Membership Chair, 2011-12: Ron Beyer

Rotary Club of Oak Bay
2010-2011
Membership Director’s Initial Report
Submitted by Jim Force

“Eighty percent of success is showing up.” Woody Allen

As we know from Woody Allen’s quote and Bill Gates Senior’s article in the July 2009 issue of the Rotarian, showing up is the key to success in any endeavor. With this in mind, I would like to see “showing up,” not only for club initiated activities and projects but also for weekly meetings, as one of the club goals again for this year.
Below are ideas I have for maintaining and promoting club membership.

• The onus of recruitment is on all club members, particularly on the club’s board of directors. With this in mind, I propose that each board member recruit one new member during this Rotary year or at the very least support a club member in doing so. If we do this we can easily meet our target goal.
• We will host an alumni event in which we invite former club members to a Fellowship meeting with the purpose of renewing old acquaintances, letting the alumni know what projects we have on the go and looking at how we might partner with them on community projects. 
• Retention, particularly of newer members, is also an important aspect of club membership. The key critical factor in club retention is the relationships people develop with each other. With this in mind, we will initiate a New Member Mentorship program.
• The third aspect of membership is engagement. In order to have a healthy, sustainable club we need involve members in regular hands-on activities, committees, and social events. I propose that we, as a board, map out a schedule of activities for the year making sure that each month we have at least one hands-on event.
• Given that recruitment, retention and engagement of members is the responsibility of all club members, this year the PR and Membership committees will join together into one committee with the purpose of  promoting the above three aspects of club membership.
• We will continue with Club-in-a-Pub monthly fellowship meetings on the last Thursday of each month at the Penny Farthing on Oak Bay Ave from 5 to 6 pm. These meetings are great fellowship opportunities. Since it’s inception in April 2009, we have had a total of 34 members (over half of total club membership) attend at least one of the meetings, with an average of 10 attendees per meeting. Dates for 2010-2011: 29 July, 26 Aug, 30 Sept, 28 Oct, 25 Nov, 27 Jan, 24 Feb, 31 Mar, 28 Apr, 26 May, 30 Jun. No meeting is planned for December.

 LINK TO 08-09 Report

LINK to 09-10 Report