Brighton Rotary Club Forum - Review Strategic Plan from 2014
Date: August 22, 2014
To: Clay Samis, Secretary, Brighton Rotary Club
From: Bruce Davis
SUBJECT: SERVICE REVIEW
I was recently requested by President Mark Walas to facilitate a “strategic planning” exercise for the Brighton Rotary Club. I was very happy to take this on.
From my perspective, the following conclusions can be drawn from this initial information gathering process:
- Club members are general happy with the overall functioning of the club.
- There is a desire to break away from the routineness of weekly meetings – the Club needs to mix it up a bit ( several suggestions are cited in the summary pages attached)
- The membership recruitment, selection and orientation processes need to be strengthened, supported by an “information manual” that will benefit not only new members, but veteran members as well. Educating prospective members as to their Club obligations may reduce the “knife and forker” perception that many members appear to have at present. There is a strong feeling that a Membership Committee should be struck for this purpose.
- There is confusion as to the criteria that is used to determine to whom and to what extent the Club provides financial and human resource support. Inconsistencies were cited by several respondents. Similar to the need for a documented membership policy, a similar written policy related to charitable support should be considered.
- Of all the Avenues of Service, Vocational Service is least understood by the members. This arguably presents the biggest opportunity for the Club, particularly if a “vocation criterion” is included in the membership recruitment process.
specifically each Avenue of Service, some comments received that were more general in nature included:
- The apparent lack of involvement of many members:
- “it’s always the same core people volunteering”
- “ we scramble at the last minute to get volunteers ”
- “Members have to be more generous with their time”
- “We seem to have abandoned the minimum attendance requirements”
- Several comments about partnered projects, both locally, as well as regionally, nationally and internationally
- “we are too serious and just work, and don’t take time to have fun and get to know each other”
Club Service
- An expressed need for an up-to-date member’s manual, to be used as both an educational tool for new and prospective members, as well as a way for all Rotarians, new and old, to be conversant with Rotary’s history, its constitution and by-laws, and its focus on the Avenues of Service ( “we have gotten away from this”, “every organization needs structure”, )
- Several comments regarding the format of club meetings
- “Friday meetings are becoming too routine”
- “Why not join another Rotary Club from time to time for a joint meeting ?”
- Change the venue from time to time ( eg Timber Ridge in summer )
- “bring a spouse” to a meeting
- More focus on Classification talks, more rigidly geared to a linkage between the members vocational background and its connection to the Club’s Vocational Service activities
- Rotary Minute not viewed with as much importance as it should be
- Membership selection and recruitment
- We need a Membership Committee
- A newly recruited member should receive an up-to-date information manual, including the expectations of his/her obligations as a Rotarian ( attendance, volunteerism, financial support for RI, etc. )
- Club members should receive background info on any prospective Rotarian to assist them in in the approval/disapproval process
- Selection of new members should be based on an understood criteria – is selection criteria being relaxed in an effort to get numbers back to where they once were ?
- Need to place emphasis on attracting current educators into club membership ( to strengthen Youth Avenue of Service )
- Board meetings
- “Some don’t like the length of our Board meetings – perhaps we should consider meeting twice a month “ ( can always cancel second meeting if all business can be covered in a shorter meeting)
- “I would like to see more of a team approach to the various avenues of service, rather than just a Director having sole responsibility. This would involve more Rotarians in the work and decision making of the Club and help integrate new members.”
- BUT…… “there are no other members willing to be part of each area’s of service committee.” ( Is there a disconnect here?)
General Discussion:
Brighton Rotary has a manual – R Dave recently gave me digital copy. Could use some updating.
Rotary has lots of training opportunities – RLI, District Assembly and others. This Club traditionally has been very helpful by paying registration fees for training.
Now District Conferance 2017 – The Club will pay $100 towards registration for any Rotarian in Club who has never been to a District Conference before.
Committees: we have 3 Committee's – 3 POD’s, each POD is a committee.
Committees need a chair / leader / coordinator / organizer, otherwise, no chair, the committee falls apart and nothing happens.
POD 3 – R Dave has taken lead – assigning duties etc. Result, we know who guest / speaker is Sept 22 – Rescue Auxilary Unit organized by R Michael.
We are all Volunteers
We have different styles – My experience with former bosses at work - Frank vs Bob. Bob was a dictator, he was king of the department. When I moved from Bob to Frank it was like a breath of fresh air. Frank was very possitive, easy to get along with, a people person. But Frank liked to take lots of people to meetings. I didn't like that, easier to make decisions with fewer people. I like dictator approach – simple, but not ideal for Rotary. May work okay in business, there is leverage. We have to work with one another, recognize each others strengths and weaknesses, get along. As R Jeff said, is it fun.
Committees – my ideal, no one person chairs more than one committee.
We don’t want too many Committees – don’t want to spend all our time in meetings, rather Just Do It!
What Committees do we want? Possible committees include:
- Membership
- Avenues of Service – Community – Dave and Daphne
- Vocational
- International
- Club Service
- New Generations
- Social – or have POD’s do it
- Service / BBQ – or have POD’s do it. But need police for BBQ / storage clutter.
- Fundraising – Auction, Golf others
- Public Relations - Dave
- Spelling Bee – Dave and Michael
- Foundation Walk
What do you want? What is important to you?
Intent with Club Forum's is to give members time after shorter club meeting to have their committee meetings as required.