Rotary Headline News

NEWS FLASH - The RI Board officially recognizes that membership development and retention is RI's most important internal issue and acknowledges the urgency of membership development and retention to the future of Rotary. 

Here is an excerpt from pages 4 & 5 of the October 2014 Board Meeting Minutes:

44. Support Structure for Membership Efforts

Statement: Noting that membership development and retention is RI's most important internal issue, the Operations Review Committee reviewed Rl's governance structure supporting membership development and retention efforts over the last 20 years. The committee suggested several strategies for strengthening this governance structure.

DECISION: The Board receives the Operations Review Committee's recommendations regarding the governance support structure for Rotary's membership development and retention efforts and:

 1.  acknowledges the urgency of membership development and retention to the future of Rotary and the need for a stable governance support structure to support these initiatives;

 2.  requests the president to appoint a committee of three to five directors to study the following membership support-related proposals for report to the Board at its May 2015 meeting:

a. the creation of a new volunteer leadership team to focus on membership and retention issues that provides for the possibility of continuity of membership on the leadership team, such group to serve as clearing house for all membership development and retention proposals that come from Rotary committees;

b. to ensure continuity of leadership at the district level, modified terms of reference for the district membership chair to provide for a three year term in manner similar to the district Rotary Foundation committee chair;

c. an enhanced volunteer structure at the local level to support membership development and retention initiatives;

d. the development of a pilot program in select areas of the world that would provide for local and regional staff to assist clubs and districts in implementing membership development and retention initiatives.

The Board should make the membership support-related proposals mentioned readily available for analyses by all interested Rotarians and should encourage written comments.  Without such transparency and involvement, there remains a possibility that legacy inbreeding could sidetrack this Board's membership initiative as the 2003 Board's action was ignored when it wrote into the Rotary Code of Policies ". . . that the development and continuation of activities and programs addressing membership must remain the association's highest priority.  The association and its clubs must remain focused on all aspects of membership.  (May 2003 Mtg., Bd. Dec. 324) Source: February2003 Mtg., Bd., Dec. 261.