Several years ago I was privileged to be selected for the Rotary’s Group Study Exchange Programme. Four candidates and our Rotarian team leader spent six weeks in Toronto, Canada. There we met senior business and community leaders including lunch with the Canadian debuty Prime Minister. It was a wonderful experience and we all benefitted from a programme that Rotary rightly regard as their premier exchange programme.
We also attended the international Rotary Conference in Niagra Falls and it was there that I had some earlier suspicions confirmed. Rotary was an organization in crisis. It was a crisis that had nothing to do with the sterling and commendable work they do; rather it was a crisis of an aging membership. As I looked around the room at delegates who represented Rotary, there was by my reckoning, nobody under 35. Further involvement in Rotary on my return including a strategic think-tank left me uncertain that Rotary were capable of surviving the future. Aware of the problem they seemed stuck in ways and habits that militated against finding answers. One such requirement was the weekly attendance demand placed on members. This is something that makes sense to the Silent generation but would never work with Gen X. Then there was the reluctance to embrace technology, specifically social media. Those in charge of Rotary at best were ignorant of the social media revolution and at worse, deeply suspicious of such new ways. Either way it meant that Rotary was precluding itself from the new world and were their own worse enemy in making the changes necessary for survival. I heard several ideas and earnest conversations aimed at guiding Rotary into the future but there was little to enthuse over and I was left with an impression of a wonderful organization that would slowly slip off the radar into oblivion.
Today I read of something that gives me a glimmer of hope that my original diagnosis of Rotary’s future might be misplaced. I read of a South African Rotary initiative to launch what they called ‘corporate clubs’ endorsed by Nedbank and Mike Brown (CEO). The initiative seems to have freed itself of the shackles that have inhibited previous efforts to grow a younger membership and might just succeed. I hope it does. Rotary might well need to embrace further changes and be willing to overhaul their corporate and public image. Their situation is not dissimilar to that of the Scouting movement. Some years ago Scouts in Europe were in dire straits for much the same reasons as Rotary – an inability to attract the next generation into their ranks. TomorrowToday were invited to engage with Scouts in addressing this challenge, work that came from work I had done with King Gustov of Sweden, the world Patron of Scouts. They listened to what it is we had to say about Generational Theory (TomorrowToday are global experts in the subject having presented, taught and consulted on it in some 45 countries) and then did the work necessary to turn the crisis around.
I hope Rotary will enjoy similar success. An understanding of Generational Theory would be a good platform on which to add other initiatives to that of the Corporate Club. Not only will the challenge be to attract younger membership, it will be one of growing their cultural and ethic representation.
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