Dixie Sunrise Club shares successful strategies for membership growth
Six years ago, the Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club decided to attract young professionals as our club’s average age was about 62 years old. We have succeeded over that time span to drop our average to about 51 years old and increased our membership by a net of 14 to date. These goals did not really kick in until about the last three years. We attribute our increases to the following.
- We are a local service-orientated club first and secondly a networking club. Our Service chairman has organized numerous local service projects that make a difference in our community and has gained the attention of the local media. That has created a lot of interest from younger members of our community. These service efforts have created the opportunity to build friendships with one another and our members feel they are contributing to the welfare of others in our community.
- Our club made a commitment to join the local Chamber of Commerce which again has created interest from our young professionals in the community.
- We have quarterly socials that we ask each member to bring their partner and a guest which creates comradery with our family members and friends
- We have created a Service membership level that allows younger people to join our club who might not be able to afford a full membership level. This membership level allows our members to participate in all club activities but they don’t have to pay for their meal if they do not attend a meeting. This cuts their cost of membership to be about half of a normal membership. This has become very popular for our younger members.
- Horse Play: We are fortunate to have a Sergeant of Arms that conducts horseplay and encourages everyone to get involved and does it with having fun in mind! A whole lot of friendly membership “jabbing” goes on that everyone seems to enjoy and get involved with.
- We created a club brochure that every guest and speaker receive before they leave the meeting. This brochure lets our guests and speakers know what Rotary is and what our club is about. We have been able to recruit quite a few speakers to join our club. This also is a tribute to our Administration Committee who arranges for many young professionals to speak.
- We ask every member to bring at least one guest per year to our meetings.
- We call every member that misses two meetings in a row to make sure they are OK and let them know we miss them.
As you can see this is and has been a total club effort. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
Dave Higbee
Membership Chair Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise