Club Meeting – January 9th, 2014

Today Skip Lautenschlager spoke to as the Membership Advocate for Area 8.  Lenora Shively Downing is the Chair of our Membership committee.   Skip restated facts regarding the decline in membership nationally which affect all civic organizations.  Rotary has just maintained membership in the US and has increased membership internationally.  Each Rotarian should look for opportunities to identify and engage prospective members.  Skip spoke of how Recruitment, Retention, Relocation, and Extension are key concepts in building Rotary Club rosters.

To learn more about these topics  click here…  Strategies for Attracting and Engaging Members Guide    Also visit My Rotary Membership page at Rotary.org

We also had the pleasure of learning more about one of our new member… Dr. Ken Elson.  Ken and his wife Debbie are from a small town in Nebraska about the same size as Salem.  Ken and Debbie were sweet hearts in High School and have been together since.  They have two grown daughters and a newly arrived first grandchild.  Ken spoke of how he developed his interest in medicine and the circumstances which led to his choosing radiology as his field of practice.  Ken shared the story of how it took him 25 years to attend his first Rotary Club meeting and how it was well worth the wait.  We are delighted to have Ken as a new member in the Club.