Serving as Treasurer of my Club for many years, I’ve had several new members, or their sponsors or friends, complain that they were not expecting the Club’s requests / expectations of them. For me, most of the time it related to fundraising for the Club’s community services projects or the Rotary Foundation. But this can extend to dues, attendance, Club involvement, etc. Unfortunately, my Club lost a few of these new members after their admission to the Club.
Before I joined Rotary, my sponsor and I had a mini-orientation that covered financial, attendance, active involvement in the Club, etc. before he submitted my application to the Board. My mini-orientation was only about 15 to 30 minutes, but it effectively minimized major surprises after I joined the Club. Please understand if you choose to implement this, it is only a supplement to your Club New Member Orientation program, not by any means a replacement.
The suggestion is that such mini-orientation be done prior to submitting a prospective new member’s application to the Board and Club membership. The hope is this will be a very effective step in assisting new member retention. Such orientations could be handled by the prospective member’s sponsor or a designated Club member. The content should be brief, but cover the key areas that could cause the Club to lose a new member because they are surprised by the Club’s / Rotary’s expectations of its members.
Jim Dardnne
District 5870 Membership Committee