The Rotary Club of Hamilton Board of Directors are working hard to engage every Rotarian in our club. Over the past few months, our Rotary Club has seen significant changes to our membership. This gave us an opportunity to reflect, question, stratagize, and plan for the 2016-17 Rotary year. We have had some great conversations and your Board is listening. We will be implimenting many of the ideas and iniaitives that we heard from you.
Lower Dues!
We heard that our dues can be a barrier to new members (recruitment) as well as maintaining membership (retention). Your Rotary Board is pleased to confirm that we have lowered our dues for the 2016-17 Rotary year. We have adjusted our expences, streamlined operations, and have been able to make sure that our membership dues cover all costs associated with operating our Rotary Club. This means that the Sunshine Fund – our charitable arm of Rotary, will not have an administrative cost. It also means that 100% of funds raised for projects and iniaitives will go to support the great work of Rotary. As a result, we will operate like most Rotary clubs and engage volunteers to administer club activities in an efficient and effective manner. These changes have allowed us to reduce our membership fee by $50 per member. We are also actively looking at several ideas to help recruite new members and retain our current members in order to increase our membership.
Rotary at Sunset
For the past year, we have tried the “Rotary After Dark” concept, subtracting one meeting a month and hosting an evening meeting. After some conversations, we are rebranding Rotary After Dark to be Rotary at Sunset! The purpose of these additional casual meetings are to reengage Rotarians and make it easier for members to be involved in Rotary, introduce prospective members, and network with one another. The Rotary at Sunset meetings will occur on the first Thursday evening of each month. These special Rotary meetings will be an addition to our regular club meetings on Thursdays and provide greater flexibility should you or a potential new member not be able to make the regular Thursday lunch meeting at the beginning of each month. It will be a value added opportunity to network and meet your fellow Rotarians while enjoying more social time and having more fun! Our first Rotary at Sunset meeting will be in August.
We know that to engage new and current Rotarians, we need to adapt and change to meet the scheduling challenges of our membership. We will continue to have our weekly Thursday meetings with a focus on networking, speakers, and projects. In addition, on the first Thursday of each month, we will have a Rotary at Sunset meeting at a local restaurant or bar. These social meetings will count toward your attendance and will encourage greater social fun between our members. More information about the Rotary at Sunset meetings will be available soon… Mark your calendars for the great inaugural event in August!
As a member of the Rotary club of Hamilton, your attendance at club meetings and activities impact the success of the great things we do for those in need both locally and internationally. These gatherings give you the chance to:
- Transform Lives.You will have the opportunity to discuss, plan, and influence the world around you helping those in need.
- Connect with Passionate Leaders.Rotary club meetings are a place to strengthen connections to your community and form meaningful relationships that last a lifetime.
- Personal Growth.Our club offers workshops, conferences, guest speakers, and more – all aimed at helping you grow personally and professionally.
Fundraising and Supporting Rotary’s Great Work!
The Fundraising Taskforce has provided our Rotary Club with a solid plan to move successfully forward. The fundraising plan has been developed with your input to provide our Rotarians with a strong, common purpose, and direction. Our strength as a club is the ability to work together and take action both locally and internationally to help those in need through the various projects we support.
Our Rotary Club will be introducing several different fundraising opportunities in the coming year because of your feedback. Some of the initiatives include supporting our Rotary Club by introducing monthly giving opportunities to the Sunshine Fund. We will also be hosting several smaller fundraisers spread throughout the year that will appeal to a greater audience.
We will have a greater focus on our Rotary Forever Fund (our endowment fund at the Hamilton Community Foundation). We will be doing quarterly reports on how the funds raised are supporting projects. We will also be promoting publicly the great work that we do as Rotarians!
Our purpose remains the same: To help those in need and raise the necessary funds and volunteer hours to support projects and initiatives that increase literacy, help children & youth, eliminate polio and make our world a better place to live. Furthermore, we will do all of these initiatives while having fun!
There will be a lot of change and excitement in the 2016-17 year! It will take the efforts of every Rotarian to help us make our club great! We hope you will be part of the excitement in 2016-17 and be proud to tell others that you are a member of the Rotary Club of Hamilton!