News
Introduction
The issue of membership is now something of a perennial talking point in Rotary Clubs nationally and internationally.
 
That is of course not peculiar to Rotary whose membership has held up well relative to other organisations. For examples Jaycees which in 1976 had 400 clubs in the USA and 350,000 members last reported membership at 12,000.
 
If for Pakuranga Rotary Club members, a declining membership is seen as a concern then there are a number of possible responses one of which might include merging with another club.
 
Alternatively we might decide that forming active working partnerships with other local clubs would be a solution or instead, have a whole club focus on attracting new members.
 
Members will have views on this and 
should be prepared and willing to discuss and share their thoughts with others and with the Board. 
 
This Bulletin contains three pieces that relate to membership and others are encouraged to also contribute their thoughts to future Bulletins. 
 
Subject to editorial standards and to ensuring any contributions sit well with the Four Way Test the Bulletin is a vehicle for sharing. 
 
 

 
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Speakers
Past Speakers
Aug 16, 2021
DG Steve Chaney
Rotary 2021-2022
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Calendar
Rotary Basic Education and Literacy Month
Sep 01, 2023 - Sep 30, 2023
 
Spring time
Sep 01, 2023 - Sep 30, 2023
 
Meeting - 4 September 2023
Howick Club
Sep 04, 2023
5:30 PM – 7:45 PM
 
International Day of Democracy
Sep 15, 2023
 
Meeting - 18 September 2023
Howick Club
Sep 18, 2023
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
 
International Day of Peace
Sep 21, 2023
 
World Maritime Day
Sep 28, 2023
 
International Day of Older Persons
Oct 01, 2023
 
Rotary Economic and Community Development Month
Oct 01, 2023 - Oct 31, 2023
 
International Day for Disaster Reduction
Oct 13, 2023
 
United Nations Day
Oct 24, 2023
 
World Polio Day
Oct 24, 2023
 
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A new member
Fittingly for a Bulletin that has membership as its main theme, at last Mondays meeting the club welcomed new member Ram Govindarajulu with his wife Yogi Buvanasekaran.
 
 
A look at the numbers 
I was talking to Bulletin Editor Allan the other day and said that I had collected some Rotary membership numbers for discussion  and Allan promptly said to write something for the Bulletin! Many of you know my view that Rotary clubs should be measured by the amount of service they provide the community and not their membership numbers, so I will present some of the information I have gathered and try not to promote any particular view.
 
RI General Secretary John Hewko spoke to a meeting of future District Governors in Abu Dhabi recently and said “Our membership has been hovering around 1.2 million over the past 20 years. We are seeing significant growth in Asia, Africa, Far East and Eastern Europe, but in the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand we have a membership crisis. If the current trends continue, in 10 years North America will have 15% of the world’s Rotarians and Asia will have 50%.” This is probably pessimistic but the trend is certainly there. I receive the Indian Rotary magazine each month and then pass it on to Govind. It has hundreds of examples each month of good community service projects performed by clubs and it is no coincidence that Rotary is growing there. They fund their own way too.
 
 
 
I considered writing to John to present the view that he was being unkind to New Zealand as I believe that we were more harshly affected by covid than almost anywhere else in the world and our ability to meet was so restricted that it is amazing that Rotary still exists here! I still find it hard to appreciate that Auckland was under Police blockade for so long, that weddings, funerals and immigration [and Rotary meetings] were so controlled, and that most social challenges were picked up and paid for by government. [The impact of covid restrictions on our fundraising is something we have seen in the number of applications to Trusts such as Chenery and June Gray.] It became personal for us in Pakuranga as we lost our satellite club which was focussing on projects in schools but was denied entry to school grounds.
 
Is it any surprise that in Australia and New Zealand 600 of our 1232 clubs have less than 20 members and 172 of these have less than 10? The biggest club in New Zealand is Wellington with 75 members. In New Zealand we now have about 6200 Rotarians in 236 clubs in 5 Districts. In our area we had 12 members in a combined Botany/East Tamaki club in 2018/19 but now the club has gone. Earlier, Manurewa and Takanini amalgamated and they are now down to 7 members. This experience with amalgamation is echoed throughout New Zealand and Australia.
 
The current club memberships in our area are – Half Moon Bay 45, Howick 33, Highbrook 14, Sommerville 13, the new Botany with 20 [new] members, and Pakuranga with 33.
If you look internationally it can be depressing as you see that the Philippines, for example, in the past five years has started 160 new clubs and terminated 47 while we in New Zealand and Australia started 48 clubs and terminated 154.  What is relevant is that with 33 active members we can achieve Govind’s plans for our year and that will make us an attractive club. Our recent Presidents have given us the base and we need to build on it. My personal wish is that we ask young people to join us in our service, not as members but as a support team so that they will experience the pleasure that we feel in helping others and by doing this we truly build our future. Now is the time to look long term and not seek short term answers.
 
I have rushed through our situation in the hope that you might read to the end and I am always ready to discuss what I have said. The key is for us to be positive and active. The Regionalisation team will encourage us next year to form Rotary Community Groups of clubs but let us start our activity now!
Why might membership be an issue
 
From the halcyon days of the late 1900s when membership of our club was up over 80 we have quite steadily become smaller. This is despite the somewhat herculean efforts to build membership by Ken Holmes and Peter Hawkins to name just two. It's been something that has also got my attention and below are some of the factors that have undoubtedly contributed.  
 
 
  • While younger people in New Zealand and much of the Western world get involved in individual causes and projects, they seem much less likely or willing to join service clubs. Rotary has in fact held up well in terms of membership compared to organisations such as Lions, Kiwanis and Jaycees. Even finding up to date membership numbers for those clubs is difficult. 
  • In the past Rotary was seen as, and was in fact,  somewhat of an elite organisation. Being invited to be a member carried social cachet. Along with the good work that clubs did they also generated business contacts and encouraged business and social networking. That type of networking is now done differently and is therefore less likely to be a reason why people might become members. 
  • The changing pattern of employment may also have contributed.  Statistics show that younger people move from company to company and/ or business to business much more often than was once the case. The gold watch for 50 years service with a single employer would be extremely rare now. In a similar sense, do newer members to Rotary remain active members for as long as some of the stalwarts of our club have? 
  • Families are now much more likely to involve two fully employed adults and a regular meeting along with other commitments makes being an active member more difficult. As we can see in our own club very few, if any,  of our own eligible children are Rotarians. 
  • Clubs have struggled to move with the times and the age, gender and cultural profile of many clubs does not reflect that of the wider population. We are of course all lovely people but it’s hard to see how we might be an attractive club for younger people and especially younger women. 
  • The structure of the organisation places a significant weighting on the regular meeting. That is often not what those people who want to roll up their sleeves and get involved in a project or cause are looking for. That is the ratio of meeting to actual action may not fit the needs of at least some. 
  • As membership has aged what people are looking for from Rotary has changed. The attraction of “Friends of Rotary” appears to be largely the comradery. Likewise, the ability of members to use their own business or business contacts to generate resources for club projects has reduced. 
None of this should be taken as a signal to simply give up but understanding the factors that potentially best explain the membership situation can assist in thinking about how the impact of that might best be addressed. 
Merger discussion
 
The possibility of a future club merger is something that has been talked about now informally for some time.
The two subcommittees, one from Pakuranga and one from Howick charged with furthering that discussion met at the Howick Club. 
D. Kavanagh, G. Pani, M. McLagan, G. Kearns from Pakuranga and M. Pascoe, M. East, R. Mouncey, C. Ansley from Howick. 
Dennis Kavanagh was appointed Chairman for the meeting with Carole Ansley acting as Secretary.
 
The meeting shared views on the issues facing Rotary clubs that had prompted the possibility of a future merger.
 
Common issues identified included:
  • The age profile of both clubs was getting older which in turn caused issues in carrying out community projects that involved heavy physical work. Both clubs were working around the problem by using external resources e.g., Pakuranga using Interact members for their Carnival and Howick using the Coastguard and the Tennis Club for Bookarama.
  • The matter was compounded by the inability to attract younger members.
  • Membership in both clubs had declined in recent years and it was questionable if the recruitment of new members could meet the attrition rate. The meeting shared their ideas on current new membership initiatives and the need for targeting these initiatives to people that would fit in with the club culture.
  • The attractiveness of the meeting formats was discussed particularly in relation to younger people.
The consensus was that the discussions were constructive and helpful and that the next stage should be a sharing of information with another meeting planned for the 18th September. 
Dictionaries in Schools
The dictionaries in schools continues to operate smoothly and great work is being done in our schools. This is from a recent presentation to Panmure District School. 
More from our presentation on childhood trauma
When the scribes report was prepared for the last Bulletin on the topic of childhood trauma some of the images included in the very thought provoking presentation were not available.
Those are included below. 
 
 
Slide one looks at the impact of trauma on a child.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Slide two outlines the family and social issues and factors that can contribute to childhood trauma.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Slide three outlines what happened to the composite example, Jackson, when on-going and intensive wrap around services worked with Jackson and his parents.  
 
Meeting Duties