Welcome to New Era of Membership Engagement

Welcome to August, the Rotary membership month. This year’s membership month is unlike any other we have experienced before, due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has transformed how we do everything.

Many clubs in our district haven’t had face-to -face interactions since mid-March when in-person fellowships, committee meetings, member inductions and board installations ceased, as part of measures to  control the global pandemic.

Just a few months ago, would you have imagined attending as many fellowships as you want in a day, all from the comfort of your home or office? How about attending fellowships of clubs outside your city or country, without leaving your location?

There was no excuse to skip the Rotary District Conference and Assembly because all you needed to do was click a link and voila, you are in! The icing on the cake has to be attending a Rotary International Conference without the hassles of immigration processes and long-haul flights.

The virtual and online interactions have opened up a new world of opportunities, which coincidentally is in sync with the Rotary International theme for the year 2020/21. Unlike any generation before us, we have more tools at our disposal to increase our interactions and enrich our engagement with each other and our communities.

Technology has bridged the constraints of time and space. We can achieve more in shorter time spans by simply making use of the various virtual meeting platforms available to us. We should all embrace these new opportunities to further grow our membership, which increased by 30 interact clubs, 14 Rotaract clubs and 22 Rotary clubs in our district during the year 2020-21. Consequently, in the Rotary year ending June 30, 2020, we closed at 2,330 members compared with 2,270 members in the year 2018-19.

Our district’s strategic plan has laid out how to sustain growth of new clubs joining the Rotary family. At club level, the plan encourages each Rotarian to invite as many guests as they can to their weekly fellowships. The invitations, among other measures, are expected to grow each club’s membership by an average of 50% by June 30, 2021. In addition, the introduction of clustering clubs within the same geographical area gives us an opportunity to enrich the life of each Rotarian, as we serve our communities.

Happy Rotary Membership Month!