As Membership Director last year, I became acutely aware of a mass of membership related work needing time and more than one person to address. I was therefore, really pleased to twin our one Membership Director into two; and establish a whole new committee (team) to really get “stuck-in” on this multi-faceted internal work – which is already having positive impact for our members.
So far, your membership committee has:
- Created our Club Project Database so all members can clearly see the what, when, how and who’s of each of our projects. Available from the Membership Directors in hard-copy, they are currently working on “sharing” this info to all members via Clubrunner.
- New Member Pot-Luck Dinner – invites are out for this event backdating to all last year’s new members and their buddies and including this year’s newest members.
- Buddy/Mentor Info Packs – under construction. Feedback suggests the job of mentoring new members could be done much, much better and we’ll be retro-addressing this at the New Members dinner; and soon will be providing new member mentors with an updated pack on the What’s and How’s; and quick workshop on the sorts of things they need to share.
- Meeting Attendance Vs Project Service – for some of our members, service via meeting duties and attendance is hugely important; for other members their priority is service via projects and activities (like collecting for MS). Should we be looking at a mandatory attendance percentage as criteria for membership; or does the mantra “less meeting more doing” say it all? Your Membership Committee are looking at this conundrum. This is a puzzle that affects our club, and rest assured, is a Rotary Club puzzle worldwide. I’m actively working with the membership committee on how to address this puzzle. To this end, we are trying hard to tie-in meeting speakers with projects; and we are trying hard to schedule our own members to do not only short two-minute snap-chats; but also to encourage our members to regale us with reports of recent travels; activities; careers; and passions!
- Four Way Test – at Board level we have plans to workshop how we are applying the Four-Way test to our perspective and actions as Directors and how this has a trickle-down effect to members. We have tasked ourselves with developing a “RCSJ Who We Are Culture Statement” to solidify our values and goals to create positive impact.
- President Elect – started work with Hugh Scott-Russell on his vision for his Presidential year and roll-out of this.
- RCSJ T-Shirts – Our new shirts are gaining some attention! Two ‘other’ clubs have approached us to find out where we got them. Current stock is flying out the door, so if you haven’t got your new shirt, put your order in at the attendance desk on meeting days.
- Membership Committee Meetings – this committee has so much to work on they are chatting constantly via email and meeting every fortnight. If you have an query at all that seems to be Membership related, please feel free to send them an email and you can be assured of a response. Directors are: Donald Bowie (donald.bowie.dbc@gmail.com) and Rosemary Such (rosemarysuch14@gmail.com).
There are a lot of other ideas being discussed by the Membership Committee, but I think this is enough of a report to start with! Look out for updates from the Directors at meetings and in the Bulletin and don’t be shy about telling them (and me) how you think we are doing! Feedback is appreciated and helpful.