Strategies for Rotary’s growth

As Rotary president, one of the key priorities of RIPE Mario de Camargo will be “to retain you all, keep you engaged as too many — 155,000 Rotarians — are quitting Rotary each year. But we don’t own Rotary as we are here for a purpose, and we have to keep it going for the next generation with a good succession plan,” he said, addressing the membership conclave in Hyderabad.

With the average age in Rotary being 62 and declining membership, “I have a nine-point vision programme to increase our numbers. First, you have to promote new format clubs, and for that let us evangelise the myriad club alternatives Rotary has to offer such as satellite, companion, cause-based, and enterprise or corporate clubs.” He recommended resurrecting dying clubs (with less than 20 members) as they don’t have a critical mass to survive. “We need a focused approach to large clubs that have lost a large number of members, with specific programmes to revive their connect in their communities,” he said.

Rotary leaders must engage former members, reach out to the youth through Rotaract, RYLA, GSE and NGSE professionals, and Rotary Action Groups, develop rapport with professional bodies of lawyers, engineers, architects, businessmen, trade chambers and government officials, and project Rotary’s work on social media to boost membership, said de Camargo.

“RI is the best school for leadership training in the world. We spend $6.5 million at the International Assembly to groom 500 district governors and this is an investment for Rotary’s growth.”

A 1.4 billion market

India, with its 1.4 billion population, offers a humongous market for Rotary’s growth, even as 450 million joined the country’s middle class last year, he said citing a recent report. “We have to identify and map new localities for Rotary to grow. The new DGs must select their AGs who can form new clubs in unchartered territories,” he said.

Every district must set forth three-year goals with the DGs, along with DGEs and DGNs, charting out long-term plans and schedules with unity of purpose, said RID Raju ­Subramanian. He urged district leaders to hold pre-induction sessions for new members, and identify their needs so that they participate in club activities.

Clubs must do a ‘satisfaction survey’ among members and ensure there is 100 per cent attendance in weekly meetings, he said. RID Anirudha ­Roychowdhury noted that Rotary has taken a “paradigm shift by embracing digital technology to stay relevant.” He called for identifying the areas of concern such as declining membership, leadership continuity, sluggish adaptability, and the last-mile challenges in eradicating polio from the world.

RIDE K P Nagesh said that through the RAG (Red-Amber-Green) analysis “we are targeting to achieve three lakh in membership in all the four zones by June 2027. At present, there are 1.78 lakh Rotarians across 4,616 clubs in 41 districts in India.”

Rotary must sync with the times

In Kolkata, RIPE de Camargo addressed 600 delegates from 10 RI districts. “In the last 20 years, India saw an explosive growth of 103 per cent in membership (next only to ­Taiwan, posting 127 per cent), whereas USA, Canada, Great Britain and ­Ireland, and Australia had a sharp fall in numbers. We need a long-term plan for membership growth,” he said.

Earlier, at a press meet, replying to a question from Rotary News about the Taliban regime banning the PolioPlus drive in Afghanistan, de Camargo said, “In the last four years, the polio battle has had to face challenges of militancy, ignorance, prejudice, logistic nightmare and a porous mountainous terrain in the Pak-Afghan border. Rotary will not give up its efforts to vaccinate children in Afghanistan.” So far there are 40 known polio cases in Pakistan (19) and Afghanistan (21) this year. “Our power is advocacy, not raising money. Out of $21 billion spent on our polio eradication efforts since 1985, Rotary spent $2.7 billion, while the balance $18 billion was raised by our partners such as WHO, UNICEF, CDC and the Gates Foundation.”

Rotary wanted to celebrate a polio-free world in 2005 itself to coincide with its centennial year, he said. “Here we are not just fighting a disease, but also people’s ignorance and lack of public healthcare, hygiene and related social issues.” Rid of polio, countries such as India and Brazil must maintain the vaccination level at 95 per cent children for collective immunity to act as a barrier against the resurgence of wild poliovirus, he added.

The RIPE met the members of RC Calcutta at the Rotary Sadan, and was briefed on their iconic projects.

Pictures by V Muthukumaran