Today we held a Club Assembly for the purpose of discussing the SNP Rotary’s future. Topics up for consideration were reversing declining membership, should we continue with ongoing service projects, potential new service projects, changes in meeting frequency & venue, how dues are assessed, and raising our profile through advertising and potentially partnering with other local service organizations.
The discussion began with some data regarding membership globally, nationally and in New Jersey. Rotary is growing in parts of Asia such as India, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Korea, but stagnant in places like Brazil, Mexico, and Italy, and shrinking, materially, in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and Japan. Rotary has shrunk by roughly 30+% in New Jersy over the past several decades. Twenty years ago, NJ had seven districts. Today there are three districts, and we are expected to contract to a single statewide district in 2026. In 2005, there were 7302 Rotarians in NJ. Today that figure has fallen to 4460 and the demographics are not favorable. It was noted that many other social and religious organizations are experiencing the same loss of membership – we are not alone.
The SNP Rotary has decreased from roughly fifty regular members fifteen years ago to thirty members, today, with five honorary members. Regular weekly attendance varies from ten to fifteen.
At today’s assembly, we had eighteen in attendance and all members participated in a lively discussion.
We began by noting we have given out scholarships for one hundred years – something we are all proud of, but the Summit zip code shows nearly three hundred 501(c)3 organizations, and many of them distribute scholarships. We are not unique in this endeavor. It was suggested we may consider finding other ways to employ our limited resources. Several members were open to this, but there was also push-back. It was suggested we could perhaps limit scholarships to the InterAct club which could also be a boost to the significantly reduced membership of that club in the high school. This topic will be open for discussion over the next several months, or possibly longer.
There were suggestions about advertising. We have never advertised, but there are low-cost/no-cost avenues available to us. We also have a very limited social media presence. Happily, one of our members volunteered to undertake a venture into this area– a most positive development. There was also a suggestion to see if we could get local real estate brokers to make their clients aware of our Club.
We discussed a variety of methods to assess dues, possibly eliminating the up-front annual payment for meals and moving to pay-as-you-eat; this creates other problems in scheduling but could be dealt with. We talked about more evening meetings at venues with a cash bar – many people simply find lunch difficult – we can alternate between lunch and evenings.
We discussed partnering with other like-minded organizations such as the Junior Leage, the Chamber of Commerce or possibly other near-by Rotary Clubs – all unexplored opportunities.
There was general agreement that to increase membership we needed to revitalize our reason for being. We have structure, organization, and members with solid ties to the community. We all realize there are many needs in and around Summit. We have the ability to identify them and as a 100-year-old service organization, the capacity to become a more relevant factor. We also discussed that this is only the first step in a longer journey and if we don’t have buy-in by a majority of our members, not much will change.
This was a good start. One must identify a problem before it can be fixed. We’ll see what happens and have a follow up meeting to check our progress in about six months. In the interim, we will begin to shape our second century.