The more things change, the more they seem to remain the same. My membership in Rotary spans the better part of the past four decades and every year I hear the call to bring in more members so we can grow the organization. It makes sense that more hands, more heads and more hearts will enable us to accomplish more good in our community. Not to mention those hands, heads and hearts bring with them more wallets and financial resources. Certainly we would all like to see a larger Rotary presence in our communities.
Despite the clarion call and appeals of Rotary leadership on an annual basis we consistently bring in members at about 10% of our current membership. Not bad you say, except that 10% growth is balanced by an equal average 10% loss each year; translating to zero growth. I have paid close attention to these numbers since my nomination to be a district governor nearly 20 years ago and I could only wish zero growth is what our district has actually experienced. In fact, I have watched total membership decline at about 1% per year. That translates to fewer people doing more per person or the total level of service to our communities declining by an equal amount.
Is there really nothing we can do about that annual 10% loss of membership? People who no longer live in our neighborhood are not likely to continue as members; likewise the people who no longer have the necessary health or financial resources are good prospects for retaining as viable members of our clubs. I suspect they account for half of our annual losses of membership. That leaves the other 5% of annual membership losses to think about. What if we paid attention to that 5% and cut the loss to 4% or even 2%? We would see an actual gain in membership; assuming we maintain our 10% membership gains on an annual basis.
One tenet of life I have tried to follow is the law of holes, “When you are in a hole; stop digging.” That idea loosely translates to the idea that we can and should identify the causes of our 5% annual loss of membership and try to stop doing the things that cause those losses.
These comments are brought to the front by a recent comment I received by email from a Rotary leader I have always respected. The comment regarded a member who recently terminated their membership as a result of an internal difference of opinion that turned into a heated dispute between that member and current leaders of the club. The comment was, “good riddance, that person just didn’t fit in with our club.” The result was a lost member and maybe a loss of one or two other members. Translated into percentages that incident resulted in a better than 5% loss of membership.
Rotary has a long time policy of membership made up of a diversity of occupations and a diversity of ideas. Without a doubt, it took a long time to add the ladies of Rotary to that diversity of ideas. What if we stopped driving folks to leave Rotary over a difference of opinions? Paul Harris is quoted to have said that tolerance of others views is the key to Rotary’s long term success. I think he was on to something there.