Nov 2012 Speaker - Rtn Roger Green, Chairman D1080 Membership committee + Council Mtg

Roger has been a rotarian for over 25 years and for more than half of that time he has volunteered on the District Committee. He has previously been the District Extension Officer and initiated the formation of 6 new clubs in his 3 years in that office. He is now Chairman of the Membership sub-committee and spoke very persuasively about the need to concentrate on attracting new members to our club and raising the profile of Rotary generally. He was very complimentary about the obvious emphasis we put on wanting new members clearly on the Homepage of our website. He pointed out that nowadays each club needs to have a lively and up to date presence on the web and in social media such as Facebook. The image of Rotary needs to move away from the concentration on dinners and rather bring out the social and active project side of the club in its advertising - we need to be aware that younger members are more likely to want to be active and busy, so ensure they are involved and feel useful in our projects. Roger talked about some new ideas eg.

• the new e-club initiative so travelling members can stay in touch (Skype and E-mail)
• suggested we consider, with his support, promoting a small satellite club that can meet at a different time and place from the main club - can we be the first in Cambridge?
• a business can now have a corporate membership and nominate some senior staff to share the membership and may compliment their charity/community/youth contributions.

The main meeting will be followed by a brief meeting of the Council to discuss our response to the new idea re the change of District boundaries proposal from Rotary GB&I and a possible Jan event in partnership with the Saffron Walden Club for 250 forces adults and children.