Rotary has changed over the years. Many older Rotarians will remember when it was a men’s only club. Strict attendance rules applied and meetings were always attended in a suit.

Recent years have seen many changes in the rules of Rotary. People are now very mobile and have no time for strict formality rules. The Rotary community was slowly dying and now, hopefully, flexibility in the Rotary International rules will again entice people to join Rotary.

Being active in the Club is more important than attendance.

For the Almancil Club, President Franco has introduced an Innovation Committee. His intention is not for the committee to spend time inventing new gadgets, but for them to develop new ideas for the Club to function more effectively in attracting new members and prevent existing members from becoming bored and eventually leaving the Club.

The committee cannot make changes, but will find ways to encourage input and present ideas to the Club for possible future changes.

We do not have to live forever by the Club’s current By Laws. These can be changed to suit our circumstances.

A key element of a successful club is that people enjoy their membership and are able to contribute to society. Simply put, it should be fun to be a member.

Here are a few aspects that we can think about to possibly make the Club more attractive.

• Meeting frequency, time of meetings and location(s).
• If there is food, do we prefer formal, buffet or just a casual coffee and snack.
• Is it possible to avoid always booking ourselves in ahead of casual meetings.
• How to attract interesting speakers, taking into account that we are a Rotary Club and not just a luncheon club.
• Attracting more youthful members.
• Splitting meetings between lunch, dinner, zoom and away options.
• Keeping minutes. Some meetings must have minutes. For other meetings, minutes serve no purpose unless they contain useful content.
• What are the best ways of communication? Apart from actual gatherings, do we prefer email newsletters, website, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, WhatsApp etc.
• Where should the Club have its primary support interests? Local community, youth, international affairs, environment etc. Maybe a mixture of all.

Our Club follows the Rotary International recommendation to hold several Club business meetings per year. These meetings are a good opportunity for members to openly discuss a variety of subjects.

The innovation committee plans to use these occasions to have structured discussions on the points given above plus, hopefully, additional ideas suggested by members.