ROTARY Club 3850 District Governor Joe Jay “Jude” Doctora urged his fellow Rotarians to start attracting new members and implement high-impact projects that truly touch lives.
Doctora emphasized this yesterday during his State of the District Address at the opening ceremony of the
3-day Rotary District Conference (DisCon) 2015 held at the L’Fisher Hotel in Bacolod.
“Let us stop recruiting members and start attracting new
members. It is huge difference to recruit and to attract,” he said.
He said that for many years, their district has only around 1,300 members, and Rotary International has 1.2 million members for the last 10 years, because they are recruiting instead of attracting new members.
“The only way to attract new members is if you have high-impact projects that really touch lives. Projects that give people a chance to dream and to hope,” he said.
He pointed out that the organization is on the crossroads citing
the battle between the traditional Rotary ways as against the new,
innovative and flexible Rotary ways.
“The senior members are very serious about protocol. They
always insist on the protocol while the young members have been bringing a more carefree and different personality. They don’t
want to be bounded by certain protocols or certain restrictions.
What we need today is somebody who can balance the younger members
who are more aggressive (and) the senior members are more confident and protocol-driven,” he said.
Another crossroads that he pointed out was the battle between term-driven versus continuity-driven.
“The phrase during my term is, ‘this is what I have done.’ My fellow Rotarians, if we want to move forward, the only way to do it is to look three years down the line. It’s our term, my term, your term that we did this for the sake of the club. Whatever the accomplishment the president has, it should be continued by the next president,” he said.
“A sustainable project can only happen if its timeline is more than a year, otherwise, you will only implement feel-good project which can just for a day or a week. For us to encourage continuity, we have to come up with a district vision and this vision is the next three
years vision of the district,” he said.
He also mentioned about the perceived membership as against the real membership growth; the club level versus the world of Rotary.
Past District Governor Chien Tsuen Wu of District 3480 (Taiwan), in his keynote address, also asked his fellow Rotarians to adopt a creative and new means to attract new membership in the club.
“Everybody must take an effort to attract new members,” he said.
Bacolod Mayor Monico Puentevella, who is also a Rotarian himself, said that the city is in good hands because of the presence of Rotarians.
“I urged everyone to enjoy Bacolod. The foods taste great and
are affordable,” he said.
The DisCon gathers around 600 Rotarians from Western Visayas and Western Mindanao. It will run until Saturday.
This year’s DisCon is chaired by Past President Ma. Christine Toledo of the Rotary Club of Bacolod West.
It was organized by the various Rotary Clubs in Negros Occidental such as Rotary Club of Bacolod South; Bacolod, Victorias and Escalante; Silay; Bacolod –Marapara; Bacolod North;Kabankalan; Bacolod Central; Bacolod East; Bacolod West; and Metro Bacolod.
Last night, the Rotarians enjoyed evening with a Mexican theme. Tonight, the City Government of Bacolod will host the “Mardi Gras Night” at the Government Center.