Membership Info for Clubs
A Fresh Approach
New and different club models will attract diverse leaders to Rotary. Watch the video above to learn more.
Rotary clubs continue to demonstrate their value by staying connected to members and responding to changing needs in the community. Read about clubs around the world who are finding ways to adapt to new challenges and meeting online.
Use these resources to increase your club's value:
- Assess your club
- Engage current members
- Connect with prospective members
- Follow your membership leads
- Make new members feel welcome
- Develop your club
- Start a new club
- Stay current
Not sure where to start? Our Club Planning Assistant can help.
Assess your club
Use these resources to see if your club is meeting members' needs and reflecting the community:
- Club Planning Assistant — Answer questions about your club to get specific advice to address your club’s challenges. Then build the suggested strategies into your club’s membership plan.
- Rotary Club Health Check — Identify your club's problem areas and make changes to help it stay relevant for members and the community.
- Is Your Club Healthy? — Take this Learning Center course to help your club improve its member experience, service and social events, public image, and club operations.
- Understanding Membership Reports: Getting Started — Learn how to use membership data to determine where to focus your membership efforts.
- Membership Assessment Tools — Analyze your member profile to identify prospective members and diversify your membership.
- Representing Your Community's Professions (classification assessment)
- Diversifying Your Club (member diversity assessment)
- Finding New Club Members (prospective member exercise)
- Improving Your Member Retention (retention assessment and analysis)
- Enhancing the Club Experience (member satisfaction survey)
- Understanding Why Members Leave (exit survey)
- Building a Diverse Club — Take this Learning Center course to identify opportunities to connect and engage with underrepresented prospects in your community. By better representing your community, you can increase your club's capacity to serve.
Engage current members
Use these resources to learn strategies that will keep members involved:
- Best Practices for Engaging Members — Take this Learning Center course to develop strategies for engaging people at all stages of membership.
- Practicing Flexibility and Innovation — Take this Learning Center course to help you better serve the needs of members and prospective members.
- Find ideas, a FAQ, and other resources on rotary.org/flexibility.
- Enhancing the Club Experience — Tailor this member satisfaction survey to get opinions on your club's future. Then act on the results and consider implementing your members' ideas.
- Improving Your Member Retention — Learn when and why members leave your club and generate strategies to keep them engaged.
- Connect for Good — Encourage members to get involved in their club, community, and the Rotary world for a more meaningful experience.
- Understanding Why Members Leave — Use this exit survey to address the reasons that members may be leaving your club.
- Club Innovation Stories (audio recordings) — A series of recorded stories highlighting the innovative work being done by clubs all around the world.
- Recognize members for their dedication and service to the club, community and to our organization.
- Connect members with opportunities to develop their professional skills and expand their networks.
- Club Programming Vimeo Channel – Use these videos from recent Rotary events to supplement your club meetings. Videos range from 10-25 minutes.
Connect with prospective members
Use the strategies and ideas in these resources to connect with potential members:
- Engaging Younger Professionals — Welcoming younger professionals into Rotary is essential for us. Our digital kit will help you rethink membership and bring emerging leaders into your club.
- Strategies for Attracting New Members —Take this Learning Center course to help draw prospective members, update your club's experience, and better highlight what it does well.
- Customizable club brochure — Design your own club brochure using the template on Rotary's Brand Center. Choose images and wording to best represent your club.
- Discover Rotary — Show this presentation to prospective members or at your club's public events. Add content and images specific to your club, and have prospective member brochures available.
- Finding New Club Members: A Prospective Member Exercise — Try these strategies to attract qualified members for your club.
- Creating a Positive Experience for Prospective Members — Working with prospective members is a delicate task. Find tips and ideas to determine whether membership would match their needs as well as your club's. Learn what you can do to ensure that prospects have a positive experience, regardless of whether they join.
- Guide to Corporate Membership — Learn how to engage your local businesses and offer a new membership type to a few of the business employees.
Follow your membership candidates
Many prospective members express their interest in Rotary through rotary.org/join. If you are a club or district leader, you will receive an email alert letting you know when prospective members have been assigned to your club or district. Check often — these prospective members are waiting to hear from you.
These resources can help you understand what to do with membership leads:
- Online Membership Leads course — This Learning Center course will show how a prospect experiences the membership leads process, and how club and district leaders can create a consistent, positive experience for prospective members.
- Connect to Membership Leads — Learn how to find and track prospective members who want to get involved.
- Managing Membership Leads presentation — An in-depth training tool for helping clubs and district leaders understand the entire process for managing membership leads.
- How to Manage Membership Leads (for clubs and districts). Learn how to find and manage your online membership leads.
Make new members feel welcome
Use these resources to celebrate new members, develop an orientation program, and get them involved early and often.
- Welcome to Rotary — Sharing this inspiring video with new members when they join.
- Kick-start Your New Member Orientation — This Learning Center course shows how to make your club's new members feel welcome, appreciated, and valued.
- Introducing New Members to Rotary: An Orientation Guide — Find ideas for engaging new members, getting them involved, and giving them a meaningful Rotary experience.
- Rotary Basics — Give this comprehensive overview of Rotary to new members or order it for club reference. Alternatively, send new members a link to the Rotary Basics online course.
- Connect for Good — Encourage members to get involved in their club, community, and the Rotary world for a more meaningful experience.
- New Member Welcome Kit — Order a welcome kit from your local, licensed Rotary vendor or put one together using the resources in this section.
- Rotary membership certificate — Customize a certificate for your new members and present it to them when you officially welcome them to your club.
Develop your club
Find ideas for planning and strengthening your club in these resources:
- Committing to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion — This Learning Center courses will help you learn more about Rotary's DEI statement, what DEI means, and how you can put it into practice to create positive experiences.
- Strengthening Your Membership: Creating Your Membership Plan — Develop a long-term strategy for boosting membership.
- Be a Vibrant Club — Learn 10 best practices shared by vibrant clubs worldwide, along with regional versions featuring local success stories.
- Club flexibility — Learn about flexible membership and meeting options; view frequently asked questions, governance documents and start guides for alternative membership types and flexible meeting formats.
- Club Membership Committee Basics — Enroll in this learning plan to learn more about your responsibilities in developing a strategic plan to engage and attract members.
- Club Membership Committee Checklist — Follow these steps to identify prospective members, introduce them to your club and Rotary, invite them in a meaningful way, and be sure to engage them and get them involved.
- Your Membership Plan — This Learning Center course will teach you how to create a plan that includes steps your club can take to strengthen its membership.
- Leadership Development — Help your members develop their leadership skills through mentor programs, leadership roles, online courses in the Learning Center, and other opportunities.
Start a new club
Find ideas for starting a club in these resources:
- Starting a Rotary Club — Learn what you need to do to form a club.
- Rotary Club Models — All clubs share similar values and a passion for service, but no two clubs are the same because each community has its own unique needs. Learn about different club models that will attract new audiences in your region.
- Guide to Satellite Clubs — Understand the benefits a satellite club can have and the steps for starting one.
- Guide to Passport Clubs — Learn how clubs can operate in a way the gives their members freedom to attend other club meetings and events and fulfill their own club obligations through service efforts.
Learn more about starting a club.
Stay current
Stay up-to-date by:
- Understanding the current state of Rotary's Membership: how we got here, who is joining, who is leaving — and the opportunities we all have to make membership a top priority.
- Taking courses in the Learning Center
- Sharing resources and best practices in Learning Topics in the Learning Center
- Watching recordings of past webinars
- Subscribing to our Membership Minute newsletter
- Swapping ideas on the Membership Development Best Practices Discussion group
- Learning about best practices for hosting online meetings
Tools
- Keep track of your prospective member candidates:
- View your membership lead reports:
- Track your club's progress in Rotary Club Central.
Rotary support
- District membership committee
- District governor or assistant governor
- Rotary coordinators
- Regional Membership Officers
Professional print resources
Share these files with a professional printer in your community to produce high-quality, printed resources locally.