Notes from the Rotary Working Lunch, September 23 2015

These notes are from a Working Lunch held at Bangor Golf Club.

It was intended that this would be the first of a series of Working Lunches at which we might identify Steps to the Future. At the end of the event Members indicated that they would like to continue the ‘conversation’ and so the notes are added here for review, reflection and comment with a view to scheduling the next in the series when the calendar allows.

We approached the questions expansively and creatively.

Q1: Why are we here? (the Starting point)

• Friendship
• Service
• Sense of obligation
• Mixing business and pleasure
• Possible business contacts
• Neutral and safe place in a fragmented society
• Good conversation

Q2: How would we like our Club to look in three years (the Destination)

• Younger with a reducing average age
• More diverse membership
• No smaller
• Meeting in same location
• More project oriented
• More flexible meeting structure (cost, time of meeting, frequency of meeting)
• Higher profile
• Closer to the community
• More reactive, ie quicker to respond to need (eg Tsunami, Syrian crisis, etc)

Q3: What steps do we need to take to create the Club we want in 2018 (the Journey)

• Create an ‘education programme’ to change public perception of what a Rotary Club (and specifically ours) is.
• Identify community projects in which we can be involved.
• Identify and focus on one major structural project per year (membership, governance, meeting structure).
• Experiment (eg meeting times, Club organisation, democratization of responsibilities).
• Invite younger family members to attend a meeting to ‘touch’ Rotary as opposed to ‘join’ Rotary.
• Raise our media profile both in press and online (Social Media).
• Be prepared to talk to people about Rotary and what we are achieving

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