Just like any other social and voluntary clubs, my Rotary Club is also facing membership retention issue. People sign up to become members with various reasons: the privileges, the prestige, the opportunity to serve humanity, the fellowship, the networking and many other reasons.
After the novelty of being a Rotarian rubs off, after people start to realize and understand the obligations, after they go through the processes, some of the new members will start to realize and think that maybe Rotary is not for them. Or, rather, they are not cut out to be a Rotarian.
Analyzing the real reasons behind we should be able to synthesize many theories. However, personally I think the main reason is the failure to participate.
I heard my mentors in Rotary said this few times, "Enjoying by participating." I think there should be some truth to this just like any old wisdoms that people like to quote.
I have noticed that those who seldom attend the meetings, let alone participate in activities, are the ones who are most likely to call it quit.
To understand a little bit more deeply, there is another wisdom, "What's in it for me?" (wiifm). When there is no benefit and compelling reasons for members to attend, almost certainly we can be sure that the membership retention will suffer.
Again, this can be like chicken and egg kind of situation. Which one should come first? Satisfying members' interest first for them to participate or for them to come in actively to satisfy their own interest.
Of course, this is a matter of priority for the club's Board of Director to decide. I guess the answer to this is to have a balance for both sides.
I don't claim that I have a solution for this. I just would like to throw some alternatives. In the first place, we need to set the correct mindset and perspective of new members when they join the club. Apart from the privileges, the obligations have to be spelt out clearly.
At the end of the day, it is the individual that matters. No matter how wonderful we make the club to be, if the attitude is already negative, I an afraid there is nothing much we can do.
Have a happy networking
