109 - Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals - Market Segmentation - Potential Member Segment

In this series, Rotary refers to the enterprise of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation.

Please review Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals 107, 108 and this Marketing Rotary Schematic.  This Rotatorial discusses attracting members to existing clubs.

www.thehomeofknowledge.com

Rotary membership is a niche market; it is not for everyone.  To believe that a Rotary club can be all things to all people within their local social fabric is ludicrous.  Please examine the graphic.  Is it even realistic for Rotary to expect clubs to strive to get people with different demographic, psychographic, and behavioral characteristics; all with different needs and wants in one local organization that meets weekly?

   It is no secret that most people join civic organizations to network i.e. to meet the type of people with whom they want to connect and associate.  It is the organization's responsibility to let potential members know its primary objective, the type people with whom they will be connecting, and what the organization expects of them prior to them filling out an application for membership.  A popular Rotary urban legend is that half of the members inducted leave in their first year.  No doubt this has happened in some clubs and/or districts because of past recruiting/recognition-at-interim-cutoff-date practices and in some start-up clubs, but I suspect accurate data would not lend this legend broad-based authenticity.

   Many clubs during the recruiting drive years eliminated Information Meetings (Fireside chats, Orientations) prior to members joining.  When asked why, one club president replied, quote, "If we told them what we expected, they might not join!" unquote.  Another club, at the last club meeting before the interim cutoff date, speedily inducted eight new members so it would qualify for the Governor's Award and Presidential Citation.  None of the eight ever attended another meeting.  It is a serious mistake for clubs not to require prospective members to attend an Information Meeting, after which they may or may not fill out a membership application.  And that's okay.  Membership in a Rotary club is not for everybody.  Some clubs are choosing to return to a more restrictive classification system.

    After examining a limited amount of data, I am of the opinion that clubs should expect to have an annual new-member retention rate of 97% or better.  Official new-member annual retention rates less than 97% indicate that new members' expectations are not being met. This rate can only be accurately measured and recognized by utilizing official semi-annual report data.  To be fair to all concerned, and to have reliable recognition information available during a given Rotary year, membership achievements should be based solely on Semi-Annual Invoices.  

  

110 - Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals - Market Segmentation

Creating New Clubs

107 - Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals - Rotary's Prime Target Audience.

In this series, Rotary refers to the enterprise of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation.

Please review Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals 101, 102A, 102B, 103, 104, 105, & 106

ROTARY'S PRIME TARGET AUDIENCE - EXISTING MEMBERS!

RIPE RAVI'S PRESIDENTIAL CITATION GOAL TO INCREASE THE ANNUAL RETENTION RATE BY ONE PERCENTAGE POINT IS A VISIONARY STEP IN IMPROVING MEMBERSHIP.

    Meaningful data pointed Rotary's leaders to why membership had stagnated - declining retention rates throughout the world.  Data cannot determine solutions - only people can.  And that requires critical, objective inward examination because Rotary's greatest challenge is internal.  Rotary has encouraged its customers - member clubs - to look internally, but it must also; it must be proactive at finding solutions or membership will continue its present trend.  The Siegel+Gale Research Report was a step up the ladder to solving membership issues, but Rotary must continue climbing.  The next logical step would be for Rotary to acknowledge that its prime target market is existing Rotarians and prioritize helping clubs improve retention rates.

    Rotary must understand that Rotarians' needs haven't changed since 1905, but Rotary and the world have. Please refer to Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs.  Rotarians' needs reside primarily in the lightly shaded area.  All Rotarians want better qualities of life for themselves, their families, and everyone else.  They aspire to live to their full potential, to make themselves better: better persons, better members of their social fabrics, better at helping others climb Maslow's hierarchy.  The Rotarians who founded Rotary International; who were involved in starting the United Nations and UNICEF; who originated Easter Seals; and who led the initiative to eliminate polio were all motivated by the desire to satisfy these personal needs.

   Few Rotarians are inspired or motivated to do things almost all of the world's 7.6 billion people can do, like picking up trash, but all aspire to live in cleaner, healthier, and safer communities and to help others do the same.  Most Rotary clubs are small.  Very few have the desire or resources to maintain routine data and/or pioneer solutions.  Rotary could and should be proactive in producing and delivering services its customers - clubs -  need.  To do so, it has to ask introspective questions, critically examine its hierarchy, and improve the support to and education of all associates - staff, directors, coordinators, governors, etc.  Creating Rotarians should be EVERYBODY'S top priority!

THE CHALLENGE

In 2009, the Membership Coordinators of Zones 33 and 34, using data furnished by Rotary International, calculated that if annual retention rates improved by less than two percentage points, the Zones would return to the growth state.  I challenge Rotary to calculate realistic annual retention rate increases that each District, Zone, and Region should have to sustain a steady growth state.  After doing so, Rotary should publish, promote, and pioneer ways and means to help each reach these targeted retention rates. 

Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals 108 - Market Segmentation

Why Haven't Rotary International's Membership Initiatives Succeeded?

     At the turn of the century, Rotary International (RI) membership had been hovering around 1.2 million for five years.  Several major market areas were experiencing a decline.  Some RI leaders dreamed of increasing membership to the 1.5 million mark.  Since then, year after year, different recruiting and net gain initiatives have proliferated.  In 2010, leaders targeted 1.3 million Rotarians by July 1, 2015.  Many dedicated Rotarians compiled and implemented regional membership plans, all approved by the RI board of directors (board) and implemented in 2012 and 2013. Today, membership is still hovering around 1.2 million.

    RI's membership initiatives have not succeeded simply because they did not, in action or resource allocation, have PRIORITY. Without PRIORITY, there is not, nor will there ever be, any sense of urgency, particularly with those that are continually asked to develop membership - clubs and existing Rotarians.  If there ever was an applicable cliché it had to be, and still is, "Bad planning on your part doesn't constitute urgency on my part."  The board has, for two decades, prioritized RI programs over membership even though RI's own Code of Policies says, ". . . activities and programs addressing membership must remain the association's highest priority."  Intellectual inbreeding and complacency caused RI to forget its true purpose, the business it is in, and its internal and external target audiences.  If RI wants to survive the 21st century, it must change priorities, and this change must start with its leaders - all of them!

    Change takes consistent, long-term leadership. For this change to succeed, RI must assemble an international GUIDING COALITION capable of and committed to leading the change.  Establishing such an influential group will be virtually impossible if membership development doesn't have the association's highest priority; a priority that is communicated by words and demonstrated by deeds and resource allocation.  The coalition's initial duties would be to delineate RI's purpose, the business it is in, identify its target audiences and create an attainable vision.  Without these elements, planning will be for naught, as previous membership initiatives have effectively demonstrated.

    A VISION is necessary, but the vision must be considered attainable by everyone involved - including member clubs.  Had all regional membership development plans been approved in 2012, it would have taken an annual membership growth rate of about 3.6% to reach the 1.3 million vision.  This rate does not sound unreasonable until analysts (or even rank amateurs) examine historical rates. RI's prior fifteen-year annual growth rate had been teetering at 0%.  North America, RI's major market, was experiencing a decade long decline averaging roughly 1.3% per year.  During the last half of the previous century, RI's annual growth rate had been between 1.5 and 2%.  What actions and resources did the 1.3 million dreamers believe RI and its member clubs could or would commit in order to improve RI's overall annual growth rate from 0% to 3.6%?  To convert a major market's negative 1.3% rate to a positive 3.6% rate?  In one year!  Get real!

    Until membership is considered urgent enough to receive top priority in words, deeds, and resources, any efforts dedicated to returning to a steady, long term growth rate will be wasted. Only when RI establishes membership as its top priority, a guiding coalition is in place, and critical business decisions are made can reasonable visions be established and regional plans revised.  In the meantime, all communications in words and actions must be based on the fundamental that developing its source of funding - its customers - will forever remain RI's top priority.

 

(This BLOGGER initially addressed these issues in 2009 and again in April, 2012.)

Rotary Inbreeding

     It is perfectly natural for leaders to gravitate to people who they like and like them; to show favor to those who agree with and work hard to support their efforts.  It's easy and satisfying for leaders to give choice, prestigious assignments to loyal followers. This encourages supporters to strive a bit harder - toward the leaders' ways of thinking.  In start-up organizations these practices often spell the difference between success and failure.

     In mature organizations like Rotary International (RI) this type intellectual inbreeding is flawed ideology because it breeds institutional complacency and encourages people to continue old practices even when confronted with new challenges and information.  Intellectual inbreeding has taken its toll on RI and is still being practiced because RI leader wantabees cozy up to those who can influence prestigious assignments; rungs on the ladder to more recognition and influential positions.

     The most effective way to break intellectual inbreeding is to infuse seeds of thought from outside the Rotary family, which RI did when it contracted with Siegel+Gale (SG).  Thankfully SG's findings challenged inbred mindsets and practices. There is of course the inherit resistance to change, one of many obstacles that has to be overcome.  Change must be led by a guiding coalition that wants and is prepared to lead it.  Preparation - education and training - is critical and has to begin with some wonderful, dedicated people - RI's officers and directors.  They are today's leaders and are influencing tomorrow's leaders as they were influenced by yesterday's leaders - intellectual inbreeding in its most seductive costume. This insidious form of idea depression contributed to the fall of General Motors, the Kodak bankruptcy, the meltdown of several major financial institutions, and has infected RI.   It is simply unfair to the Rotary world to expect officers and directors to govern and lead RI into the future if they are ill-prepared and do not receive the information they need to help them make informed decisions and recommendations.  Throughout Rotary, RI officers and directors influence conventions, assemblies, institutes, seminars, and conferences - training grounds for future leaders. They must be firmly grounded in fundamental objectives, responsibilities, and duties; basics they simply cannot get solely from internal sources.  

In 2015, for the first time, RI directors are going to be exposed to outside training on board responsibilities. Had this been happening during the last twenty years, it is possible that RI membership would not be in the condition it is today.  Future leadership should expand on this practice by encouraging and initiating innovative ideas on creating and serving its revenue source - Rotarians.  Unfortunately, Rotary leadership has a long history of returning to the comfortable practices of yesteryear, believing that their personas alone will bring about different results - a history that must change.

The Last Rotary Club in North America?

     Membership data indicates that annually in North America nearly 43,000 people join Rotary clubs and around 51,000 leave.  Today, there are approximately 340,000 Rotarians in North America.  At this rate, it doesn't take a genius to estimate when the last Rotary club in North America will be left standing.  Is this what we want? 

     Supply side membership economics says that all we have to do is ask more people to join and our problem will be solved! Supply side membership economics didn't solve Rotary's membership problems twelve years ago.  Annual recruiting drives and net gain targets since haven't either.  There is no reason to expect supply side membership economics to solve Rotary's membership problem now.
     Failing businesses continually fall into the supply side economics whirlpool:  We lose a little bit on every sale so let's make it up with more sales.  Apply that philosophy to Rotary membership:  We lose more members than join, so let's ask more people to join.  This is the equivalent of the Recruiting Death Dance and simply compounds membership development problems because it puts more people into communities that did not receive expected value from their Rotary experience.

    Other than for health reasons, members leaving faster than they are being inducted simply means that their needs are not being satisfied.  Therefore attention must be on retention - delivering value to members.  In today's society, people, depending on their time in life, join and remain in organizations like local Rotary clubs to:

• Sustain friendships.
• Utilize their leadership skills and/or treasure to leave a legacy.
• Further careers by connecting with leaders and honing leadership skills.
• Connect with leaders; learn to lead. 

Until Rotary establishes attainable membership results and centers all activities on attaining those results, membership will continue along its present path, supply side membership economics not-with-standing.

Has R.I. Developed the TDS?

Has the TDS contributed to North America's Membership Spiral and Rotary International's Membership Stabilization?

To read Jim Henry's Rotatorial on the TDS and its effect on the Membership Spiral, click here.

Rotary in North America - Part I

Rotary – Born by Commerce, 1905.   

Is Rotary in North America capable and willing to avoid being

Buried by Commonplace 

this century?  

To read or download Jim Henry's Rotatorial, click here.

The Only True Measure of an Effective Club is its ability to Attract and Retain Members!

Why isn’t our worldwide membership increasing? Could our Presidential Citation and Governor’s Award practices be part of the problem? To read an easy to implement solution, click here.

Is your Rotary club really a Rotary club?

Can your club's board of directors affirm that your club is really a Rotary club and have confidence that their affirmation adheres to the Four-Way Test? To read more thoughts about this from Zone 34 Coordinator Jim Henry,click here. . .

Improve Membership Retention How Much?

To reverse our Zone 34 membership free-fall, we only have to improve new member retention by 2.61%, or improve overall retention by 1.63%. To find out how much your district should improve membership retention, click here.