If your clubs are growing year on year, with plenty of new younger members joining and staying, you don’t need to read this. Not there yet?

ARE YOUR CLUBS WASTING A HUGE OPPORTUNITY?

Calling all District Governors, Assistant Governors and Club Presidents

Article by PP Kero O’Shea, Membership Voice Coordinator

If your clubs are growing year on year, with plenty of new younger members joining and staying, you don’t need to read this. Not there yet? Read on ...

The Rotary Club of Adelaide was on a path to extinction 7 years ago, with membership declining, ageing and almost exclusively older white guys. The outlook was grim.

The Rotary Club of Adelaide turnaround story is the most remarkable I’ve ever come across. The Adelaide team initially set out to just recruit more members, when a long-term member of the club pointed out that the current operation was out of date, unattractive and had to be fixed before any consideration of recruitment.

PDG David Egan, a past Adelaide president, uses the simile of Adelaide Oval to describe what Rotary Adelaide did next. They rebuilt and renovated a venerable, but tired, institution into an attractive modern entity that members are proud of and routinely invite their friends to join.

Net growth of 26 in five years is impressive, but when one factors in the sad loss of 29 deceased members in the same period, the overall growth at Adelaide is sensational.

The successful Rotary Adelaide rebuild was based on careful attention to details in five simple steps that any club can emulate:

1. Awareness and commitment

2. Getting the club ready

3. Finding potential members

4. Getting them to join

5. Welcoming and retaining them

Ongoing commitment by club leadership is a crucial element.

Want to know more?

Listen as D’Arcy Walsh explains what Rotary Adelaide did and how you can turn your club around.

And tune in to Membership Voice to hear about more successful club-building stories.