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Urban, rural areas require different membership strategies
By Cecilia Lopes - Rotary International
D. Rae Carpenter, past district governor of District 7570, offers
tips on club extension.
During his year as district governor, D. Rae Carpenter made good use
of his walking shoes, going door to door to promote Rotary.
"I spoke with every single business owner," says Carpenter, of
District 7570 (parts of
While Carpenter served as district extension chair from 1998 to
2008, the number of Rotary clubs in his district increased from 69
to 84. He firmly believes that long-term planning and diversity are
key to a successful membership strategy.
"Every club is a bit unique in membership makeup -- gender, age,
socioeconomic factors, project enthusiasm," he says. "A new club
usually attracts a segment of the community that the existing club
has missed for some reason."
Carpenter highlights the importance of sponsor Rotary clubs that are
enthusiastic about forming new clubs and unthreatened by a potential
loss of members. He feels it is important to approach forming a new
club differently in rural areas than in urban areas.
Here are a few of his tips on club extension:
Urban/metropolitan areas
A classification survey should be used more as a way to ensure
diversity than as an assessment tool for potential members.
Breakfast or lunch meetings are more likely to attract new members,
but a start-up should also consider early evening meetings
A membership committee can volunteer to contact many people in a
short period of time to recruit members for the new club.
A new club can draw upon its sponsor club for help with
communications, such as a newsletter editor, and for financial
resources to help cover various start-up costs.
New clubs can pull program speakers from the sponsor club, and will
probably have an ample supply in the community.
Rural communities
A classification survey is crucial to assessing potential club
members and identifying initial contacts.
The duty of recruiting is likely to fall more heavily on the special
representative, whom the district governor appoints to work with the
charter group in organizing the club, or on the district extension
committee chair.
A meeting time and day should be selected quickly; these factors
will affect who can be recruited.
New clubs in rural areas are likely to be farther away from their
sponsor club than in urban areas, so the special representative and
extension committee chair will have to spend more time with the new
club. More ingenuity may also be needed in coming up with weekly
programs.
Rural clubs are ideal sponsors of other rural clubs because they
better understand the needs involved.
Both types
New clubs should tap former Rotarians who dropped out of their clubs
because of time-of-day conflicts.
New clubs should seek to recruit an even number of men and women
District governors should carefully select the special
representative |
