Rotary International's Updated Membership Development Report Card

In November, 2015, Retention Central published the first Membership Development Report Card.  Rotary International has achieved another major milestone - a standing membership committee.

1. ESTABLISH PRIORITIES - Grade:  100%.  See November, 2015 Rotatorial.  

2. CREATE A POWERFUL GUIDING COALITION.  Grade: 100%.  The 2016 Council on Legislation approved Enactment 16-90, creating an influential, standing membership development committee.  This committee should prevent future leaders from diverting resources from Rotary International's established priority - creating and strengthening clubs, encouraging and assisting them in creating Rotarians.
3.  ESTABLISH AN ATTAINABLE VISION.  Grade: 50%.
Thanks to President Ravi the importance of retaining members has been brought to the forefront; President-Elect Germ has eliminated interim cutoff dates.  Great actions, but until the standing membership committee comes up with an attainable vision that includes retention and growth elements, this grade remains the same.  In membership-based organizations, such indexes are the only measures that accurately appraise success that are fair to all concerned. 

4. CREATE A SYSTEMATIC STRATEGIC PLAN WITH SHORT-TERM, ATTAINABLE MILESTONES.  Grade: 30%.  No improvement.  A workable strategic plan can only be completed when the standing membership committee establishes an attainable vision and an easily understood means of measuring the plan's success is in operation.

5.  COMMUNICATE.  Grade:  20%. Please see the November, 2015 Rotatorial for a more detailed explanation on why this grade continues to be the lowest.  It has improved from 12% to 20% because some district governors are delivering the perception that membership is Rotary's internal priority.  Unfortunately leadership and support regarding starting clubs and assisting weak clubs is still lacking. Many leaders as well as regular Rotarians have embedded mentalities that continually surface. Internal Marketing is badly needed because these outdated mentalities will not be easy to eliminate and/or overcome.  RI must not trivialize the importance of the perceptions delivered by the non-verbal, verbal, and written communications of Rotary, TRF, and all officers and staff.

Rotary future is getting brighter.  The Rotary network has the underpinning in place that should enable it to create more Rotarians. If Transitional Leadership continues, the Rotary network will be better able to create Rotarians who can utilize existing attributes like TRF and spawn new attributes to help them advance the Object of Rotary throughout the 21st century.