No, “Memory” was not misspelled. “Membery” is a combination of “Memory” and “Member” and it leads to a look back on our club’s membership stats over the past few years. For example, we had 326 Active Rotarians on July 1, 2016. As of June 30 last year, we were down to 280. During those three years, we lost 106 of our existing members and readmitted eight. Of the 70 members we inducted, we lost 18.

Looking back five years from last June 30, 168 members left the club.
Eighteen (11%) were not even with us for a year.
Forty (24%) were only here between one and two years.
Thirty (18%) stayed for three to five years
Thirty-two (19%) departed between six and ten years.
The remaining 48 (29%) were members over ten years.

The most common (about 40%) reason given for leaving was “Business Pressures.” Without dissecting the data even further, it’s clear we are losing an inordinate number of members very early in their Rotary career and a large proportion of those are citing Business Pressures.

Those brief statistics alone lead to lots of questions. Here are some examples:
Are we, as a club, not…
…pursuing the right kind of prospects?
…giving potential candidates accurate information about the time and dollars expected?
…orienting our recruits properly and fully upon induction?
…incorporating new members promptly into our operations, activities and events?
…creating and facilitating situations which allow every Rotarian to achieve personal goals?
…always seeking to understand and meet the needs and expectations of every Rotarian?
…interviewing members as they leave and following up later, as warranted?

As you can imagine, there are surely more questions. Want to be a part of answering them and helping the club attract, recruit, induct, involve, develop and retain members? You can! Plan to attend the next meeting of the Membership Committee. It will be held by Zoom to facilitate participation. Contact Norma Sarkar or John White to receive an invitation or ask for more information.