REPORTS FOR CLUB ASSEMBLY – 5 JUNE 2018

1 MEMBERSHIP RETENTION AND RECRUITMENT

A.     Retention and Recruitment 2017-18

B. Membership Retention and Recruitment Strategies 2018-191. Membership retention and recruitment underpin the club’s twin values of fellowship and service. Thus, we will aim to:2. Retain, develop and enthuse all members since we believe that an active, engaged club membership is the best platform from which to recruit new members;3. Maintain and improve strategies to mentor new members; to support and develop all members and provide opportunities and encouragement for all members to aspire to fulfilling service and leadership roles in the club;4. Engage with our communities – local, city wide and beyond – through face to face contacts, visible community presence, print publicity and social media. Embodying the message that Rotary represents an attractive, welcoming and dynamic opportunity for community service and self-fulfilment that is open to all.
C. Membership Retention and Recruitment Tactics 2018-19Leadership

The Presidential Team and Club Officers will take the lead on membership retention and recruitment. They will draw upon the support and active participation of all members to achieve our shared goals. 

1.      Communication

Though we are all members of ONE growing club we rarely meet together. Thus, it is imperative that we continue to sustain and develop a rich and diverse communication network between members and groups. To that end we will:

a.      Continue and develop the practice of frequent club business discussions at all meetings of member groups. Open and frank discussion is vital to our cohesion and progress;

b.      Continue the Aireborough Rotary Bugle newsletter and the private Aireborough Rotary Facebook Group. Though in both cases input from a wider range of members would be most welcome;

c.      Continue to strongly urge all members to make much greater use of the Aireborough RC website. It is a private, fully GDPR compliant platform just waiting for officers, committee chairs, members to share information, debate issues, and message each other. As a club we pay for the website template and don’t make full use of it. Surely a rare phenomenon in .

2.      Retention

Based on the premise that all members wish to be actively engaged in delivering club service activities and aspire to club leadership roles the Board has decided to develop a more transparent and effective approach to encourage, support and develop all members in their club service and leadership roles.

Attention will be focussed on those members who joined after 2013, since longer serving members tend to have found their niche. But all members have an active role to play in ensuring that each of us gets the maximum satisfaction from their membership.

Our recent history reminds us of the continuing need to ensure that no member becomes disillusioned with their membership, nor that we find ourselves with an under prepared aspirant to club leadership who does not enjoy the confidence of the membership.

3.      Recruitment

Continually renewing our membership is the only key to ensuring our long- term survival. To allow ourselves to become a moribund ‘legacy’ club waiting for the end would be our betrayal of all who have ever served the club and all in our community who rely on us.

In the past year we have made a decent fist of growing our membership but there must be no let up in our efforts. To that end we all will:

a)     Engage in every opportunity for face to face discussion with potential members; with their permission collecting their contact details and passing them on to be followed up with further contact and the new excellent RIBI publicity materials;

b)     Ensure that our presence at community events is always seen as a recruitment opportunity by all the members involved;

c)      Continue and develop our print publicity, and our enhanced social media presence;

d)     Explore the opportunities to recruit more younger working Rotarians from the many young academics working in either as Leeds Phoenix members or as a new satellite club;

e)     Follow the example of successful new Rotary clubs in by seeking to sponsor a hyper child friendly satellite club targeted at people with young families;

f)       Work with Leeds White Rose Club as they develop a satellite club based on the CEG development at the Kirkstall Forge site;

Press for much more urgency and commitment nationally and in the   District to the Rotary 2 initiative.  Only a larger Rotary membership, that more accurately reflects the population, can reverse our inexorable decline into national irrelevance.

Tony Scaife June 2018

Report on Member Retention and Recruitment for AGM April 2018

Without doubt this year Aireborough has demonstrated that it is an exceptionally active, flexible, growing, well managed club with continuing ambitions.

The evidence for this statement is below.

Aireborough Rotary Club membership – as at April 2

Note

If we exclude   Aireborough Club’s active members who are wishing to transfer to the Leeds Phoenix Rotary Club then there will be 48 members remaining. Of these 57% are aged over 70. 76% are male and 24% female. 2 new members have been added this year. Additionally 1 more application is at the seven-day letter stage. Three more applications are also expected so, we are likely to end the year with 50 active members – possibly 52.
During the current year 1 member resigned for personal reasons.

1.      Membership Fluctuations  likely until  the end of June 2018

a.      Aireborough Rotary Club membership is growing. From 39 members in 2013-14 to62 (48) members in 2017-18.  We had a target membership increase for this year of 8 members and are now on track to achieve at least 24 new members.

b.       Leeds Phoenix is making rapid progress. So total Club active membership is likely to peak at a minimum of 68 active members this year. But then active membership will rapidly decline as at least 20 members transfer when Phoenix charters.

Membership Retention and Recruitment Policy 2018– 19

a.      The Presidents’ and Officers Planning Team for 2018-19 have decided not to establish a separate Membership Chair and Committee for the coming Rotary year. This is in line with current Rotary International recommendations.

b.      This step makes retention and recruitment a central concern of the whole club. Membership recruitment and retention will continue to be a standing early agenda item on all Board agendas.

c.      In reflecting on the year so far the Planning Team was concerned to see that no club members had identified themselves as willing to take on the President Elect and President Nominee Roles for 2018-19.

                                                              i.      Thus, a systematic process of canvassing the club service aspirations of more recently joined members has been introduced and is already bearing fruit.

                                                            ii.      There was agreement that a willingness, by all members, to take on club service roles was essential if the club is to thrive. As a club we need an honest and open dialogue about what members expect from their membership. We also need to think about how we can provide opportunities and training if necessary, to help individual members develop their club service roles.

There was a view that without such dialogue we risk losing members whose aspirations are not being met. Or finding ourselves with aspiring officers who do not enjoy the whole confidence of the club.

                                                          iii.      Recruiting   new members will always be a prime task for all of us. We require a multi -faceted approach. With an actual presence membership stand at community events together with a virtual presence through a vigorous social media profile. Additionally we must try to get access to forums and networking events where we can have face to face dialogue with potential members.

Tony Scaife        April 6 2018