What's Your Goal For Membership Month?

Click here to take a survey

Women members raise the profile of Rotary

Click to see printable
poster

Local women Rotarians raised the profile of Rotary at a local Women's Lifestyle Expo in Wellington.

Attracting more women into Rotary can be achieved by holding targeted profile events such as this.

Plans for a Global Women's Breakfast are in place and the goal is to have women join for a breakfast on Friday 8 March 2013.

I've been thinking...

What is it about successful Clubs that make them attractive to new members?

What is it that they have that other Clubs don't?

Do we have enough motivation to ask this question and indeed to take the time to investigate further?

My belief is that there are several reasons that cause a Club to be attractive to others.

I am sure there are many others - feel free to add your ones as a comment to this Blog:

My list includes:

• The members are actively involved in a variety of relevant projects
• The members are proud of their involvement in Rotary
• The members are confident to ask others to join - and actually ask!
• The community know where and when the meeting of Rotarians are held
• The members have an effective public relations programme promoting their activities
• The members have fun and this emits an attractive energy

So when we think of turning a Club around and making it attract new members, think about those Clubs that are successful and start emulating them.

Rotary is "A happy group of good sorts doing heaps of good things for others"

Endorsement from our leader here in New Zealand

Rotary International the greatest change organisation in the world, renews and refreshes itself every year with leadership changing at club, District and International levels.

Immediate Past District Governor Alan Eyes,
Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key
joins the incoming DG Ron Seeto celebrating
Rotary International's new theme
"PEACE through SERVICE"

530 Rotary District Governors worldwide are part of this transition. Sunday 1 July at the Howick Club the largest maritime Rotary District, with 49 clubs in Auckland and 7 other pacific island nations District 9920 celebrated the transition of District Governor from Alan Eyes of the Rotary Club of Pukeokohe to Ron Seeto of  the Rotary Club of Newmarket.

This annual changeover also includes a theme for the year to focus humanitarian efforts for Rotarians in the new Rotary Year. This theme is set by the Rotary International President. For 2012-2013 Rotary International President from Japan, Sakuji Tanaka’s theme is Peace Through Service.

District Governor  Ron Seeto in his address asked Rotarians in District 9920 to work together to Unleash Your Potential building Peace Through Service.

The 250 Rotary attendees included family and guests of District Governors Alan & Ron. 

Among the friends there to help Sharon Seeto celebrate Ron’s inauguration were Bronagh and Prime Minister John Key. John is an honorary Rotarian of the Rotary Club of Kumeu in District 9910 and a Paul Harris Fellow of the Rotary Club of Newmarket.

District 9920  covers a geographical area encompassing east and south Auckland with 29 clubs and 20 clubs scattered through Fiji, Western Samoa. American Samoa, Tonga, Rarotonga, Kiribati and French Polynesia.

Our image - our responsibilty - our future!!

Read more by clicking this image.

STATEMENT:  The image others have of us is a reflection of the image we have of ourselves.  

Each Rotarian is a "marketing agent" for our organisation.  Do our newer members have the knowledge to be able to effectively market who we are and what we do?  

In the attached "Rotary on the Move" newsletter Barry Matheson (Rotary International Director - 2010-2012) states:

".... we are losing far too many members even where we are having a net gain in membership. So what is the challenge? After all we do gain a large numbers of members every year. To be specific we gained 1,100,000 members between June 30th 2003 and June 30th 2012. This is an average of 157,143 a year for seven years. So our product cannot on the face of it be all that bad.
Our Challenge lies with the connect or disconnect if you will between, on the one hand the image we portray, the brand we sell, the promise we offer our members and on the other hand what our clubs actually offer. The challenge in my mind is that we are not living up to what we say we are in many clubs.  "

Read more ...

A basic human right??

Water is a basic human right, yet 900 million people lack access to safe water and over 2.5 billion have no safe sanitation. That’s why water & sanitation is a key focus area in the new Rotary, because where there is water there is peace, health, education, and economic development.  That’s why WASRAG, the Water and Sanitation Rotary Action Group, adopted the slogan “Start with water.”

We encourage every Rotarian to become familiar with the world water issues, both at home and in other parts of the world.  Every Rotary club should get involved in water and sanitation projects; and through multi-district and multi-club partnering we can together achieve so much more.

Money and expertise are keys to success, so are active Rotary clubs involved in raising funds and awareness. That’s why I endorse the RotaryGlobalRun4Water and encourage clubs around the world to embrace this simple but powerful formula.  It is an easy way for clubs to get involved with water in their local community and support meaningful grant projects. With broad participation in such a multi-district fundraiser we can foster partnerships, raise the exposure of Rotary, and most importantly make a significant difference in the cause for clean water.

Ron Denham

Chair, Wasrag

www.startwithwater.org

Our Foundation must address these concerns

Have these in your pocket!

How can Rotary stay relevant to younger members? Hear answers from Rotarians to this question and others in Rotary Minute, a series of short videos, now available on iTunes through a free podcast subscription.

How many times has a colleague, friend, or new contact asked you what Rotary is? If you have an iPhone or iPad, you can now respond by showing a one-minute video that explains Rotary in the words of everyday Rotarians.  

Rotary Minute is a series of videos featuring Rotary club members from around the world discussing a variety of topics, such as “How have you benefited from being a Rotarian?” In addition to being available on Vimeo, Rotary Minute is now offered through a free podcast subscription on iTunes.

Giving to the community today in New Zealand

Karori Rotarian has a check up

Today Rotarians across the country in New Zealand  joined forces with the Stroke Foundation, St Johns and Foodstuffs supermarkets to front the "Down with Blood Pressure Campaign".  Members of the community were provided an opportunity to have a free blood pressure check.

I believe Rotary needs to form greater partnerships and collaborate more with other community organizations to enable our service organisation  to contribute even more to the good of society in the future.

Creating a Club Facebook page

Here is a step by step easy to follow process for creating a Club Facebook page

Click on the image to view the presentation

"You do not learn until you try"!