Phil Oliver and Allan Frazer led us through an agenda based on future meeting formats, finding new community projects to help attract members; how we should approach individual entities, updating our definitions on member work and other interests; improving our contact with communities of interest to assist in raising the profile and recruitment of active and associate members, holding more public meetings with people wanting to learn more about Rotary and building our skills and outreach through social media.
All options are ‘on the table’ for future meetings formats and it will be a trial to see if one meeting a month with just light eats and drinks meets with membership approval.
Members want more projects to get their teeth into, both in partnership with other organisations including Rotary and Lions, where appropriate and by agreement, and with through the initiatives of the Club itself.
A recent community meeting with a range of community groupings proved a useful start, but this needs to be built on with other groups present at a second meeting and beyond, with church leaders and school principals. Understanding the needs of these groups together with different ethnic groupings in our catchment area needs to be translated into action plans. This will be an on-going commitment for the Club.
More work also needs to be done to promote the Club’s direction through social media, offers to people to come and hear speakers and what the Club is doing without the cost of attendance initially and to step up our outreach to our interest groups. Members felt this was very worthwhile discussion, whilst appreciating the need for everyone to play their part in building the profile and attractiveness of membership and association with the Club.