Membership Seminar – RISE hosted by our Club

RISE - Retain and Induct for Service Excellence,

Membership growth is the life-blood of Rotary, as they say…  With a view to creating awareness amongst members about importance of membership retention and growth as well as apprising the newly joined Rotarians and prospective Rotarians of the immense potential of Rotary to enhance their lives – both professional as well as personal – a Seminar was organized by Zone III of District 3140 under the leadership of Avenue Chair Rtn.Chetan Desai on Friday, 19^th September, 2014 at Rotary Service Centre, Juhu, Mumbai.  The Seminar, which was hosted by our Club jointly with Rotary Club of Mumbai North Island with 15 other clubs from Zone III being the co-hosts, received overwhelming response from members and prospective members.

Forum Leader of the Seminar, PDG Bharat Pandya kicked-off the Seminar with his opening remarks followed by audio-visual presentations by Rtn.Chetan Desai.  This was followed by a slick presentation on the guiding principles and objects of Rotary by District Secretary & Convenor of the Seminar, Rtn.Virendra Widge. He also gave a glimpse of the various humanitarian projects being undertaken under the Rotary banner by various Rotary Clubs as well as its partner organizations viz. Inner Wheel Clubs, Rotaract Clubs and Interact Clubs.

Dist.Training Facilitator PP Rtn.Indumati Gopinathan spoke from her heart on how Rotary connects through everlasting friendships, fellowships and bonding while engaging in implementing sustainable projects in the community in the six common areas identified by Rotary International.  She gave personal examples from her life on how Rotary had positively shaped her persona and how unknown Rotarians from another country had come to her rescue to save the life of her nephew who had taken seriously ill at Bali in Indonesia. Apart from the global connect, Rotary also connects generations, families and communities through Interactors (rotary wing for school going kids), Rotaractors (for college students), Inner Wheel Clubs (for wives of Rotarians and women from the community), Senior Citizen Groups and Rotary Community Corps.

              

A few of the Rotarians shared their personal experience in Rotary.  Rtn.Vinod, a Rotarian since 19 years, had introduced as many as 56 members to the Rotary World.  Rtn.Saif Quereshi, a recent entrant to the prestigious Arch Klumph Society of The Rotary Foundation started his connect with Rotary as an Interactor and later was selected for Rotary Youth Exchange programme.  Rtn.Phanish Shetty spoke on how his Club – RC of Lokhandwala Complex Kandivli was transformed from a low membership to an enthusiastic and vibrant club with one of the best membership growth through involvement of members and prospective members in club projects.

Dist.Trainer PDG Rtn.Bansi Dhurandhar explained on importance of servicing the new Rotarians with an analogy of treating them as ‘our customers’.  As in the case of any business, existing customers need to be retained, so was the case with new Rotarians who need to be paid special attention by the senior Rotarians for effective assimilation and retention.

PDG Rtn.Bharat Pandya summed up the discussions with some very interesting and thought provoking slides and quotes. At the end, DG Rtn.Ajay Gupta thanked everyone for organizing the Seminar in a very professional way.  He was confident that the District would achieve its targeted growth of membership in the current Rotary Year.  He however cautioned the Clubs that the growth should not be achieved at the cost of quality of membership.

Our Club President Rtn.Mohan Joshi proposed a vote of thanks.