Reshaping Rotary
Message from District 9800 Head Office
It is a very exciting time to be a Rotarian in our part of the world. With the celebration of 100 years of Rotary and the Melbourne International Convention in 2023 we have a once in a generation opportunity to showcase our impact as people of action.
Whilst we celebrate our longevity and success as a service organisation, we need to also ensure we are well placed to be relevant, compelling and impactful into the next 100 years.
Rotary is great in many ways, and we must keep doing the things that make us who we are – our values, our vision, our passion for helping others.
However we cannot ignore the data:
- For many years we have seen a year on year decline in membership across our region, and a rising age profile – 24% drop in membership in the last 10 years, the average age in our clubs is over 60. Of the 50% of ages reported in My Rotary, 37.3% are over 60.
- We lose the majority of members who leave within their first 3 years of joining, so we are not engaging them well or not meeting expectations. In many cases we are not reflecting the make up of our communities and we have some difficulty attracting younger members. We hear that cost and time are barriers to joining.
- Many clubs struggle to get members to take on leadership roles, often because these are seen as too onerous.
- Global and local research has shown that the Rotary brand is highly respected but not very visible. We do not have a single Rotary voice in our region that not only identifies us but also enables others to easily connect.
- We have few national partners or sponsors.
We want your help on how best to capitalise on these opportunities and take us into the next 100 years.
>> What we are aiming to do
The District Governors of 2018-19 petitioned the RI Board to develop a proposed pilot structure for Rotary in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.
The purpose:
To develop a possible structure for our region that will help us be relevant for our members, contemporary, and flexible. We want a structure that will support Rotary clubs for service and growth, and enable us to take a coordinated and efficient regional approach to strategy, leadership, learning and development, public image, and local Rotary entities and programs. We want it to help support change while retaining the best of the existing. And we must also recognise our different cultures – we are 14 countries.
The scope:
To develop a pilot regional structure to support clubs – RI is out of scope, individual club structures are out of scope. In other words – what sort of regional structure will best serve our clubs?
A representative Planning Group and five Working Groups have been developing objectives to describe what we want to achieve/deliver from a regional structure. We do not yet have a defined structure.