The District MDR Committee is starting this blog in order to share our views with you on the subject of membership development and retention. Feel free to comment or contribute to this blog with ideas about improving our great District. As I frequently say - We don't need more "members". WE NEED MORE ROTARIANS.
This year we should focus our efforts on ‘growing’ our Rotary district. I put the word ‘growing’ in inverted commas because for me growth is not simply achieved by increasing the number of members we have. We need to increase the number of ROTARIANS we have. Rotarians are not a digit or a statistic, one good Rotarian can change the lives of many people in need of help and humanitarian service. We need more Rotarians. The MDR committee this year will try and help with this in any way we can. No one person can achieve this and everyone needs to be committed to the task of making D3300 the best that it can be. To help clubs directly, we have devolved responsibility for individual clubs to the members of the committee individually. Each committee member has 2 primary responsibilities.
1. To show personal leadership by example by introducing at least 3 new Rotarians in the coming year, regardless of the club they join. As Goethe famously said, "Let everyone sweep in front of his own door and the whole world will be clean." What sometimes has been lacking in our District is leadership by example - a case of don't do as I do, do as I say!
2. To act as a mentor and advisor to clubs under them. To work closely and directly with Club Presidents and the Membership Director of the respective clubs on an ongoing basis to:
- Improve the dissemination of Rotary information.
- Provide membership development resources and information.
- Assist in your membership recruitment activities.
- Assist in setting membership recruitment targets.
- Develop strategies and an action plan to achieve the target.
- To assist clubs with declining membership having internal club differences or other internal stress.
- Track members who have been transferred or resigned with the objective of retaining them as a Rotarian.
- Assist with the implementation of a meaningful and solemn induction ceremony and a proper fireside prior to admissions.
- To assist clubs to meet the membership development components of this year’s Presidential Citation.
I trust that the mentors will take their responsibilities seriously and help clubs grow responsibly.
On the issue of Membership Development Seminars, our strategy this year is instead of conducting MDR Seminars in one or two locations, to have seminars in every state. The problems that clubs have in smaller towns are not the same as the challenges facing city clubs. Also, clubs in KL and other cities like Penang, Ipoh
Accordingly we are conducting Membership Action Plan Seminars (MAPS) this year. Please make every effort to come and join in. You are Rotary and every Rotarian needs to give his or her input.
The dates in every state are as follows:
MAPS & Round Table Discussion
Selangor & FT (Kuala Lumpur
Penang & Kedah - 14h August 2011
Perak (Ipoh
Negeri Sembilan(Tampin) - 24th November 2011
Pahang,Kelantan & Terengganu - 22nd January 2011
Some views expressed by the MDR Committee members
“The District should have a database of transferring and moving members and get clubs to report this. Clubs should also work with the PR Committee to come up with a holistic strategy for growth.” – PDG Leslie Salehuddin
“Young Rotarians are the key – we need to think about how do we get them to join? The start is getting one to join. It is also important to allow young Rotarians to take important positions in the club – they must see a potential for personal development and growth.” – IPP Shamrat Sen Gupta
“Senior PPs have an important role to play – put pressure on them to bring in new members. Follow the basics in respect of club meetings – make sure meetings are well run and interesting.” – PP Cheang Sia Rian
“Young members are the key – no point bringing one or two – they won’t last. We need to bring them in as a group. Fresh ideas are needed. Older members must take one step back and allow the young members to feel welcome.” – PP Rema Paul
“We need to network more to share Rotary with new groups – the promotion of Rotary is necessary.” – PP Annamalai
“Get older members involved – they are icons, renown in town and important for branding and attracting quality members.” – PP Dato Hiang Ai Lee
“It is never the job of one person to bring new Rotarians – its everyone’s job - we need to talk about Rotary more and share Rotary more. What is required in Rotary education to all members.” – PP Varpal Sagoo
“In small towns, young people leave the town and migrate to the city and therefore young members are difficult to find - notwithstanding this, if there is a hardcore group and all members are strongly involved the club will be strong.” – PP Dato’ Saranpal Singh
Our DG’s target this year is to hit 2,000 members. I hope that we can achieve this without any dilution in our high standards and that we invite only those willing to serve into our grand fellowship.
God Bless Rotary and Rotarians.
PP Dr Siva Ananthan
Chairman
MDR Committee 2011-2012
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