I attended the District 7780 membership seminar this fall. Brad Howard was one of the speakers and it was terrific. The video below is from a different event but gives a good sense of the talk.
Having been membership director I found Brad's comments a great contrast to the norm for the membership function.
What Brad suggested as a way to recruit members, and to motivate those you already have to stay, also applies to me personally. We're in the process of getting sponsors and selling advertisements for the 2014 Winterfest, a collaboration between the club and the city of South Portland. Why am I doing sales? I hate doing sales, and I'd just as soon get a tooth drilled, at least the tooth would be over in an hour. Because I need to learn to do sales, I don't want to, I need to for my business. And this was exactly Brad's point, Rotary gives members opportunities to improve themselves, not just opportunities to do service.
Brad Howard Keynote Address from Andy Mills on Vimeo.
Rotary provides opportunities to learn leadership, public speaking, sales, project management, and more.
It also provides a great networking opportunity to those willing to go the extra distance. Unless your the member of a really large club, the in house networking opportunities have limits. But as a member, all of the Rotary world is yours, you just need to show up at someone elses meeting or event. It's a huge potential network. Getting known to this network is simple, just be willing to help.
