CP Ann Margaret San Antonio
Last May 22, our club attended the very informative and successful Virtual District Training Assembly hosted by the Rotary Club of Metro Escolta. is RC Eva Kurniaty of RI Zone 10A talked about “Expand our Reach for Membership.” She is a Rotary Coordinator, Past District Governor, and member of the Rotary Club of Jakarta Sunter Centennial, Indonesia. The content of her membership development training struck my mind. Maximizing all the good possible actions to be able to recruit and retain a new member is to transform as an active member. This has been very exciting for me as the new membership chair for our club.
Our club has struggled in retaining and having new members stay and be active members. For years, we have had new members being inducted but have not renewed membership for the next year. We are lucky that in 2017, I had invited and mentored our incumbent President, Judith Landicho. She has been “Rotarized.” Each club has its own strategies to get a good score on membership development. Mentoring and buddy system have definitely worked.
On July 3 during the District Handover and Induction, one of our new members has been charged and inducted. She has been quite inactive for years but this year recalling all the great, fun, and fulfilling work she did in Rotary made her decide to accept the invitation of Past President Myra Joy Trott, who will be her main buddy, to make sure to invite her in club activities and training.
Engaging current club members are as crucial as attracting new ones. Since we are a club of past presidents, to be able to elicit support from members who have occupied the busiest position in the club is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Most of us have taken equally important club positions that require active participation. Take, for example, PP Malou Alavata whose expertise in printing and graphic design has been assigned as our club secretary and PR Chairwoman. It has been refreshing for our club to having printed club bulletin again. She also posted on our official Facebook page. Engage members, involve them in activities, assign them leadership roles, and communicate with them regularly are some of the strategies that we have applied and we are seeing results right away.
I would like to end this note with a line from RC Eva’s testimony on Membership Development and I quote, “Not giving up on struggling clubs, helping them in any way to boost their membership, transforming a dying club into a healthy and vibrant club is the Magic of Rotary.”