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Welcome to August – the month where we put emphasis on Membership and Club Development. What an apt focus as we settle into our Rotary year. As we visit Clubs Kevin and I are appreciating a warm welcome and an insight into such varied Club experiences – some traditional, others more informal – all doing good in the community.
A focus on membership and club development needs a two-fold approach. Holgar Knaack, our RI President, has several messages for us as we take a stock check on the health of our Clubs. He encourages us to look inwards first - and then outwards.
Looking inward, we need to ask “What should our Club be like in five (or one /two) years’ time and what steps should we take to help achieve that vision? What value do we bring to our members? It’s useful to run a survey of our members, checking whether their expectations are being met. There are several surveys available on MyRotary or you could design your own. People join Rotary - and stay - for a range of reasons – friendship, leadership and personal development, fun, community connections and service opportunities, global access and opportunity for international service, networking – and others. Does your Club meet your members’ expectations? What could you do differently?
Looking outward, what image do we present to our communities? How effectively do we tell our story so that the community knows and values our contribution and wants to be part of that. I wonder – if a visitor were to walk into our meetings, what would they think? Would they ‘see themselves’ there? Does the Club reflect the community – age and gender wise, ethnically. Are a range of occupations / interests reflected? How attractive are we to potential new members?
Might we need to become more flexible and innovative to address any potential barriers to membership? Perhaps there are there other ways we can meet to make us more accessible. I encourage you to explore the wide range of materials available about Club Development in My Rotary.
Talking of responsiveness to changing expectations, RI is really leading the way in their appointment of Jennifer Jones as the first woman RI President in 2022-23. Long overdue perhaps – but a reflection on the ‘walk the talk’ attitude of current RI President Holgar. Such exciting news.
This Rotary year I hope we don’t get too fixated on numbers.
By the time you read this all of our Inbound students will have returned to their home countries. We had four international students hosted in District 9940 - Cris and Felipe from Chile, Maxime from France and Rebekka from Switzerland. We were lucky to get Cris and Felipe on a Chilean Consulate air freight flight at very short notice and it was a tight scramble for them to pack, visit their clubs and say goodbye to all their friends and families. Max and Rebekka managed to secure normal airline flights. 
Just think - each daunting term represents an opportunity for members! 
Many families are struggling to put food on the table and New World Porirua promoted this initiative for support and much needed relief to local families in need. 
People were encouraged to donate a filled bag to support St Anne’s Pantry Foodbank. The ‘Family2family’ 2020 Foodbank Appeal ran across three weeks and according to New World Porirua the campaign ended with an 
