Our August 11 meeting was a Club Assembly on Membership. After a brief introduction by Membership Chair Harry Mitchell, Vicki Megginson, the Chair of the New Member Orientation Committee, gave an excellent presentation on the plans that this committee has put in place. She first introduced the committee members and thanked them for their active participation in the committee (image on left, plus John Webb who serves as ex officio in his role as club president).She then provided an overview of plans for orienting new members. Rather than subjecting members to long and formal training session(s), the orientation process is more fluid and geared to the members interests and needs. Orientation is provided by a mentor or mentors. Three Rotarians have been targeted as mentors thus far: Vicki Megginson, Bonnie Styles, and Harry Mitchell. The committee has developed guidelines and a checklist for mentors as well evaluations of the program to be completed by the mentor and new member to help us continually improve the program. Vicki provided copies of these new tools for each table during her presentation. The committee is also putting together resource packets for new members (image below).
New members are assigned a mentor or mentors early in the process after their membership is approved. Mentors will socialize with and introduce new members to other members, committee chairs, and project leaders. The committee identified numerous topics that the mentors will cover during orientation. Mentors will have at least two meetings with new members. The first meeting will deal with basic information about our club and our traditions, major fundraising and volunteer opportunities, other issues of interest to the member, and will answer questions that they might have. The second meeting will delve more deeply into communication tools such as websites and social media and Rotary at the district and international levels. Vicki characterized the process as helping new members progress along the continuum of engagement with the club and Rotary (image below). She noted that new members will determine how they would like to become more engaged in the club. Mentors will help them engage in the activities that they select. She also noted that all members of the club have roles to play in helping new members engage.
