I can think of nothing more destructive to the good will and happiness of our members than the abuse of their time, money or talent. This obligation to being good stewards of Rotary member’s investment is not limited to Rotary leaders; it is an obligation for all of us.
Probably the most preventable part of poor stewardship is the wasting our members (customers) time. Most Rotarians invest somewhere between a hundred to 200 hours a year while attending meetings, participating in service projects and being a part of fellowship activities. Assuming most of these people earn more than the minimum wage that amount to a commitment that exceeds the cost of dues, meals and contributions. Even if you don’t consider the financial value of time, you have to consider these folks can all utilize that time in many competing ways to achieve a personal level of satisfaction.
The greatest of those activities that consume our time would be Meetings. Far too often meetings do not start on time or end on time. How often do we wait a few extra minutes for the last straggler to arrive? That practice means everyone who arrives on time has their time wasted waiting for a person who isn’t on time. To make matters worse the straggler sometimes wants to take everyone’s time to revisit what happened in their absence. This is a problem that can be traced to Rotary leadership, but more often is a problem involving members outside of leadership.
There is a special place on my list of poor stewards for those leaders who are responsible for poorly planned meetings that lack an agenda or purpose. Meetings that are held because they are always held, even when there is nothing to accomplish. Do everyone a favor and rename those events fellowship activities. Then the people who want to get together have a time and place and no one feels they failed to meet an obligation by not attending. Sadly this could describe many of weekly meetings for some of our clubs.
Weekly meetings without well planned programs that engage the members are the warning shots across the bow that a club is in trouble. That is why the idea of being a good steward of member’s time is not a responsibility limited to the leaders of the club, but a responsibility every member should take seriously. We all have excellent weekly program from our own network or family and many of our best programs come from the membership of our own club.
Please be a leader in good stewardship of your fellow Rotarians time. Work to making attendance and participation in Rotary an enriching experience for everyone.