Rotary International has chosen our club to participate in the Innovative and Flexible Club pilot.   This is a wonderful opportunity for our club to try some new things to strengthen our club for the future.   

 

We are one of up to 70 clubs from the United States, Canada and the Caribbean chosen to participate in the pilot.  The pilot program will run from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2017. 

 

What does this mean for the Club?  The focus behind being a flexible and innovative club will be a shift from focusing from member attendance to member engagement.  We will have the flexibility to:

Why participate?  Although Rotary International has maintained its membership at 1.2 million worldwide, there has been a steady decline in membership in North America—from 445,434 members in 1996 to 341,951 in 2013.  That downward trend holds true for our club which has very slowly but steadily been losing members—from 159 members in 2002-2003 to 139 members today.

 

Feedback from Rotary International surveys and focus groups reveal that prospective and current members wish for flexibility to become or stay involved with a Rotary Club.  The pilot program will provide Rotary International with more supporting data on how allowing clubs flexibility affects membership and club operations.

 

Stay tuned for upcoming updates!  At the Club Assembly in early March we envisioned what we would like our club to look like in ten or fifteen years and strategies to achieve the vision.  It will be the roadmap for president-elect Sally and her team. 

 

An old song goes “Many new friends but keep the old.”  That is true of our club.  We will embrace new ideas and strategies but not abandon what we’ve enjoyed about the club—the great speakers, the Rotary service and our networking.