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Dear Fellow Rotarians,
Membership is the lifeline of Rotary.To that end, it is imperative that clubs make membership a top priority this year and for every year hereafter.As RI President Wilf Wilkinson stated, "Club membership is not your responsibility, it is my responsibility."Meaning that membership is not the responsibility of just the club leadership, but the responsibility of all Rotarians.To meet President Wilf's challenge, of every member proposing someone for membership, we need to get going.

As I travel the District speaking with club presidents, membership chairpersons, and clubs in general, I am telling them that in order to get more members, we just need to ask.As a salesperson, I know it is the law of large numbers.That is, the more people you ask, the more people will say yes.However, it is my opinion that some of us don't know how to ask.How to make a personal statement that will help people know what Rotary is, and at the same time encourage them to attend a meeting.How would you respond to the question, "What is Rotary?"

The membership Committee has a new model this year.All club Membership Chairpersons and all District Area Membership Coordinators are members of the Membership Committee.This was designed so that all clubs would be involved in membership on the District level.In addition, this model gives the District an opportunity to be involved in membership from the club level.This model makes for a large committee.However the meetings are held on an Area basis.I work with the Assistant Governors to set up the initial meetings with the District Area membership Coordinator and club membership chairpersons and/or presidents.At this meeting I conduct an initial training that the Area Coordinators can then conduct for the clubs.The District Area Membership Coordinator then becomes the direct link between the club and the district.
The next step is to have the club leadership meet to determine their membership goals and how the membership committee, through the District Area Coordinator can best assist them.This I hope will allow more connection to the clubs from the district level.The second round of Area meetings are soon to be scheduled.At this meeting we will discuss the "what" and "how".What are individual clubs doing and how is it going.Have there been successes, and what are the failures.The area committees will help to evaluate and suggest other strategies to assist clubs in being as successful as possible.