Notes – 23 September 2021
Sergeant Ted Mason called the Zoom meeting to order and again mentioned Scotland (albeit snowy). He wondered if sending a Minister and 14 staff there was really progressing environmental causes. Sergeant Ted then introduced President Ian Grant.
President Ian, in welcoming members and guests, announced that our Guest Speaker would be Stuart Heal of Cromwell Rotary Club.
He told us that he had sold his business, having been strongly influenced by two Club members to retire, and congratulated John Bishop on his promotion.
John Tarbutt, in his special shirt, introduced Stuart Heal with notes of his achievements as a member of numerous Boards, including Rotary International, as well as the Chairman of NZ Cricket.
Stuart said that, rather than speaking for 29 minutes, he would prefer a Q&A session.
He gave us a little of his back story which included a visit to Nigeria in 1987, This was life-changing, seeing Rotary at work with polio and leprosy sufferers.
He joined the Rotary Club of Dunedin but nearly left what was an “old boys' club”. It was his experiences in Nigeria that motivated him to remain.
He said that he was lucky to have been involved in high-level Rotary and that the bureaucracy was ‘interesting’. However, 19 International Board members speaking different languages made any progress very cumbersome.
Rotary, Stuart continued, is one of the last philanthropically-driven clubs in the world and is good at recruiting new members but bad at retaining them. He felt that fund-raising by increasing membership was the wrong product and that Rotary could do better by working with projects rather than money.
His present Club is small, meets twice a month and does not record attendance. Like other “neat” Clubs, it is activity driven and very successful.
He told us that his children are not Rotarians, probably because of the current style of Rotary and the time involved in social rather than service projects. Rotary in India has exploded in membership while the USA is not doing so well – probably for the same reasons.
Re-districting is being considered, as is regionalisation. Both possibly useful and the post of District Governor may well become obsolete.
He was asked -
- How can Rotary change from being “a pale, male, stale and wealthy” organisation into one which helps the less fortunate and is more passionate about causes than its socialising?
- Why don’t we have Asian members?
- Where are all the women members?
- How should we grow membership?
- Do we really need to change?
- What would make Rotary stronger?
The answers lie in the fact that this is 2021, said Stuart, and that Rotary must change with the changing world.
- We need to reduce the number of meetings. One vocational and one social meeting a month has made Cromwell Club vibrant and stronger.
- Recasting the environment to make it even more welcoming to women and to other segments of our communities is essential.
- Rotary must be more relevant and, if it is to grow, we must make the changes.
- Driving up membership on numbers for financial reasons is wrong. Participation by new members in meaningful projects is vital to retention.
- Regionalisation and other structural changes may be difficult. We need to have a voice at top level nationally and internationally.
President Ian thanked Stuart for the inspiring advice and said that the Board should consider a focus group to move forward.
Bookarama (Ray Milner) - now 3 weeks away. Achievement House not presently available so he will collect books etc. when requested. A roster will be circulated for members to record their participation in the event.
Firewood (Ken Latham) – a few volunteers needed to complete work on the Blewden wood donatio
n.
Taste Waikato Books (Ian Grant) – safe alternative storage is being arranged.
While Auckland remains at Level 3, we will continue to hold Zoom meetings, stated President Ian who then closed this session.
