August is Membership and New Club Development Month, when Rotary Clubs, around the world focus on membership in Rotary. Does your club have a plan? Are you executing your own plan to invite your friends and business associates to join your Rotary Club? It’s time. Time to celebrate your Rotary club, your members, and the good you do in your community and around the world. Tell everyone and ask them to join.
There are many ways to join in the celebration, but here are a few activities to get you started:
Say it loud, say it proud! Let everyone in your social network know that you are a proud member by changing your Twitter and Facebook profile to the I’m a Proud Member, I’m a Proud Rotaractor, or I am a Proud Interactor graphic. Copy and save the graphic as your profile picture for August.
Exchange ideas. Do you have successful membership strategies that have worked well in your community? Share them on the Membership Best Practices Discussion Group.
We Are Rotary. Using the hashtag #WeAreRotary, post photos to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Vine of your club members at work in your community or abroad to show how Rotary makes a positive impact in the world.
Making a difference. Rotary clubs are known for the high-impact service projects they undertake locally and globally. Share stories about your service projects and how they improve lives on Rotary Showcase. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to see what Rotary members around the world are doing to celebrate Membership Month.
What does Rotary mean to you? Rotary members have pushed polio to the brink of eradication, delivered clean water to those in need, improved their local communities, provided scholarships to the next generation of peacemakers, and continued to do good in the world......
Use these resources to increase your club's value:
- Assess and adapt
- Engage current members
- Connect with prospective members
- Make new members feel welcome
- Create an inclusive club culture
- Strengthen your club
- Start a new club
- Stay current
Not sure where to start? Our Club Planning Assistant can help.
Assess and adapt
Use these resources to see if your club is meeting members' needs and reflecting the community:
- Club Planning Assistant — Answer questions about your club to get specific advice to address your club’s challenges. Then build the suggested strategies into your club’s membership plan.
- Club Health Check — Identify your club's problem areas and make changes to help it stay relevant for members and the community.
- Is Your Club Healthy? — Take this Learning Center course to help your club improve its member experience, service and social events, public image, and club operations.
- Understanding Membership Reports: Getting Started — Learn how to use membership data to determine where to focus your membership efforts.
- Membership Assessment Tools — Analyze your member profile to identify prospective members and diversify your membership.
- Representing Your Community's Professions (classification assessment)
- Diversifying Your Club (member diversity assessment)
- Finding New Club Members (prospective member exercise)
- Improving Your Member Retention (retention assessment and analysis)
- Enhancing the Club Experience (member satisfaction survey)
- Understanding Why Members Leave (exit survey)
Engage current members
Use these resources to learn strategies that will keep members involved:
- Best Practices for Engaging Members — Take this Learning Center course to develop strategies for engaging people at all stages of membership.
- Improving Your Member Retention — Learn when and why members leave your club and generate strategies to keep them engaged.
- Connect for Good — Encourage members to get involved in their club, community, and the Rotary world for a more meaningful experience.
- Understanding Why Members Leave — Use this exit survey to address the reasons that members may be leaving your club.
- Club Innovation Stories (audio recordings) — A series of recorded stories highlighting the innovative work being done by clubs all around the world.
- Recognize members for their dedication and service to the club, community and to our organization.
- Connect members with opportunities to develop their professional skills and expand their networks.
- Club Programming Vimeo Channel – Use these videos from recent Rotary events to supplement your club meetings. Videos range from 10-25 minutes.
Connect with prospective members
Use the strategies and ideas in these resources to connect with potential members:
- Prospective member flyer — Take this easy-to-print flyer to events in your community and distribute to members of the community so they can learn more about Rotary and benefits of getting involved with our programs and activities.
- What's Rotary? wallet card — Print these cards and keep them in your wallet to share with people you meet who want to learn more about Rotary.
- Engaging Younger Professionals — Welcoming younger professionals into Rotary is essential for us. Our digital kit will help you rethink membership and bring emerging leaders into your club.
- Strategies for Attracting New Members — Take this Learning Center course to help draw prospective members, update your club's experience, and better highlight what it does well.
- Customizable club brochure — Design your own club brochure using the template on Rotary's Brand Center. Choose images and wording to best represent your club.
- Finding New Club Members: A Prospective Member Exercise — Try these strategies to attract qualified members for your club.
- Creating a Positive Experience for Prospective Members — Learn what you can do to ensure that prospects have a positive experience, regardless of whether they join. Find tips and ideas to determine whether membership would match their needs as well as your club's.
- Guide to Corporate Membership — Learn how to engage your local businesses and offer a new membership type to a few of the business employees.
- Online Membership Leads course — This Learning Center course will show how a prospect experiences the membership leads process, and how club and district leaders can create a consistent, positive experience for prospective members.
- Use these guides to find best practices and detailed screenshots for managing your online membership leads:
Make new members feel welcome
Use these resources to celebrate new members, develop an orientation program, and get them involved early and often.
- Welcome to Rotary — Share this inspiring video with new members when they join.
- Kick-start Your New Member Orientation — This Learning Center course shows how to make your club's new members feel welcome, appreciated, and valued.
- Introducing New Members to Rotary: An Orientation Guide — Find ideas for engaging new members, getting them involved, and giving them a meaningful Rotary experience.
- Rotary Basics — Give this comprehensive overview of Rotary to new members or order it for club reference. Alternatively, send new members a link to the Rotary Basics online course.
- Connect for Good — Encourage members to get involved in their club, community, and the Rotary world for a more meaningful experience.
- New Member Welcome Kit — Order a welcome kit from your local, licensed Rotary vendor or put one together using the resources in this section.
- Rotary membership certificate — Customize a certificate for your new members and present it to them when you officially welcome them to your club.
Create an inclusive club culture
- Creating an Inclusive Club Culture — Take this Learning Center course to learn about actions your club can take to become more inclusive, diverse, and equitable.
- Microaggressions — Take this course to understand the impact of microaggressions and how to respond to them in ways that uphold Rotary’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Practice Responding to Microaggressions — Use this resource for different techniques that can be used when experiencing a microaggression.
- Microaggressions: Offering a Meaningful Apology — This resource offers things to consider, do, and avoid when apologizing for a microaggression.
- Diversify your club — Take this Learning Center course to learn strategies for expanding your reach and building relationships with new groups.
- Committing to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion — This Learning Center course will help you learn more about Rotary's DEI statement, what DEI means, and how you can put it into practice to create positive experiences.
Strengthen your club
Find ideas for planning and strengthening your club in these resources:
- Strengthening Your Membership: Creating Your Membership Plan — Develop a long-term strategy for boosting membership.
- Club flexibility — Learn about flexible membership and meeting options; view frequently asked questions, governance documents and start guides for alternative membership types and flexible meeting formats.
- Club Membership Committee Basics — Enroll in this learning plan to learn more about your responsibilities in developing a strategic plan to engage and attract members.
- Club Membership Committee Checklist — Follow these steps to identify prospective members, introduce them to your club and Rotary, invite them in a meaningful way, and be sure to engage them and get them involved.
- Leadership Development — Help your members develop their leadership skills by taking professional development courses in the Learning Center.
Start a new club
Find ideas for starting a club in these resources:
- Starting a Rotary Club — Learn what you need to do to form a club.
- Starting a club – This Learning Center course walks you through the process of starting a new club, whether it's a Rotary, Rotaract, or satellite club.
- Rotary Club Models — All clubs share similar values and a passion for service, but no two clubs are the same because each community has its own unique needs. Learn about different club models that will attract new audiences in your region.
- Guide to Satellite Clubs — Understand the benefits a satellite club can have and the steps for starting one.
- Guide to Passport Clubs — Learn how clubs can operate in a way the gives their members freedom to attend other club meetings and events and fulfill their own club obligations through service efforts.
- Nurturing new clubs – This Learning Center course is for new club supporters and covers ways each role can help a new club grow and thrive.
Learn more about starting a club.