President Gordon Bigelow lead a discussion regarding the Rotary Magazine Membership article and the new Rotary Club of Easton Membership Committee structure. Service Clubs in North America have been struggling with membership for the past 30-40 years. Rotary routinely takes in 150,000 members per year in this area of the world and we are still losing ground. This is perhaps the least unique aspect of Rotary as all such organizations are struggling.
Gordon hopes that our Club Membership Committee will develop and implement a comprehensive plan for the recruitment and retention of members. Although the Committee will be guided by co-chairs, all Easton Rotarians are considered to be active members of this Committee. A plan will be developed to orient new members and provide them with access to Rotary education. Other ideas include fireside chats and assigned mentors. New members should be educated regarding the international scope of Rotary. The Rotary International website is full of resources for new members to learn about our organization. Communication with existing members will improve, perhaps including phone trees and special date mailings (birthday/ anniversary, etc.). Text blasts can be more effective than emails.
We hope to move the Club in the direction of increased community involvement and to improve our public image. New fundraisers are being developed to augment our Jack Bennett Classic. We may be able to find organizations to support by periodically reviewing the ones who have present ed a t our Club meetings. Literacy remains a high priority in Easton. Perhaps we could partner in some way with Cops ‘n’ Kids. We should be able to enhance our public image with increased visibility at community events.