and using the 5 step plan we brainstormed a postcode in our district that didn’t have a Rotary Club. Our group took a different approach in that we recognised a need for a club aimed at young people like a Rotaract club up in the Albury/Wodonga area. We expanded on Andy’s 5 step plan and by the end of our discussion as a small group had a great foundation for what a club could look like, how we would get there and what we would need to make it a reality.

As a group of 60+ Rotarians who all took part in the workshop we came up with 5-6 clubs that we could start in our district in postcodes that currently didn’t have a Rotary Club. The discussion was electric and the sharing of ideas at the end of what we could do in each postcode to promote Rotary was truly inspiring.