Page 7 - Rotary Matters - March 2023

Club Membership workshop

Declining club membership is a sleeper issue in many clubs. We all know it is happening but either don’t
know what do to overcome it or worse, seem too complacent to address it.

It is always much more exciting and gratifying to develop and work on new projects but if we don’t have
enough volunteers to raise funds to implement or worse, don’t have the numbers to carry out the projects
themselves, we are in deep trouble.

At the end of January our membership across the district has declined by 11 from the start date of July 1
2022. This may not sound a lot but going on past years we will lose another 50-100 members between
now and the end of June. In the past if we were not over 50 in front at the halfway mark of the year,
we would always have a net loss by June 30. Rotary is an ageing organization both in our district and our
Zone, so old age and death ultimately will be a big determinant in our future – unless we try harder to
attract new members.

A group of small clubs in inner city Adelaide have decided to tackle the problem together. Kent Town,
Prospect, Regency Park and Walkerville held a joint workshop to address the issue. The workshop was
facilitated by Dannielle Camporeale the District membership Coordinator.

Four topics were identified as having a major impact and the club members were split into four groups
to discuss them.

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