Vision for 2006-2007

This is the report of the Public Relations and Member Development Committee.  Your committee chairman attended the District Assembly in Perth back at the beginning of May and convened a Committee Meeting on 9th May.

As far as membership development is concerned we have inducted five new members for the second successive year.  There must now be a period of consolidation where all these new members are allowed to grab some leadership and take up initiatives.  I am delighted to see three of those ten on Council for next year and so many of the others given a full supporting role.  May I remind rotarians that you are asked at the new members induction to welcome new rotarians and assist in their integration into our club.  This should not be forgotten as the consequences could just as easily be that we lose ten new rotarians.

Not for that reason may I stress, the Membership Development Committee are still asking for you to give us five this next year.  All around us rotary is leaking members, we too are unlikely to avoid this and so we must keep the ball rolling in terms of attracting new members.  We have also as yet, to seriously address the women in rotary issue.  With all due respect to the probably long suffering Stephanie, I think Stephanie's arrival has allowed us to be too complacent.  Yes, we have a lady member - we can tick the box.  But remember we got Stephanie on a Bosman transfer from Forres.  We really still have to induct a lady or ladies of our own.  I hope that Stephanie can add her influence to attracting some lady members in the coming year.

In an effort to assist members introduce potential members we will repeat in November the successful Rotary Information Evenings when our own members stand up and give short messages about our Rotary. 

This drive for new members will be enforced by the new 20 point Rotary GB&I Marketing Plan.  Now don't worry I am not going to expand on every one of these but the gist of this is

• the introduction of a new brand identity featuring the Rotary Wheel with the strapline "Humanity in Motion".

• internally "Service Above Self" remains

• distribution of District, Club and National Rotary publications in public places

• wear your Rotary pin with pride and encourage friends to ask you about Rotary

You will have noted that I have moved from talking about new members to talking about communications.  The two are interlinked and little surprise that the two functions are combined in one committee.  The size of the task does mean that the committee will need to get involved.

Our major form of communication is the West Fife Story.  Several years ago we replaced the photocopy with the online version at www.rcwf.co.uk but when I attended District Assembly I was impressed by the work of Rotary GB&I in developing a branded website that all clubs could adopt.  I was possibly one of the biggest cynics in the room because having had to move hundreds of stories and resize pictures on two occasions as Dunfermline Athletic changed websites I am not a great believer in moving to something over which you have little control.  But I did recognise that the flexibility of the Rotary GB&I version where all members can simply upload news items and  removing the over reliance on me doing almost everything with the website, had its advantages. After a brief discussion with our mother club's representative, Bill Spence we concluded that if all of Rotary GB&I changed to this system there was no way that Rotary GB&I could change the website design without a major outcry.

On 29th May you were all informed by e mail about the new West Fife site on the Rotary GB&I server and you should have tested your user name and password.  If you have not already done so pleas do so asap.  If you tried and failed speak to me. Congratulations to Ken Davison who has not only logged in but uploaded a picture to go with his profile. One of the advantages of the new website is that all club communications can be done via it.  With the addition of a 'members only' section Club Council Minutes can be available to all.  Committee reports can be held in the Members Only section and so the web becomes both an internal and external means of communication and any messages for circulation can be made by ticking a box.

This is the way forward.  Everyone needs to chip in to make this the perfect solution.  It is not hard, it will be fun for those of you who have never uploaded news online and it is important because without good communication members can be isolated and drop out.  I look forward to the assistance of not just my committee, where I know Ian Harper is volunteering a reporting role in my absence, but also of every one of you. 

Don't be afraid to upload reports remember I will always come along and fix anything that needs it and to apply some consistency with the use of uppercase, colour and fonts. We need you to become webwise and to be on the look out for even more members to further strengthen this club of ours and keep the forward thrust that we started two years ago into stronger membership.