Many of us feel that we should do something to strengthen our membership, but have we stopped to think about how this might be done?
First things first, do we enjoy each other's company? Do we look forward to going to club meetings? If the answer to either or both of these questions is no, we need to address why this is so. We can only build a strong club if we have strong members. We would be well served to remember that the foundation of Rotary is fellowship.
What do we mean by fellowship you might ask? Well friends, fellowship is not simply having parties and get togethers, it is much more than that. For us to have good fellowship, we need to be able to speak civilly to each other, we need to be polite and observe the basic good manners that so many have thrown out of the window. To enjoy the company of our fellow Rotarians, we need to respect each other and be tolerant of others opinions and points of view. Rotary embraces diversity as one of our core values alongside fellowship, integrity, service and leadership, therefore we should recognize that we may be different in many ways, but what binds us into a cohesive group are the remaining values.
Unless we get fellowship right, we can forget about strengthening our membership.