Year
|
Year-End Membership
|
# of
Clubs
|
2003
|
1,227,337
|
31,511
|
2010
|
1,227,563
|
34,103
|
2017
|
1,202,937
|
36,656
|
Rotary International’s membership has hovered
around 1,200,000 for the last fifteen years.
During this time, according to RI’s own records, Rotary clubs have
inducted - and lost - approximately 2,200,000 members. Why?
Nobody seems to have reasonably definitive answers, only conjectures.
Rotary International (RI) has acknowledged that it
is a business, and that it should be led and managed accordingly. Because of a 2011 international study, RI has
rebranded itself as an organization created by and for People of Action. To assure that the rebranding initiative is,
or will be, effective, RI must maintain and continually study membership information. By doing so, it can have an educated answer
to why it lost over 2 million members and a more dependable base to launch its
future.
Senior Rotary and staff leaders must accept that
the rebranding initiative will only be effective when all interconnecting relationships are mutually beneficial. In doing so, RI can begin to critically
examine, study, and address important issues such as:
- Are clubs pinpointing the appropriate target audiences to attract?
- Are clubs informing target audiences what to expect when they join?
- What percentage of the target audiences inducted left their club for reasons beyond club control (health (personal or family), relocation, financial setback, etc.)?
- What is a reasonable Retention Rate expectation for one-year, two-year, three-year, five-year, & ten-year Rotarians?
- What is a reasonable Attraction Rate expectation for the clubs, districts, and zones?
When RI begins to zero in on these types of critical issues it
will be able to:
- Judge the degree of success of its rebranding initiative, and
- Strategically plan for a successful future.
It is vital
that RI establish a priority on recording and analyzing important membership
related information. Accurate information
is necessary for RI to establish a mutually beneficial interconnecting
relationship with its primary target audience – Rotary clubs. The most cost-effective place to start is to
utilize data RI presently collects and semi-annually publish Retention Rates,
Attraction Rates, and RG Indexes for each club, district, zone, and RI.
Retention Rates
and Attraction Rates are both important.
Retention Rates are particularly helpful in determining if clubs are
delivering the People of Action brand’s promise. Attraction Rates, in combination with first,
second, and third year Retention Rates, indicate the quality of the target
audience clubs are attracting, the clubs’ effectiveness at delivering the
brand’s promise early, and the club’s ability to inform target audiences of the
relationships the clubs offer. RG
Indexes help identify clubs, districts, and zones that are most successful at
delivering Rotary’s brand promise and quickly highlights clubs, districts, and
zones most in need of assistance.