I've been in Rotary for over forty-four years. Bear with me as I tell you about Jean and Lex who, for business reasons, joined Rotary to network. The names, of course, have been changed to
protect the guilty.
In
1990, Jean, fresh from dental school, started a dental practice and was proposed to become a member of a Rotary club. She had two pre-schoolers,
a residential contractor husband, and heavy debt. After the ‘fireside chat’ she was invited to
fill out an application and became the second woman in a sixty member club. The president assigned her to a committee in
which she actively participated. She came
to Rotary almost every week and made particular effort to sit with different
groups. The next president asked Jean to
be the bulletin committee chairman. She accepted;
the first of several committee chairmanships on her way to becoming club
president nine years later. As she progressed
in Rotary, her dental business grew.
Many Rotarians and their families became clients. Today, she has a highly respected practice
and is influential in civic circles. She
is a TRF major donor, a member of the Bequest Society, and takes time to
contribute dental services through local and international organizations.
Two months after Jean, Lex, the branch manager of a nationwide
home services company, became a member. The
president assigned him to the same committee as Jean, but he had limited
participation. Throughout the year, his attendance was sporadic. During his month
as the club’s greeter, he missed two meetings and failed to arrange
replacements. The next Rotary year, he
was asked to take a month on the program committee but turned it down because he
was "too busy". Later, his company’s regional
vice president was in town on his annual visit, and Lex took him to
Rotary. After lunch, the vice president
asked Lex if he could trace any business back to his Rotary contacts. Lex couldn’t. A little over a year later, Lex resigned from Rotary citing that it was "too expensive and time consuming."
Networking is only as effective as the value delivered. Jean effectively networked. Lex didn’t.
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