Rotary International CEO John Hewko addressed Rotarians on July 22, 2022 at the annual PETS Alliance meeting, at #rotaryinternational headquarters, in Evanston, Illinois, USA. He let us know our organization is strong. Here are our opportunities:
1. GROW MEMBERSHIP - Our number one internal focus. We are selling a product, which is the club experience. If your product isn't selling you need to change it. Marketing is a vessel, but the product we are delivering must be one that our members and potential members want. We can determine this through assessment tools/surveys.
2. STAY RELEVANT - Remember Kodak? Ignoring innovation and not adapting to a changing market can initiate an organization’s downfall.
3. BECOME MORE NIMBLE - Large organizations are similar to aircraft carriers. They are hard to stop once they get going. We need to be able to change direction quickly to take advantage of opportunities.
4. HAVE CONTINUITY OF INITIATIVES - One of Rotary's strengths is its term limits on leadership positions. It ensures that our leaders have energy and often brings in fresh ideas. However, an unbroken and consistent operation of some of our organization's initiatives over a period of time is necessary to ensure our success. This is true, for example, in the cases of eradicating polio and empowering women and girls. Success in these areas will motivate us to serve even more.
5. DEVELOP THOUGHTS ON OUR NEXT GLOBAL PROJECT - #Rotary will NOT give up its fight to eradicate polio. However, the date of declaring the world polio free, according to the experts, could happen as early as 2026. The eradication of polio will leave a legacy and relationships that can be leveraged by our organization to do even more good in the world; but, we will need to decide on what to focus on next and whether that will be a global project or smaller projects in all of The Rotary Foundation's seven areas of focus.
6. IMPLEMENT REGIONALIZATION - Rotary operates in more than 200 countries. To operate efficiently, Rotary must be able to: understand how regional differences affect our Rotarians/Rotaractors; know how to react to those differences to best serve our current and future Rotarians/Rotaractors, those we serve, participants in our programs and our current and potential future partners; and, change our governance structures to accomplish these things, and, in so doing, increase our impact.
Long live Rotary!