Club Resolution: Add Members
Posted by Charles Rehberg
on Jan 03, 2016
Spokane North Notes
A weekly bulletin of the Spokane-North Rotary Club
January 4, 2016
Editors: Chuck Rehberg and Sandy Fink
Program Coordinator: Brad Stark
Happy New Year!!
Club resolution: Add members
If good ideas alone could add more members, the club would need a ballroom for its weekly lunches.
Three table-talk discussions at the Jan. 4 meeting about how to add more members produced a plethora of good recruitment ideas. Turning talk into results is the next step, a big leap indeed.
Board member Brad Stark prepared a thoughtful list of topics for the discussion.
The five sections started with “club engagement – what are you willing to do?” -- to identify, mentor and ask prospective members to join the club. Other sections focused on process, tactics, identifying prospective members and recruitment materials.
Responses were diverse and promising:
- If money is a problem, develop a “friends of Rotary” roster for limited participation in club activities.
- Consider institutional memberships in which participation could be shared. Example: Principal Stephanie Lundberg at Holmes could be the named member, but rotate lunch attendance among other Holmes teachers and staff.
- Demographics: Initiate a “younger person outreach” to inform young professionals about the club and even engage past club scholarship winners. At the other end of the spectrum, let retirees know about ways they could join and help fulfill the club focus on “helping needy kids.”
- Continue the legacy: Mine old club rosters and contact the families and offspring of former long-time members to test interest in continued club participation. Also apply this to businesses and institutions, such as Avista, Whitworth University, Mead Schools and others which provided members to the club for years, but have not done so lately.
- Geographics: Reach out to Kendall Yards and West Central residents and businesses to help with Holmes, Glover and North Central projects, among others. Advertise in the NC alumni association newsletter.
- Technology: Develop a comprehensive social media recruitment strategy on Facebook, Linked-In, and other sites. Distribute member profiles, speaker presentations and activity opportunities on-line. Develop and distribute on-line and printed club business cards with basic information and an invitation to attend a meeting.