Membership Corner - August 24, 2015
What Do We Say To A Prospective Rotarian?
By Tom Sturiale
You are asked to call or to meet a person named on your club’s target list of prospective Rotarians. What do you do? What do you say? How do you approach him/her?
Those are the questions I hear from many Rotarians. We might all approach this task in a different way, but there are also some constant themes that are appropriate. I will present an approach that you can try. Obviously, you would have to tailor the communication to your own local club. It would be great if you would develop your own version of an “elevator” or “introductory” talk and send it to me. Maybe we can compile an assortment of approaches to be distributed to everyone.
How about this for a short introduction? “Hello Sam, my name is Tom and I am a member of the Rotary Club of Framingham. It was suggested by one of our members that you may be interested in learning about our Rotary Club. If you have some time, I would like to tell you about Rotary. You do – that is great! I will be happy to meet with you for a few minutes at your convenience.”
At your first introductory meeting you might say: “Rotary was begun under the direction of a businessman, Paul Harris, in 1905 in Chicago. He started Rotary, which derives its name from the early habit of “rotating” club meetings among the various offices of the early members. Rotary has grown into one of the world’s largest, most benevolent and most active service clubs, with more than 1.2 million members in 34,000 clubs in 200 countries.”
“Our Framingham club of 50 members is one among 51 clubs in our district of Central Massachusetts, with a total of 1,500 members. We have more 10,000 members in 500 clubs in the Northeast. While all clubs are independently managed, we act with common Rotary themes. Our overriding objective is to make the world and our community a better place.
“We meet weekly at Ken’s Restaurant on Route 9 in Framingham, from 12:00 to 1:30, for lunch, fun, fellowship, networking and a speaker. But since we are busy folks, we expect no more than 50 percent attendance.
“Locally, each club supports many community efforts through fundraisers of many types – pancake breakfasts, craft fairs, auctions and carnivals. We use the funds to support high school scholarships, community charities, Boy/Girl Scouts clubs, senior citizens, food pantries and international projects. Our objective is to make the community a better place to live - and to have fun and satisfaction in doing it. As Rotarians, we all find that the more we give, the more we get.
“The best way to gain an understanding of Rotary is to attend a meeting. Would you like to come as my guest next week, and meet some of the members?”
At this point, you may simply respond to any questions the prospective member may have. You may want to invite the prospective member to another meeting or a Rotary function. Assuming there is some mutual interest, the following is more information that you may share in subsequent meetings.
“We have shared with you a quick glimpse into Rotary on an international and local level. It is a dynamic environment, where every member has the opportunity to get involved at any and all levels of service, where one can get to meet folks from many avenues of life locally and internationally, where one can really give back to the community among like-minded people, and where one can derive tremendous personal satisfaction in making the world a better place.
“Rotary clubs have a mantra of five Avenues of Service – Club, Vocational, Community, International and Youth Service - and we are very active in each area. Club service deals with the running of the clubs – weekly meetings, speakers, committees, fun, fellowship and friendship. Vocational service involves guidance of young people, mentoring and sharing life experiences with students. Community service aims at helping local charities, food pantries, senior-citizen support, Scouts, Boys/Girls Clubs and veterans. International service supports the Polio project, water and sanitation projects, computer projects in Zambia, visiting teams to Central America for local building projects, and countless other projects. And lastly, youth service supports children of all ages, Headstart, Interact Clubs in middle and high school (junior Rotary Clubs), Rotaract clubs in colleges, student exchanges with foreign countries, youth-leadership programs and high school scholarships. Every year, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards sends 175 high school juniors to a three-day training program at a local college. Through RYLA, our district has spent almost $500,000 training 3,500 future leaders during the last 20 years. Our Framingham club alone has invested well over $500,000 in high school scholarships of $4,000 to $5,000 each during the last dozen years.
“In the last 15 years, the members of our district have contributed more than $6 million to local and international projects through The Rotary Foundation. Rotary is best known for its worldwide effort to eradicate polio, and has been largely successful, with polio now remaining in just two countries – Pakistan and Afghanistan. Nigeria was just declared polio-free. Our international-service objectives fall into six distinct areas – peace resolution, disease prevention, water and sanitation, basis education, community development, and maternal and child health. There are literally thousands of projects supported by Rotary Clubs throughout the world dedicated to these objectives.
“Each Rotary club is a great organization made up of scores of incredible people devoted to improving the world one step at a time. We would like very much to have you as a part of our family. Will you be interested in joining our Rotary Club?”
District 7910 Rotarians: Please review, comment, criticize, rewrite your own version and share it with the district by sending to me. I will compile all inputs and distribute. Send to: tsturiale36@gmail.com
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Tom Sturiale, vice chair of District 7910's Membership Committee.