1. Attracting New Members
Best Practices in Clubs & Meetings
Presenter #1 – Introductions
By the end of this session you will leave with some very specific and simple things that you can do immediately to help your club grow
CLICK – to help your club attract and create new Rotarians.
Earl Kilmer
Rotary Club of Fairfield Suisun
Past District Governor

2. How attractive is your club? To prospective members
Best Practices!
How attractive is your club?
To your own members
To prospective members
Presenter #1
That’s right - to help your club attract and create new Rotarians.
But first, what’s happening right now with membership in your club?
Pair up with the person next to you and in 60 seconds, briefly tell each other about the biggest membership issue in your club. Start now!
1) Audience exchanges information for 60 seconds. Walk around and listen to several pairs talking.
2) Ten more seconds… 5… 4… … 1… STOP!
3) Quickly call on 4 or 5 people for a short one sentence summary of their club’s biggest membership issue.
i) [You’ll get a good cross section of quick comments.]
You see, you already know the key issues, so today we’ll discuss things that will help you address those issues.
Presenter #2
siegel + gale
When faced with a reduction in sales, successful businesses take action to better attract and keep customers.
Rotary hired siegel + gale, a prestigious research firm to help us understand why we are losing members.
Interviews were conducted with over 20 thousand Rotarians and non- Rotarians. Here’s one of the findings.

3. Attraction begins BEFORE the meeting:
Are We Having Fun Yet?
Attraction begins BEFORE the meeting:
What have you communicated?
What is the “buzz”? (Intentional and contagious PR)
Best Practices we’ve seen:
Up to date newsletter/website and promo s about upcoming meeting & program
Create a Public Image/Communications Committee or Friendship Committee of Rotarians who enjoy keeping in touch with members – generate excitement each week with a promo to members about your upcoming program; contact members who’ve missed meetings to let them know you miss them; have each President establish a weekly “gag/schtick” of some sort; tell people the FUN ahead at meetings and make sure it happens
News releases to the local paper about club activities – keep VISIBLE

4. Remember why Rotarians join and stay!
74.5%
For friendship
JOIN
30.0%
STAY
38.4%
To positively Impact my community
35.5%
36.1%
Networking opportunities
TOTAL
18.7%
74.5%
5.2%
Personal & professional recognition
4.3%
2.3%
Training opportunities
3.3%
3.5%
To have positive impact globally
8.2%
14.5%
WHY do Rotarians JOIN their clubs and why to they STAY?
Same two reasons:
1)Friendship is clearly the #1 reason why people stay in Rotary
2)If you add in impact my community, networking, personal and professional recognition and training opportunities; all things local are still about 85% of the reasons people stay.
Global impact increased to 14.5%. It’s the number 3 reason why people stay in Rotary.
Why is there a growth in “impact globally”?
International appeal comes naturally with Rotary experience and knowledge.
Why decrease in “professionally networking”?
Achieving via friends and fellowship
Remember the Siegel and Gale Survey from Rotary International last year. How is YOUR club ticking these boxes? Are friendships being fostered? Are you working together on community projects? (Presenters share examples of various clubs’ examples of these being done successfully…. I know one club that blah, blah, blah, etc.)

5. Rotarians Value:…
1. FRIENDS and CONTACTS 2. LOCAL impact 3. ENGAGEMENT of skills and passion 4. WORKING WITH LEADERS
“Worth My Time?”
In order to serve our customers, we need to know what they want.
1)What do we have to offer for our customers that makes it “worth it” to join and stay?
2)What are they looking for?
3)What do they value?
We now have answers …… from our customers! The answers are clear … and dramatic.
The siegel + gale study revealed – or confirmed, 4 key concepts. People are attracted to Rotary for:
a)Friends and Contacts
b)Local impact – (international impact comes later with Rotary experience and knowledge.)
c)Engagement of one’s skills and passion
d)Working with and learning from leaders

6. A Common Misstep:
Asking too little of your members!
If you don’t let them know their presence matters, they won’t make club involvement a priority!
Example: RI has relaxed attendance requirements. During the Great Recession one club emphasized this hoping to keep good members whose business required more of their attention. Members started drifting away. The Membership Committee started reaching out to those absentees personally, letting them know how much they’re missed. The club established rewards for excellent attendance (65%, 85% and 100% levels), incentivizing participation and reconnecting Rotarians to their club and one another.

7. What happens AT your club meeting?
How is everyone greeted?
How does the room look?
How does the room sound?
Good PROGRAMS are a must!
Is the feeling energetic & upbeat?
Keep the emphasis on FUN!
HERE IS WHERE THEY CAN BREAK INTO SMALL GROUPS TO DISCUSS:
*Think of the BEST Club President you’ve ever seen/enjoyed? What did they do differently to SUPER-ENGAGE you???
Other best practices presenters have observed are shared, such as:
Some clubs have the same people staffing the entry table & they have welcome down to an art form – handshakes, names are remembered, smiles, extroverts, etc.
Also have a rotating GREETER each week – helps members know one another
Free entry to a 1st time guest
Rotary signage abounds, along with anything else appropriately festive, decorated by season or holiday; photo slide show of club pictures plays as people arrive & eat
One club played a genre of music each week – the genre changed from year to year
Another club president worked the room at first, shaking hands etc. LAUGHTER was heard throughout the room
Have program oversight – some clubs have teams arrange but one member oversees the ideas to ensure quality speakers/topics, other ideas for this?
Enthusiasm is contagious! If your president is more low key any given year, help them infuse energy into your meetings.
Share examples that made meetings you observed upbeat and FUN!

8. What else are you offering your members?
What’s going on?
What else are you offering your members?
Aim for a great menu of opportunities
for their involvement –
service projects AND socials!
Club meetings aren’t always the ideal place for deeply ENGAGING your members! The schedule doesn’t always allow much time for connecting. Make sure your club engages in both service projects and club or team socials to REALLY engage all members. One club in our District recognized its members were great at working together but there hadn’t been any organized socials in years! So they set the expectation for team captains to organize at least one team social per year and most did one per quarter. Another club organized a Third Thursday Social each month, each no host at a different bar in town right after work. The event proved so popular it grew to include MULTIPLE clubs from that town, fully engaging Rotarians in SEVERAL clubs in FUN and growing FRIENDSHIPS!

9. What about PROSPECTIVE members?
How does your club welcome visitors?
Greeted & introduced by name?
Stewarded by a welcoming Rotarian?
Bombarded with acronyms and Rotary speak?
Frightened by the recognition cost/process?
In addition to making sure the meeting is FUN and attractive to your own members, remember to do so for VISITORS too!
Share examples of do’s and don’ts re/welcoming first-time visitors….

10. Resources are available!
Rotary International now has some very impressive resource material available.
The Membership Resource Guide is one of the best products we’ve seen so far. Contains a short description of booklets, documents and helpful reports plus the guide has hyperlinks to all references.
The highly successful 8-page booklet “Be A Vibrant Club” . It includes 10 activities to help every member feel empowered and a variety of ideas to try.
Don’t reinvent the wheel!

11. How attractive is MY CLUB?
Best Practices!
How attractive is MY CLUB?
Check out the Vibrant Clubs Survey for a handy checklist to follow!
Hand out or draw attention to the Vibrant Clubs Handout you’ve printed from the District Website … Clubs/Club Resources/2018 Vibrant Clubs Handout

12. Your own A-HAH! Ideas?
Take a moment to SHARE verbally OR write down your “ahas” and specific actions that you can take to help your club and its meetings be MORE ATTRACTIVE!
Thank attendees for their attention and remind them to write-down three take-away points (if they haven’t done so already), and to complete their evaluations.

13. Don’t Forget Your Evaluation!
Best Practices!
Thank you!
Don’t forget your evaluation
Don’t Forget Your Evaluation!