Membership MattersMay 2010,Volume 9, Number 9

Zones 24, 25, 26 & 32 Newsletter

Membership Matters is a newsletter for Rotarians and non-Rotarians in Zone 24 - Alaska, Canada, the Russian Far East, Siberia, St. Pierre and Miquelon, and parts of the northern USA.Zone 32 - the northeast USA extending into Quebec and Maritime Canada and Bermuda.Zone 25 - north west USA and southern British Columbia.Zone 26 - south west USA and Hawaii.

www.rotaryzones24-32.org

Reversing a Membership Freefall Fifth in a Series of eight

CREATE A SYSTEMATIC STRATEGIC PLAN WITH SHORT-TERM ATTAINABLE MILESTONES

by

Jim Henry, RRIMC Zone 34

In order to create a systematic strategic plan for long-term survival, any organization

must center the plan on satisfying its customers by establishing a distinctive position (core

strength) that gratifies the customers’ needs! Then the organization must adhere to this

position so diligently that other organizations will find it too difficult or too costly to duplicate.

Rotary clubs’ present customers are its members. To maintain long-term growth and viability,

clubs, like other organizations, must attract new customers (members.) So, what is the profile of

Rotary clubs’ potential members, and what needs do they have that club membership can satisfy?

Potential Member (Customer) Profile: They are active or retired leaders in their businesses, leaders in their professions, and leaders in their

communities. (Note the common characteristic: they are all leaders.)

Characteristics: ! Time is more precious than talent or treasure.

! If in a relationship, both are often working and sharing household and child rearing duties.

! They have or have had a supervisor or co-worker of a different gender or ethnicity.

! They have always had access to a computer and are usually proficient in its use.

! Many do not subscribe to or get their news from local daily newspapers.

! They are comfortable with, and often prefer, on-line shopping, completing forms, networking, etc.

! They have used email, portable electronic calendars, voice mail, and mobile phones most of their

professional life.

! Many do not have landline telephones.

! File transferring is electronic rather

than snail mail or fax machines.

! Instant messaging is common, as is

changing careers, single parenthood,

multiple marriages, and commuting

thirty or more minutes one way.

! If a professional, sole proprietor or

consultant, they often work from home.

Needs: Research1 indicates that the time line

needs for Rotary club members are:

(Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs corroborates

these findings.2)

! One-to-five year Rotarians –

Networking, building relationships,

developing leadership skills.

! Five-to-fifteen year Rotarians –

connecting with the community.

! Twenty+ year Rotarians – sustaining

friendships while continuing with varying

achievements.

1 Rotary Club of Buffalo, NMA Research, June 8, 2007 2 Why are Effective Clubs Effective? or What Motivates Rotarians, April, 2009 http://membership33-34/blogspot.com

Trying to sustain long-term viability on service alone is

like trying to build on an unstable, point-loaded base

instead of a sound foundation.

Reversing a Membership FreefallCreate a Systematic Strategic Plan

one of series by Jim Henry, RRIMC, Zone 34

continued on next page

SEE ALL OF YOU IN MONTREAL!

DE VOUS VOIR TOUS A

MONTREAL!Iʼll be the guy in the red shirt!

Reversing a Membership Freefall Fifth in a Series of eight

Distinctive Position (Core strength)

Many Rotary clubs have tried to sustain and increase membership by stressing service as their

core strength. This creates a major membership development obstacle because it ignores the new

members’ needs, which leads to the inability to attract and keep them.3 Objectively examine the issue

from the outsider’s point of view – they can gratify their service needs by participating in one or more

of the thousands of organizations that offer similar opportunities – with little or no time, talent, or

treasure commitment. Service to others is a critical Rotary attribute, but it is not a distinctive position.

Trying to sustain growth on service alone is like trying to establish permanency on a point base instead

of a solid foundation (Please see illustration on the first page.)

On the other hand, how many organizations offer business, professional, and community leaders

the opportunity to network, build friendships, develop leadership skills, and satisfy their service needs

while socializing with a multitude of differing leaders? Very few. Advancing the Object of Rotary is

a distinctive position because it satisfies most members’ varying needs. For almost ninety years,

through two World Wars, the Great Depression, several military conflicts, sustained periods of

economic growth, recession and changing work ethoi, Rotary clubs experienced exponential growth.

Advancing the Object of Rotary was their core strength.

A première example of this core strength at work is Rotary’s ambitious, famous, and great service

project – Polio Eradication. Rotary International leaders and Rotary clubs, advancing the Object of

Rotary, created and led perhaps the greatest health initiative the world has ever experienced. This

project’s success has depended upon networks of business, professional, and community leaders

achieving their esteem and self-actualization needs, and has earned Rotary worldwide recognition and

respect. HOWEVER, this service project did not create Rotary’s core strength; Rotary’s core strength

created the project (and thousands of other local and international service projects.)

Identifying future member characteristics, knowing their needs, being selective about who is

invited into club membership then creating a systematic strategic plan centered on satisfying their

needs should assist any club in becoming more effective. The plan should go into detail about

specifying which committees are responsible for advancing each Object of Rotary; ways and means

for committees to accomplish their objectives; and short and long-term goals with realistic timelines to

measure effectiveness. Creating and executing such a plan would be a major step toward a club

achieving long-term sustainability.

Because clubs are autonomous and different, this article cannot go into strategic plan details, but a

group of club leaders should be able to hammer out those. Some clubs accomplish this in one evening;

others in one or two day retreats. Outside assistance in developing a strategic plan is often preferred

and is usually available at little or no cost to the club. Rotary International has strategic planning

literature, and, in many districts, the Rotary Leadership Institute will be able to assist.

In strategic planning, it is vital to keep this fundamental principle in mind:

For an organization to maintain

long-term growth and viability, it

must establish a distinctive position

that satisfies its customers’ needs.

For Rotary clubs, that distinctive

position is the Object of Rotary.

3 Rotary Membership: A Chilling Analogy, Feb 2009 http://membership33-34.blogspot.com

Highly specialized magazines and membership magazines have been insulated from the fate of the rest of the print media world, but it really is a matter of time until all print media see the reality of Social Media.  The official magazine of Rotary is no different and the first sign of change happened two weeks ago.

During the last week in April, Rotary International convened the 2010  Council on Legislation. This is a body of senior administrative Rotarians (all past District Governors) that review and approve changes to Rotary International policies. Among the over 200 proposed changes was a request to allow the internal Rotary magazine to be offered in an electronic format option and allow members to cancel the delivered hard copy magazine. No big deal, right? But it is a big deal.

The Rotarian Magazine is a monthly magazine with a  guaranteed  circulation. Every member of Rotary is required to receive it. That allows Rotary International (RI) to reach every member once a month, but it also allows RI to guarantee circulation to advertisers. No one really knows what percentage of Rotary members actually read the magazine, but in the world of advertising it is circulation that counts and it seems certain people at the 2010 Council on Legislation knew an electronic version could drastically reduce the circulation of hard copy of The Rotarian.

An electronic option is a bigger issue than just circulation numbers. This issue of electronic versus print is an example of the bigger conflict between traditional print media and Internet media.  Beyond advertising revenue this is an issue of format and content.

Magazine Format versus Electronic FormatCurrently, The Rotarian is a 64 or 80 page magazine (80 pages when there is a multiple page supplement). The first 30 or so pages are a mix of departments and Rotary and non-Rotary advertisements. At about page 30 the magazine starts three or four ad-free feature articles for the next 21 to 26 pages. The remainder of the magazine is small item articles, classified ads, and mostly Rotary related ads. This is a format that works for print media.

The two significant characteristics of The Rotarian print version that conflict with most models of electronic media are: 1) ads intermixed with the substance of the magazine and 2) long articles.  In the most recent edition of The Rotarian (May 2010) there is one article that is 18 pages long. Internet-based reading has rejected advertising (called spam) and most information is delivered in three to five paragraphs (except, of course, my blogs which violate all the rules.)  Blogs/articles that violate the rules are ignored.  Therefore, to be read in an electronic format The Rotarian would have to eliminate the ads and severely trim the articles, which means a print version would either have to change or two different versions would have to be created.

There are two other options. The first is to create a version that would work with the new iPad, but that would mean members would have to purchase an iPad.  The second option is to not change the format for the Internet, which would mean that most people would not read it.

continued on next page

The Rotarian Magazine meets 2010part of an article by Paul Kiser, Zone 33/34 Membership Blog

The First Rotarian Magazine January 1911

Rotarian May 2009

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ROTARY CLUB

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ROTARY CLUB OF

IT’S!""Local

The new club brochure kit was developed to help you advertise your club and its service activities in your community.

The kit contains files in three different formats (InDesign, PDF, and Word) and three distinct designs that can be adapted to incorporate club-specific information. The kit also includes a Club Membership Inquiry Form that can be used alone or in combination with the brochures.

Consult the readme file in the kit for further information. If you’ll be working with InDesign files, you will also need to download images.

New Club Brochure Kit Available - Why Reinvent Something That is already Available!

Square Peg in a Round HoleIn the final analysis, a magazine is based on traditional media concepts and they do not translate to the Internet format. Social Media is focused on connections between people and sharing of ideas. A print magazine is a broadcast of information where no one cares if anyone reads it as long as the circulation numbers are good. But advertisers are getting smarter and stingier about throwing money at broadcast media.

The fact is that The Rotarian is living on borrowed time. Eventually, the reality that circulation doesn’t measure anything that is relevant will cause advertisers to focus their efforts (and money) on real connections with real people. Without outside ad revenue the cost to maintain a print publication will force RI to move away from broadcast media and seek better options. The best option will be for RI to create a series of mentored blogs that allow people to read and discuss the Rotary issues that are important to them. Rotary International is already experimenting with this through Social Media tools, but there is and will be resistance to giving up traditional media.

Next year will be the centennial celebration of The Rotarian magazine. It may also be the celebration of the end of an era.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

# of Members

Western Europe

Sub Saharan Africa

Philippines

North America

Middle East and North Africa

Latin America

Korea

Japan

India

Central and Southeast Asia

Central & Eastern Europe

Caribbean Islands

Australia, New Zealand & PI

Average Club Size by Region 2009 - 10

(as of July 2009)

Wonder How Your Club Fits??

Making the Induction Importantby PDG Alana Bergh, RC of North Pole, Alaska

As important as Rotary has been in my life, and as much as I value the association with Rotarians around the world, I don’t have much recollection of the day I became a Rotary member. My induction is faded in my memory other than I received a Rotary pin. I don’t remember being told of the Object of Rotary, the amazing accomplishments of my club, the possibilities offered by the Rotary Foundation, or my obligation as a Rotarian. I just knew I had joined a group of people I respected and who supported youth exchange.

Fortunately, since that day almost exactly 20 years ago, my Rotary Club, (North Pole, Alaska) has evolved an induction ceremony that is meaningful to the new member introducing him/her to his or her club. And it is the new member’s club. It will not be the same after that day, and the members who have invited the new Rotarian hope that he or she will contribute new energy and ideas.

Our induction is not short; it takes about 10 minutes or 1/3 of the time which we allot to program and other business at each meeting. This alone indicates how important it is. We invite friends and business associates of our new member, Rotarians or not, to be with us that day. The sponsor stands with the president and new member. Members of the club read statements on the Four Avenues of Service, the Four Way Test, and the Object of Rotary. Finally, as the president of the club puts the pin on the new member, all existing members of the club stand for the final words of welcome.

This induction has the added benefit of reminding long standing members about Rotary principles and programs. It is a little bit emotional and reminds us of how we value our Rotary connections.

Now is the perfect time to revisit your induction ceremony and be sure that it is meaningful and memorable. Clubs have many innovative and motivating ways of inducting new members. Please consider sharing your ideas with us so that we can share with the Rotary world. If you would like a copy of the North Pole Rotary Club induction, just email me and I will make sure you receive it, in Russian if you choose.

It was a great day for me when I became a Rotarian. I didn’t know it then, but I do now. Let’s see if we can make sure our new members know it from the start with a powerful induction ceremony!

2009 - 2010Zone 24 Membership Coordinators

Alana Bergh Dean Rohrs H: 907-488-2243 H: 604-516-0955 C: 907-460-8646 C: 604-836-1454 alanabergh@yahoo.com dean@cbrplus.com Mike Cooksey Elaine Toussaint Bus.P: 416-927-6052 P: 418-653-2243 Res.P: 416-266-3287 F: 418-653-2243 F: 416-927-6330 etoussaint@videotron.ca michael.cooksey@bmo.com

2009 - 2010Zone 32 RRIMC

Dan Spencerdans@camdencounty.com

Zone 26 RRIMC Zone 25 RRIMCBarbara Risher Welch Judi Beard StrubingB: 562-699-0916 H: 541-342-2474H: 562-431-1426 C: 541-953-2336F: 562-596-9274 judi5110@comcast.netbrisherwelch@aol.com Editor Membership Matters - Bryn Styles - bryn.styles@gmail.com

Diary DatesJune 20-23, 2010 RI Convention MONTREAL, CANADA

November 10-13, 2010 Zone 24/32 Institute London, Ontario, Canada

January 16-23, 2011 International Assembly San Diego, California

New Book -- "As I Was Saying..."

It has been a pleasant surprise to see how many Rotarians have been reading my new book, "As I Was Saying..." a collection of my favorite speeches and writings.

However, a good many people have asked were it can be found? Although, Amazon and other publishers have it, the Moraga Rotary Club has a special price of $13 (including tax and shipping in the United States.) Outside the US it costs about 10 dollars extra to mail. So, a check for $13 payable to "Rotary Book" sent to Moraga Rotary Club, P.O. Box 122, Moraga, CA 94556 is all that is needed. All of the proceeds go to The Rotary Foundation and other Rotary funds.

I am not a book seller, so I am not skilled in getting the information distributed. If you passed the word to your Rotary friends, it would be appreciated.

Regards, Cliff Dochterman, R.I. Pres. 1992-93

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!!

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PRIP Cliff Dochterman