Members who leave Rotary clubs often do so because they no longer see value in their Rotary experience. What a shame!

Article by PP Kero O'Shea, Membership Voice Coordinator

Let's do something to change that NOW!

The Rotary Leadership Institute is a facilitated learning program that lets members know what's in Rotary for them and how to use the power of the worldwide Rotary network to do good in the world. Just by enabling member attendance at RLI, you WILL improve your club member retention rate and unlock more active participation.

Watch this short story by new Rotarian Craig Howlett about his RLI experience - including the opening remarks - if you want to understand the benefits RLI can bring to members.

Craig is a newish Rotarian who decided that he wanted to get more involved in Rotary. First thing Craig needed was to find out what Rotary really is, and how it all works. Craig decided to ask more senior members of his club about Rotary, and was told “You know, it’s obvious,” which left him none the wiser and still keen to learn more.

Sound familiar? Or disturbing?

Fortunately, one of Craig’s fellow members had recently attended Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) seminars and had reported positively on what she had learned. Criag decided he would attend, to see what he could find out.

Two RLI workshops later, Craig had the information about Rotary that he had been seeking. This big, wonderful Rotary movement was much more visible to him, alive with opportunities to learn, grow and expand his personal capacity to do good in the world.

Craig felt so good after his RLI experience that he wanted to share the opportunity with other members (new and experienced) so that they might experience a similar awakening to his own. He prepared a short, informative slideshow to describe and promote RLI, and presented it at his club meeting.

I was fortunate to see Craig’s slideshow and invited him to record it for our Membership Voice library. Here it is. I urge you to share this with every Rotarian who has yet to experience RLI.

Unless, of course, you don’t mind losing members.

On the other hand, your club could be really proactive and engage with RLI by sponsoring at least one or two Rotarian members to attend the program each year - particularly for new Rotarians. It would be a small investment - but has the potential to unlock a meaningful response.

More about RLI in Rotary Zone 8 here: https://rotaryzone8.org/sitepage/rotary-leadership-institute