Barking up the Wrong Tree

The cost of being a Rotarian is undoubtedly one of the greatest barriers to membership. But it frustrates me to no end when Rotary leaders suggest clubs look at subscription fees for relief. Let’s face it, there’s not a lot of wriggle room in those membership fees. My own club charges AU$200.00 per annum + magazine. So for most members who choose print editions of Rotary Down Under (AUS) or The Rotarian (USA), their subs will be around the $240.00 mark. But when you break down those costs which include non-negotiable RI dues, insurance, a district levy and aforementioned magazine, there’s not much left in there for club administration costs. So once you get below that (overall) $240.00 mark, clubs can't just shake money out of that tree they've been barking up. Those costs still have to be met somehow. Some clubs will choose to subsidise their membership fees with the proceeds of raffles and fines sessions, but this is really only fiddling around the edges.

In recent years, the language from those at the very apex of our organisational leadership in Evanston has changed somewhat, and we seem to be heading down a much more flexible path. Hallelujah! But amidst this new era of flexibility and rule changes, there remains one central tenet of the organisation where Rotary International remains completely inflexible. Membership of Rotary International is actually very binary. It’s all very well for RI to talk about flexible membership options, but from RI’s perspective, you’re either a one or a zero. You’re a member, or you’re not, and there is ZERO flexibility when it comes down to your RI Dues. According to THIS ARTICLE, RI thinks we have options for districts to be flexible with their levies and for clubs to be flexible with their admin costs, but good luck finding the flexible dues department at 1560 Sherman Avenue.

It’s dangerous to get me started on this, but maybe if RI could embrace electronic communication rather than continually flying people all over the world, our RI dues (not to mention our carbon footprint) wouldn’t be constantly on the rise. And don’t tell me that hugely expensive dinosaur that is our Council on Legislation couldn’t be conducted electronically!

News flash: The biggest cost of being a Rotarian is not membership fees, but meeting costs. Before joining the Rotary Club of Seaford, I was a proud member of the Rotary Club of Edwardstown for 19 years, but here’s what it cost me to be a Rotarian in that club. Each week I paid $21.50 for a meal, $4.00 for a drink, $1.00 for a raffle ticket, at least another dollar or two in fines, and I usually stuck a few bucks in the Rotary Foundation change box that got passed around. So there was rarely a week that I would walk away with much change from $30.00. I am one of those Rotarians who turned up pretty much every week, so multiply that by 50 and we’re talking $1,500 give or take. Plus about $240 in subs.

It’s blatantly obvious to me that if we really wish to make Rotary more affordable, we need to start barking up the meal and meeting cost tree. At Seaford, we meet fortnightly, and most meetings are run in such a way that meals are optional. We do change our venue regularly, and often we meet in members’ homes where we all bring a plate to share. Obviously that doesn’t cost nothing, but it doesn’t cost much. Here are some examples of other meeting places, all of which have little or optional meal costs. We have met a few times at the local soccer club where members can choose (or choose not) to order in pizza or a burger from a local restaurant for between $15 and $20. Drinks are available at the bar, and the venue is happy with that income as a contribution. We have met in a meeting room of a local library and either brought a plate to share, or ordered from the local Subway, which was less than $10 per head. We have also held meetings in the community garden we helped develop, where we just pull out a few tables after a working bee and order pizzas, or have a BBQ. We have also met in local cafes where you can order a meal if you like, but if you just want a coffee or a milk shake, that’s OK too. By the way; we don't do fines, raffles, change boxes, and all that other money sucking stuff!

Here’s the thing. The Rotary Club of Seaford has a strong focus on DOING, and is not so obsessed with MEETING. I have been commenting on this problem in Rotary for a number of years now – i.e. that we have become too “meeting centric” and should focus more on service. It’s about a year now since the 2016 Council on Legislation, where new rules were passed allowing for much more meeting flexibility, but sadly, most clubs remain steadfastly opposed to such changes. For the record, there are many clubs that are travelling quite well, are very active and have achieved steady growth, and to those clubs my suggestion would be to stick with what they are doing. But that’s not the case everywhere. Our membership in the western world is in drastic decline, clubs are handing in their charters, and we really need to be looking at different ways to engage with our members, our potential members, and our communities.

I have been asked to speak to quite a large number of clubs about flexibility and the Seaford model, and for the most part, it’s been fairly well received, but that obsession with meetings is hard to shake. I can almost see some Rotarians' heads about to spin off when I start talking about the way we do things at Seaford. One of those clubs I visited a while ago had been debating for some time the merits of moving to fortnightly meetings. The majority of members in that club were keen to try it, but one particular member threatened that he would resign if such a move was made. Well, the club has just moved to fortnightly meetings, and said member has just resigned. I guess “Service Above Self” wasn’t a determining factor in his decision. Reminds me a little of the sorts of threats made 25 odd years ago when clubs were considering inducting females!

I am encouraged to read more and more articles about clubs meeting in cafes and parks, and of course the growth worldwide in E-clubs. Some people do actually recognise that we are here to serve, not to meet. Of course we do need opportunities to discuss our ideas and plans. There IS a place for meetings, but it doesn't have to be the same place you find rump steak and chicken schnitzel, and it certainly doesn't have to be every week. There are so many brilliant and passionate people out there who want to give back and be a part of something bigger, and if Rotary could be a bit more accessible to them, and yes, I mean financially, they might just want to join us.

But it's tradition

I love Australian Rules football, and at the time of writing this, my beloved Adelaide Crows are undefeated on top of the AFL ladder. Today for the first time ever, there will be a game of AFL football held on Good Friday. I listen to a fair bit of talk-back radio, and every year during the weeks leading up to Easter, the same conversation ensues. “Should we hold football matches on Good Friday?” Well, it is now happening, and the debate has ramped up. Many of those in the “no” camp constantly use one word to describe their opposition… TRADITION.

Followers of this code will know that no other sporting code in the world has constantly fiddled with its rules as much as the AFL. Every year there are new rules and new interpretations to those rules, many of which leave players, umpires and fans completely bamboozled. Many of the game’s traditional elements are slowly disappearing.

The bounce, for example – the method by which umpires start play (or re-start after a stalemate), has been largely replaced by throwing the ball up. Bouncing an oblong (apparently the correct term is prolate spheroid) shaped ball straight up into the air to give opposing rucks an equal opportunity is a very difficult skill – especially if the ground is wet or muddy. By using this method, the ball can often fly off at angles, giving one team a considerable advantage. Nowadays the bounce is only used rarely and the ball is thrown up. Many lament this disappearing tradition of our game, but most realise it produces a fairer outcome. It’s quite likely the bounce will soon disappear forever.

Hang on – this is meant to be a Rotary blog. Well, I actually think that the slow disappearance of the bounce in Australian Rules Football has close parallels to some of our Rotary traditions. There are many things we do as Rotarians, particularly in meetings, which really serve no practical purpose. They are just tradition. How was it decided over 100 years ago that the best way to start/restart play was to bounce an oddly shaped ball? Who knows – but it stuck. How was it decided over 100 years ago that Rotary club presidents wore blingy collars around their necks? How was it decided that a sergeant would tell dodgy jokes and collect fines from members? How was it decided that we would hold our glasses in the air and “toast” someone or something? Singing, praying, the ringing of bells? What was going on in society way back then that made these rituals so important? Well, I wasn’t there, and I don’t know, but the bigger question is, why are they still observed today?

I guess there’s a certain romance and nostalgia to tradition. When something is considered best practice, it’s quite reasonable that it be passed on to the next generation. But I don’t see best practice in any of these things. I suppose they all seemed like a good idea at the time. My personal Rotary journey has been one of massive change. From joining the ranks out of Rotaract in 1997, where I viewed Rotary as a more grown-up, serious version of Rotaract, and would dare not question club practices, I found myself growing into more senior positions in the club. Eventually I served as Rotary Club of Edwardstown president in 2006/07, and suddenly I had quite a bit of influence within the club. It was around that time that I started to question our traditions, and not long after led somewhat of a revolt against them. We soon dropped many of the Rotary rituals, starting with the singing of the National Anthem, then the toasts, and eventually the Rotary Grace disappeared as well. None without a struggle mind you. I don’t seriously think any of those things were missed. Then I joined the Rotary Club of Seaford when it chartered last November, where I now experience Rotary without a sergeant, weekly meetings, compulsory meals, regular guest speakers, bells, banners, collars, collection boxes, and many other things that had been part of my Rotary experience for 19 years.

And guess what? I feel my current Rotary experience is as active and productive as it has ever been - maybe more so. We are helping our local and international communities, we are sending young people to Rotary leadership events, we are building a network of community leaders, we are training our members, we are working hard to raise funds for future projects. Most importantly, we are growing. We are doing all that stuff that I feel is really important in Rotary, but we aren’t being held back by all the things that aren’t.

And that’s where I draw a line on traditions. It’s not just that many of our traditions no longer serve a useful purpose, it’s that they are holding us back. To many potential members, they are relics of a bygone era. They remind them of things their grandparents used to do.

One of my favourite authors and Rotary commentators Michael McQueen says in his book Winning the Battle for Relevance:

The longer a boat is in water, the more barnacles build up over time to the point where they can significantly reduce a boat’s speed, agility and efficiency. In order to combat this, boats must have their hulls scraped on a regular basis. In an organisational context, it is critical that leaders routinely and consciously scrape off traditions and rituals that have become encrusted like barnacles.

To be honest, I’m somewhat ambivalent about Good Friday football. I can see why many want it, and I can also empathise with those who feel that the day should be left alone. The bounce however, which is not only unpredictable, but responsible for chronic shoulder and back injuries to umpires, has no compelling reason other than “tradition” to remain.

I encourage you all to look at those things you do in Rotary. If there are better ways, we must find them. Happy Easter and Go the Crows!

Reaching for the Roundup

Today I want to share with you the most valuable piece of advice I have ever received as a Rotarian. This simple quote genuinely helped me through a few challenges a little while ago, and I only wish I had have received it many, many years earlier. It has helped my decision making process as a district leader, but it can also be of use all Rotarians who are trying to move this great organisation forward, and in your non-Rotary lives as well. 

So, what was that piece of advice that I found so helpful at a challenging time? What are these words of wisdom? 

Don’t water your weeds. I guess some may find this quote a little cryptic, but as soon as I heard those words, they immediately resonated.

This is the time of year we often hear club presidents comment that they are only now getting into the swing of things and feeling confident in the role, and of course now they only have a few months remaining before someone else steps up. “It would have been nice to know at the start of the year what I now know as president.” Take it from me, a three year posting in my role is no different, and as the end to my tenure approaches, I now have plenty of advice that I’d love to send back in time to myself three years ago. But I guess that’s life. It’s one big learning curve. That’s why I think it’s important to pass on this one piece of advice to those who will be at the forefront of our membership struggles for the years to come.

I guess the crux of the matter is that we have to pick our battles. At the moment our Aussie cricketers are in India learning (sometimes the hard way) which ball to leave. It’s the same in life. I came into this role with a load of energy and good intentions, and some bold ideas about what clubs needed to do to attract and retain more members. I was slashing my bat at every ball that came my way. No doubt about it, I have certainly learnt a lot in this role in three years. I have been fortunate to have rubbed shoulders with some great Rotary minds and have acquired some good tips. But to be frank, it has always been about change that isn’t happening. Resistance to change has been my constant battle. Prior to my current district role, I spent three years as an assistant governor, and another two years prior to that as district TRF grants chair. It didn’t take me long to work out that district appointments are primarily about leading horses to water. No matter how hard you try, no matter how cool and refreshing the water, you just can’t make horses drink.

The thing about weeds is that they don’t need watering. They will grow on their own by sucking the nutrients and moisture from the soil that your (desired) plants need. In the same way, I’ve seen perennially (membership) challenged clubs suck the enthusiasm out of not only their own members, but the district leaders who try in vain to turn things around. That’s why I feel district leaders need to triage clubs from a membership development perspective. There will be clubs at the healthy end of the scale that do not need urgent attention, likewise there will be clubs at the terminal end of the scale that are either beyond help, or as is often the case, refuse to accept it. Some patients won’t recover from major surgery, even when it's the only option. Priority must be given to those clubs that need AND ARE WILLING TO ACCEPT help, and have a reasonable prospect of recovery. To do anything else is merely watering weeds. Clubs WILL shrivel and die. We need to accept that and move on, applying our most precious resource: TIME, to where it can do the most good. And that’s really what this blog is about – the productive use of our time and energy as leaders. Because each of us has only a finite amount.

I do want to be crystal clear on this, we need to make ourselves and other membership resources available to all clubs, of all shapes and sizes, everywhere. But it's got to be a two way street. They've got to be fair dinkum about it, and they must understand that the type of thinking that got them into the membership doldrums will not get them out if them. Most will want the situation to change, but only few are prepared to MAKE CHANGES in order to bring it about. In some cases an entire new plan of attack needs creating. Sometimes it’s just about pointing out existing Rotary documents that are available online, sometimes it’s about visiting clubs and presenting a different viewpoint on the topic, and sometimes it’s just about having a chat with a few members over a coffee. But there comes a time with some clubs, that the banging of heads against brick walls just has to stop. It’s a story I can tell over and over again of clubs at which maintaining the status quo has become paramount. When the prospect of handing in a charter is not seen as the worst case scenario, but the lesser of two evils compared with the other option which involves being dragged kicking and screaming out of the comfort zone, it’s time to move on. If it sounds callous, I’ll cop it. But if by letting those clubs drift into oblivion, you free up the energy and passion to fight for and work with the clubs that genuinely need and will respond to help, it’s the right thing to do.

There’s a little known fact regarding the inception of the Rotary Club of Seaford, the club I built from thin air and joined last November at its charter night. In October 2014 I was asked by our then district governor to speak with members of a small, membership challenged club in the same region. This club, which I will refer to as the Rotary Club of Next Door, has hovered between 6 and 8 members for as long as I can remember. I was of course very keen to have that conversation, and was ready, willing and able to help. But I have always stuck by a steadfast rule since taking on the role of district membership chair; I will only go where I’m invited. If any club wants help, they need simply ask. But I have never, and will never try to force help upon a club. I made this clear to the DG in question, and he fully expected I would get a phone call from the Rotary Club of Next Door within days. Again, that was October 2014.

In anticipation of that call, I started researching the demographics of the region so as to be fully prepared to help that club, but as a result of that research, I noticed the massive population growth in nearby Seaford, a region totally devoid of service clubs. That realisation was the spark that lit the Seaford flame within me, and two years (and one hell of a lot of work) later, the Seaford club was chartered with 21 members. Four months later, we have 26 members.

It is now two years and five months since I was told to expect a phone call from The Rotary Club of Next Door. That phone call never came and instead my watering can has spent a good deal of time a few miles away in Seaford, and at a number of other clubs in the district where it has been appreciated.

Penguins and Polar Bears - Part 2

If you didn’t read my part 1 of this 2 part blog about Rotary’s online presence, do yourself a favour and read it. If nothing else it will save me from explaining the Penguin & Polar Bear analogy again.

I promised this second part would cover some of my thoughts on Facebook, and more importantly the way Rotary uses, and sometimes misuses it. I will again stress, as I did in part one, that I don’t consider myself an expert in the field, but I’ve been using it long enough to understand it fairly well, and I wanted to share a few tips about aspects of Facebook for Rotary that don’t often get talked about.

One of the comments I made in part one was that if your club doesn’t have a strong online presence, you might as well be invisible to anyone under 50.  It simply beggars belief that there are still Rotary clubs that don’t have Facebook pages. For some, it’s because they don’t feel they have within their membership the necessary skill set to create and maintain such a page. If that's the case, I would be fairly confident there are members at district level that would be prepared to help set up a page. Have you considered asking your alumni for help? Rotaractors? Interactors? Family members? For others, it’s because they fear it and cannot see the good that can come from it. Sadly for some, Facebook represents change which must be rejected in all forms. 

I wish I could say that no harm can come from a Rotary club having a Facebook page, but unfortunately I can’t. I have seen instances where, as a result of improper security protocols being observed, disgruntled Rotarians in admin roles have caused some serious damage. It is vitally important that a club has at least two page admins, preferably more. There are also some practical reasons for this, such as ensuring some diversity in viewpoint and stories posted by your page, and being able to spread the load – especially if one admin is busy or sick… or leaves. As a personal example of this, I set up a Facebook page for my former Rotary club quite a few years ago. I did make sure there were other members appointed as admins, but over the years I made 99% of the posts on behalf of the club. That page was extremely active, and I used to post on behalf of it 3 or 4 times a week, but I left that club in November 2016 and sadly there has not been one single post made by that club’s page since. Not one. And there are most certainly members in the club capable of doing it. 

How important are “page likes”? They play a role, but are not as critical in determining reach as they once were. Even if I understood Facebook’s algorithms which determine who sees what in their Facebook feed, there would be little point in explaining it, because come next week it will likely have changed again. But even if only 10% of your “likers” get your message, 10% of 500 is better than 10% of 100. So in that respect, the more, the better. Rightly or wrongly, page likes can also play a role in conveying viability and relevance. Whether it’s a page for a restaurant or another small business, or a Rotary club, for some people, a high number of page likes conveys that “this is a popular organisation”. Some Facebook users would find a local Rotary club with 600 page likes a hell of a lot more attractive than a neighbouring club with 50 page likes. How do you get more page likes? Just ask. If every member asked all of their friends to like their club page, you would get a surprisingly positive result. And you can do it all at the push of a button. You can also embed a clickable Facebook “Social Plugin” onto your website, so visitors can like or visit your Facebook page from your website.

Understand though, that a large majority of those who have liked your page are likely to be fellow Rotarians, so there’s an element of preaching to the converted going on when you’re using Facebook to spread the message of the great work you are doing. Sometimes it’s really advantageous to spread a message to fellow Rotarians. For example, if you are holding a quiz night or some other event where you’re trying to get bums on seats, Rotarians in other clubs can be a great target audience. But if your aim is to try and get non-Rotarians interested in your club, you need to employ different tactics. Engagement is where it’s at. If your posts can generate comments and conversations, likes, and shares, your message will start spreading.

I feel the most underutilised resource in spreading great stories about your club and its work are your own members. Well, to be clear, those members with Facebook accounts. In my current club (average age 47), 25 of our 26 members are on Facebook. But in my previous club, with an average age closer to the national Rotary average of 71, less than 50% of members had Facebook accounts. But those members, even if only 50% of your club, can play a vital role in pushing out those posts. 

I do see members hitting the LIKE button, but I really want them to start hitting the SHARE button. Why is it that we will happily hit the share button when it's a video of a cat eating fruit loops out of the packet, but we can't find it within ourselves to share amazing stories about the work we do as Rotarians? Each of your members will have Facebook friends outside of Rotary, so whenever they share a story about your club, more and more members of the general public will get to hear about us. If 20 members each with 300 unique Facebook friends hit the share button, that story could potentially be seen by 6,000 non-Rotarians. Again, Facebook’s complicated algorithms will somehow conspire to make sure that it won’t be the full 6,000, but if NO-ONE hits the share button, your story’s life is limited to a portion of your page likers.

The final concept I wish to convey is something I have spoken about many times before. There are so many facets to Rotary, and so many stories to tell. If you really want to engage your Facebook audience, you shouldn’t limit your content solely to the activities of your own club. A comprehensive story about Rotary will also include stories of what your neighbouring clubs are up to, our Polio eradication efforts, Shelterbox, Peace Studies, Water and Sanitation projects, the Rotary Foundation, Youth Programs, Rotaract, Interplast, Romac, RAWCS, Australian Rotary Health, and many, many more. All of these programs have their own Facebook pages, as does Rotary Down Under, and those pages can all provide great content for your own club page. Just search for them all and like them, and as their fabulous stories fill your own timeline, you can share to your club page to give your audience a taste of that wider world of Rotary.

Penguins and Polar Bears - Part 1

Do you know why polar bears don’t eat penguins? Because polar bears live in the Arctic, and penguins live in the Antarctic. 

The Rotary world has long wondered why younger people aren’t joining (in larger numbers). For the main part, it’s like penguins and polar bears. Rotary Clubs and young people don't always coexist in the same world. I recently heard of a Rotary club celebrating the milestone that 100% of their members now had email accounts. Meanwhile most under 35 rarely if ever use email.

I promised I would write a blog about our online presence, so here it is. (Part 1 is about websites, Part 2 will cover Facebook.) I don’t consider myself an expert in this field, but I have built from scratch about ten websites over the years, and the way we present Rotary to the wider community is a very important piece of the membership puzzle, so I feel I need to weigh in on this critical subject. Before I get to the “hows” I want to discuss the “whys”.

Generations X & Y are increasingly relying on the internet and social media for the information they run their lives by. Things that once required the chopping down of trees, such as the Yellow Pages, street directories and newspapers have been replaced by Google, GPS and Facebook, all of which are now available on a smart phone. Quite simply, if your club does not have an attractive and prominent presence in this online world, you might as well be invisible to this demographic. 

I want to clear up a few myths about what is required for a good Rotary club website. Some have argued that a Rotary Club website should be used for the benefit of the members, providing information on previous and approaching meetings, bulletins, board minutes, even constitutional documents. Conversely, some believe a club website should be about informing the public about what you do. Well, I believe it can be both. But there are only certain things that should be on the landing page. People need a reason to engage. The moment your page appears, you need to hit people with great photos and great stories of how your club is helping your community. A visitor to your website should immediately be able to understand your club’s service priorities. Then they need to know why and how to get involved. That is all you need on a landing page. That page is really valuable real estate. For anyone searching online for your club, it’s their first impression. And first impressions count.

 

According to web marketing agency Tribute Media, you have seven seconds to convey what your club is about, capture the visitor’s interest, and prompt them to take action. They shouldn’t have to search for anything – it should be neatly laid out in front of them. As for fellow Rotarians, from your own or other clubs, who are looking for information about when you next meet or what that last bulletin covered, these things can all go on a different page. Just add hyperlinks to the stuff Rotarians need down the bottom somewhere. Put the links to stuff your non-Rotarian visitors will want very prominently near the top. These are things like “What is Rotary?”, “Volunteer” and “Contact Us”. That’s your front page. Its prime objective is to get non-Rotarians to engage. We want to prompt them to ask more questions, in a non-threatening way. Whilst the long game is about more members, the short game should be more about informing and encouraging. Some people think a "Join Us" or "Become a Member" button is a good idea. But I think first time visitors could be a little reticent to click on one of these.  My preferred option would be "Volunteer" or "Get involved". These words don't elicit the same level of obligation, and this minor change can make a huge difference. 

Your club website needs a simple and easy-to-remember URL. That’s the bit that goes after the “www”. A simple test is what I call the bumper sticker test. The following link has been slightly modified so as not to embarrass the club in question, but it is otherwise a real club website.

"https://portal.clubrunner.ca/12652" 

Would you put that on a bumper sticker? I would hope not. But this is my own club website: 

"www.seafordrotary.org.au" 

Unlike the previous URL, this one requires no explanation and is easy to remember. 

Your website should also be optimised so it can easily be found by search engines. Check out the video below about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). There are plenty of articles about how to do this online, but this video explains it in plain English. Your website host should be able to help also. Is your page mobile and device friendly, or does it only work well on a PC? Also questions your hosting provider can help you with.

Remember, we cannot take it for granted that the people who we want to join us know that we exist. You can't continue to live in separate worlds, like penguins and polar bears. Be on the lookout for Part 2, where I'll give my two bobs' worth on Facebook.

Are they biting?

My regular followers will know by now that the majority of my Rotary efforts over the last couple of years have been channelled into getting a new Rotary Club up and running. 

The Rotary Club of Seaford, which chartered in November last year is the first new club in District 9520 in around ten years, so it’s reasonable to say that a recruitment campaign of this scale has not been attempted in our district for a long time. 

The last club to charter in our district involved a large number of members from an existing club jumping ship. This was never going to be the case for Seaford, so today I want to share a few insights from the process of finding the 20 charter members we needed.

My team tried things that I was convinced would work, without success. But we also had success in areas I really wasn’t expecting. So, either I got part of the process wrong, or we need to accept that the volunteer recruiting landscape has changed. Or both.

I’ve done some marketing campaigns in my time, including the mind numbing work of preparing mailing lists, for myself and as a consultant to other businesses. I figured if I spent some time preparing a mailing list of businesses in the Seaford region, we would soon be able to launch a successful recruitment campaign. It took a lot of work, but I managed get together a list of over 700 businesses in the region. We had a team stuffing envelopes for hours. Massive effort, massive expense, ZERO results. I got the expected percentage of envelopes back marked “return to sender”, but was genuinely disappointed that we didn’t receive one email, one phone call, one person from that list at our information day. Even a one percent response would have meant seven calls. Whilst most were posted, teams of volunteers also approached business owners in major shopping centres. Zero, zip, nada, bupkis!

What did we learn from this? Was the flier and invite not attractive enough? Of course that is possible. Mind you the flier I created for this club has since been copied by another three clubs (not that that’s a guarantee of success). Did the envelope not make it to the right person in the business? That’s possible too. What I feel is most likely, is that for most business owners, commitment to a service club is just not a priority, and it wouldn’t matter how glossy the brochure was. We need to accept that sometimes it’s not about the bait – we’re just fishing in the wrong place.

A few years ago I conducted a membership survey across our district, and one of the questions I asked was in relation to members’ vocations, but it wasn’t about classification. I posed the question of employment status primarily in an effort to give us some indications as to where we should target our recruitment efforts, but also to dispel a few myths.

Whilst I stress these statistics only represent District 9520, I would imagine surveys across the rest of the country would reveal similar statistics. One of those myths is that Rotary is an organisation of CEOs and powerful business people. The statistics would suggest in fact that we are an organisation of retirees. Many of those powerful business people and leaders of industry ARE still in Rotary, it’s just that a lot are now in their 70s and 80s and retired. I am glad they are still with us, because they can provide valuable mentoring and life lessons to us “youngins”.

What the statistics are pointing out very clearly is that the board room is no longer interested in Rotary, and the shop floor is taking over. I recently ran a regional membership seminar and was approached by a well-respected PDG who fondly recounted the days where the local clubs were populated by the local business elite, and hoped those days would return. It is still the case in some countries and I guess even some clubs here in Australia, but I have my doubts those "glory days" will return. Our catch 22 is that clubs need to be populated with well-connected business leaders to attract more well connected business leaders. They once were, but I fear we are now reaping a barren crop because of poor sewing twenty odd years ago.

So what about Seaford’s recruiting successes? Advertising in community newsletters/newspapers was quite fruitful for us, and our website brought in a number of members. It seems as plain as the nose on your face, but a website that clearly explains what your club does, in non-Rotarian language with easy to find contact details will reap rewards. Why some clubs just don't get this is beyond me. Keep an eye out for my next blog which will be about our digital presence. Being visible in the community is also very important, and we always had fliers to hand out at every event.

At the very beginning of this journey, I had conversations with our local state and federal MPs and also representatives of council, who gave me some great ideas but also some other groups to contact – and these contacts proved to be very fruitful. One such group was a representative body of local community support organisations, where I met with domestic violence workers, church outreach providers, employment and career counsellors, community centres, neighbourhood watch, school support staff and educators, homelessness advocates, social workers, welfare agents – the list goes on. Whilst my original mission was to use these connections to spread the word about Rotary, and hopefully attract some potential members, what I soon discovered was that these connections were at the very coal face of the region’s challenges. For many of them, their day-to-day experience was with those who had fallen through society’s cracks.

Of the first 23 people to join the club, 13 are from vocations I would describe as “carers, supporters, teachers, nurturers”. As a retailer, I am in a group perhaps more easily recognised on a traditional Rotary classification checklist. But that former group brings us something very special. How many times do you hear of Rotary clubs struggling to find worthwhile local projects? We seemingly have no trouble addressing desperate needs in developing countries, and I will always advocate for this sort of work. But clubs that are most active in their own communities are clubs which are likely to thrive. When a good proportion of your members spend their days facing the community’s challenges, it’s a lot easier for your club to address your community’s challenges. 

These people are a good fit for Rotary. They are great networkers and are full of ideas, but they are often overlooked for membership. They're attracted to what we do, and attraction is always going to be easier than recruitment. 

I’m not suggesting we should give up on the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker, but maybe we should spend a bit more time casting our lines where the fish are biting. 

Not all Nightmares are in the Kitchen

I’ve just watched an episode of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, and I couldn’t stop thinking about Rotary. 

If you’re not familiar with the show, each episode sees British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay troubleshooting a failing restaurant with a view to turning around the establishment in just one week. I used to watch the show a lot, but hadn’t seen it for a while. As a former owner-operator of a catering business, the show holds a special interest to me, as I can relate to some of the challenges these restaurateurs are faced with.

Ramsay owns dozens of award winning restaurants and clearly knows his stuff, but he is a volatile and somewhat polarising character who calls it as he sees it, usually with a barrage of F-bombs thrown in. He inevitably manages to implement considerable changes and turns these restaurants around.

By now some of my regular readers will have worked out where I’m going with this blog, but I’ll persevere with the Kitchen Nightmares script for a few more paragraphs.

The episode I just watched followed a familiar pattern where a couple with no hospitality experience had bought a pub and before they knew it they were drowning in debt and stress. They had lost their house and were living in the hotel where they worked seven days a week. They employed knowledgeable chefs but wouldn’t allow them to alter the menu. They made customers wait for horrible food and wondered why the dining room was never full. One of the statistics Ramsay quoted was that 20 rural pubs were closing every month in the UK.

Ramsay faced stiff opposition from the owner, whose pride wouldn’t let him admit the errors of his ways. The staff were all ready to leave. Eventually Ramsay is able to take over the kitchen, comes up with a new menu, has the staff venturing into the surrounding neighbourhood promoting the new menu, fills the dining room, has an extremely successful night, and is able to show a profitable path forward for the establishment. 

In some episodes Ramsay also arranges for a makeover of the décor, changes signage or even the name of the establishment in an effort to make it more attractive. But despite seeing indisputable evidence of the success that change can bring, the stubborn owner wants to revert back to his old ways. It would appear failure is often a more comfortable option than change. Yes, that sentence will be repeated later on. It’s basically the same plot for every episode.

So, what does unattractive, regularly failing/closing organisations, bad food, empty rooms, poor promotion, disenchanted workers ready to leave, an inability to take on new ideas, poor leadership and a stubborn resistance to change have to do with Rotary, you may ask? OK, I’m kidding. No-one is asking that.

I’ll tell you another story, of a former club president and good friend of mine, the late John Angus. One of the things that in my mind made John a great leader was his capacity to ask why we did things the way we did. He wasn’t afraid to look for a better way. John had never been a fan of the top table in Rotary meetings. As president, he didn’t want to be separated from the rest of the members for the year, so he instructed the hotel to do away with the top table, and he sat at one of the tables with the rest of us. This didn’t go down well with some of our members who had watched their president sit at a head table for over 50 years. It wasn’t “the way we had always done it”. There were numerous vocal objections. Did it affect our capacity to raise funds or serve our community? Of course not, but it upset the status quo. John was battling cancer during his presidential year, and some weeks was unable to attend the meeting because of his illness or ongoing treatment. We could always tell upon arriving at the venue that John wasn’t there, because that head table was back. And of course ever since John’s presidential year concluded, the head table has been present.

Rotarians are by and large creatures of habit. It’s very much a human trait. We don’t like to be removed from our comfort zone. And that’s fine provided everything is going well. But when things start going pear shaped, we need to react. There are many very strong and successful restaurants that have a winning formula and you wouldn’t dream of changing them. Likewise many Rotary clubs are thriving and don’t need to change either. But this is not always the case, with many clubs teetering on extinction. I have always been critical of Rotarians’ general reluctance to change, but I feel it has become more than that in some cases. Bizarrely, it would appear for some that failure is a more comfortable option than change. I wonder if some of us really understand what “Service Above Self” means. Our obsession with maintaining the status quo even at the expense of our very survival is not putting service above self. It is the opposite, which is selfishness. 

My experience in chartering the Rotary Club of Seaford has taught me many things, but the most valuable lesson is this one: In most cases there are plenty of potential members out there, but we have to offer them a different version of Rotary. It is true that some of our rural clubs have ceased to exist largely due to external factors such as the local economy and population decline, and the potential members just aren't there, but this is not the main reason clubs are closing. A different version of Rotary is not just possible, but necessary if we want the organisation to last for another 20 years. 

So the episode finished, and it looked like the pub in question would survive, provided the staff could keep the owner from reverting back to his old habits. It then hit me that there was a glaring difference between the struggling establishments featured on Kitchen Nightmares and the struggling Rotary clubs I know of. The establishments on the show had asked for help.