The October 14th meeting was kicked off by the induction of a new member – Keith Stenger (Picture attached.). Keith works for VSI/Goodwill as a Work Force Development specialist. After being introduced to the Club and presented with a badge, pin and membership certificate Keith gave a brief bio to introduce himself to the Club members.
This was followed by a presentation by Bob Sharkey. Bob talked about membership and how to grow and retain members. His points were as follows:
Membership is everyone’s job.
The Club might develop a list of member prospects. Houghton club did this and came up with over 100 possible new members.
Invite prospects to attend a meeting, get a sense of whether they are interested in becoming Rotarians.
Ask them to join. Bob pointed out that he had volunteered for Rotary functions for years before he was asked to join. Membership if by invitation – don’t hesitate to ask if you want a person to join.
Quality is important. Prospective members should be leaders in the business community and decision makers in their jobs.
Procedures for proposing a member are well defined and on the Rotary web site.
Have and “Elevator Speech” ready. An elevator speech is one where you tell someone what Rotary is about in a minute or so – the time an elevator takes to get to its destination.
Thanks Bob for this interesting and timely presentation. We all realize that there are as many reasons for joining as there are members of our club so let's get our heds together and bring in our life's blood: membership.
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