Club Assembly - Plan for 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024

Membership Group Team Leader John Kitching:

Over the last year Aireborough Rotary have lost 4 members of the club and have welcomed 1 new member and 1 transfer in from another club. As with the great majority of clubs it is therefore essential to attract new members.

It is also evident over the last year that several of our members feel that they have been unable to take as active a roll in Club events as they have previously or that they would like. Whilst other more active members work hard, along with several our ‘Friends’ generating full membership from this source is proving more and more difficult.

We recognise that maintaining and increasing membership is essential for any group or charity and is a challenge for all not only the Rotary movement. It is proposed that we investigate and utilise new and innovative methods to encourage membership i.e. family membership, staged membership.

We will continue to engage with our Friends of Rotary towards full membership of the Aireborough Rotary and seek further opportunities to increase their number and their involvement to encourage them to take a fuller role.

It is my intention to work with the Youth team to encourage an Interact club at 1 of our 4 senior schools in the next year, highlighting the advantages to the school and their pupils. If successful a Rotakids club could also be encouraged at one of the primary schools. Support from members for both ventures would be appreciated and over the next few months I intend to have a meeting to discuss what this would mean to members, our club and what I see as the potential benefits we could reap.

Our aim is, as always, to maintain high visibility, to inform and attract new and younger members to our club working within the guidelines of social engagement handed down to us by Rotary International, increasing our membership and our impact in our community.

                   CLUB ASSEMBLY STATEMENT -PLANS FOR 2022/23

Our plans for increasing membership were disrupted in 2020-2021 but were back on track in the last Rotary year. In the last 2 years we have lost 4 Club members so recruitment of new members is essential for the whole Rotary movement.This will ensure that the Club is able to maintain its programme of both projects and fund-raising events over the coming year demonstrating the impact the Club can have within our community

.The good news is that two new members, Jan Morley and Nicola Thornton have been welcomed into the Club in the last two months.

The membership team has been meeting on a regular basis working on ways to encourage new membership and will be rolling out its plan as the year progresses. Friends of Rotary continue to be seen as potential members.

We will continue to maintain high visibility aiming to inform and attract new and younger members working within the guidelines of more social engagement and the different opportunities afforded by new ways of joining Rotary. 

REPORT FOR THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING – 19 APRIL2022

Our current membership is: 

 33 Active members + 4 Corporate members and 5 honorary members.

We are currently discussing an Action Plan intending to increase our membership. Implementation is targeted for 1 July or sooner dependent upon progress. We have been disappointed with the lack of interest in membership uptake over the last two years but feel this is understandable given the overall circumstances.

The membership team is concentrating upon looking forwards and not back with new and interesting ways to encourage individuals to join Rotary and engage in local and international projects.

The hopes we had of starting a Rotaract Club at Leeds Trinity University have not come to fruition but all is not lost and we hope to restart recruitment in the near future.

Friends of Aireborough Rotary have been involved, interested and active in many of our events and now events are once again up and running, will be encouraged to volunteer to help at them.