The creation of an eClub for District 5300 seemed like a good idea. As a part of turning that idea into reality I obtained a list of people who resigned from Rotary clubs in the district over the prior couple of years, from that list I identified a few hundred people for whom we had email addresses. These folks were more of a random collection than scientific selection.
I sent those folks an email and asked why they had terminated their membership hoping to identify some potential members for our new eClub. The results were somewhat predictable. Some had passed away while some had lost their job through retirement or termination. A few had left the area and expressed their intention of joining a new Rotary club in a new area. All of these folks accounted for approximately half of all responses.
The other half were provided responses that were far more interesting. The response that economic pressure forced them to voluntarily leave Rotary combined with a few who experienced economic pressure and were terminated by their club. You have to wonder how smart we are that we can’t find solutions to their challenges. This group seemed like a natural group of members in the new eClub that doesn’t have meal cost and lower than average dues. Seemed like a good idea, but these folks usually left their old club owing money and that seemed to preclude their joining the new eClub.
Another set of responses that was of interest centered on the simple idea that some joined Rotary for the idea of fellowship and community service. Some of these felt the lack of inclusion in the activities of the club. One person did not respond by email, but made the effort to call me to make sure I knew he felt like an outsider who never understood the insider jokes and terminology. He said he never resigned; he simply attended more erratically and finally received a letter of termination with a final bill. He was perplexed that no one seemed to notice his lack of attendance, only his lack of dues payment.
The group of responses that accounted for almost a third of the total that was most distressing was centered on one idea. No one asked them to do something. Even more distressing was a disappointment voiced by one that everything he was interested in being a part of seemed to be a permanent committee that was not accepting new participants. How distressing is that?
Two lessons for every member of Rotary comes to mind. The first centers on the idea of routinely following up with the people who have left our clubs to learn why we are losing their valuable participation. It would seem like common sense that the information gleaned from these inquiries might contribute to decreasing the loss of members in coming years.
The big lesson to me is the part about people leaving in disappointment over not being asked to do something. Most distressing of all has to be those who sought out an opportunity to serve only to be rebuffed. I am reminded of one Rotarian who had installed himself as the perpetual chair of his district RYLA committee and restricted participation to a committee that was limited to he and his son. It was his opinion that they ran a wonderful program with alumni from previous years as counselors and paid speakers who were not members of Rotary. Just think of how many opportunities for service were provided to those who did not belong to Rotary at the cost of missed opportunities to those who did belong to Rotary.