Page 7 - 2021-06-Rotary-on-the-Move-Newsletter-Zone-8

‘ONE CRAZY BIG GOAL’

Article by DG Andy Rajapakse, D9640, (andyrajapakse@gmail.com)

In this year of opportunities, as District Governor I set ‘One Crazy Big Goal’. The most important one.
To grow my district 9640 membership from 1,177 on 1 July 2020 to 1,400 by 1 July 2021. Yes, a net
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growth of +223. On 15 May 2021 when RI President’s Special Representative Jessie Harman RI
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Director-Elect 2021-2023, opened our District Conference she announced to the 302 Rotarians,
Rotaractors, Interactors, YEP alumni, and their parents, that we had reached 1,403 members.
Yes, a 19% growth with a net of +226 members during a global pandemic is possible. It was a “Champion Team”
effort with “One Vision, One Focus, One Positive Mindset.” I was only the strategic visionary leader. A leader is as
good as his team! So, spend lots of time picking the right team for the task.
In the last 335 days of this Rotary year, clubs in my District 9640 attracted 335 new members. One new member
every day was the target. 112 new members joined the 5 new clubs I chartered this year. 114 was the net growth from
38 of the 53 existing clubs. Only 6 clubs lost members. Others held. Ballina on Richmond Club in a 9,000 resident
country town had a +38-member growth this year to reach 75 members and be the 6 largest Rotary Club in
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Australia and 2 largest in NSW behind the Rotary Club of Sydney.
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This is not magic. It was a simple “strategy into action.” This is a result of a continuous process improvement process
we started in 2016 when Prof. Michael Irving was District Governor, and I was his District Membership Chair. We
took a marketing outlook and identified that we had only 27% females and 3.6% under ‘40s in our membership. We
focussed on these 2 potential growth segments. In the next 3 years, we started 7 new styled Rotary Clubs that
matched their lifestyles. It worked. Today 37.5% of our 1,403 membership are females and 10% are under 39 years
of age. Of the 335 new members who joined our Rotary clubs this year, 64% are female and 33% are under ’40s. Any
membership organization’s survival depends on its continuous ability to attract and engage younger and diverse
membership that reflects the growing populations in the community. Rotary cannot escape from this reality.
Below is RI’s Tower Chart showing our exponential growth since 1 July 2019.

SHARE YOUR CLUB OR DISTRICT SERVICE PROJECT AND MEMBERSHIP BEST PRACTICES.
We would like to hear from Clubs or Districts telling us what they have done. Please include a summary,

contact details, a couple of captioned photos, and email to the editor Issa Shalhoub.

We would also like readers to share their experiences and stories on Best Practices in their Clubs and what has worked for
their Clubs in gaining new members and also what has helped in keeping members.

Rotary on the Move June 2021 Page 7