At our meeting of May 9th, we welcomed Samantha Odenwalder, who is one of our Shadow Students at BAVTS, and her teacher John Karb. Samantha is enrolled as a junior in the Protective Services program at BAVTS, and is not only an outstanding student but is also involved in many community service projects.

 

Our program was a Club Business Meeting on membership. We learned about our club demographic, and the challenge this represents for all of us. Currently, 11% of our club members are under the age of 40, 12% are under the age of 50, and 77% are over the age of 50. This does compare favorably with Rotary International, where only 5% of members worldwide are under the age of 40, nevertheless, it can be an existential problem for our club if we fail to successfully address this issue. Currently, 25% of our membership is female, and this does not not accurately reflect our Bethlehem community where slightly over 50% of our citizens are female.

 

We have taken steps to attract new members, but the key message from our Membership Committee chair, Gerry Long, is that membership is everyone's responsibility. Gerry has personally been responsible for recruiting about 20% of our current members. He is successful at this because he makes it a point to ask anyone who he thinks would make a good Rotarian. If all our members recruited one new member, we would double our membership, and likely triple our capacity through synergy to build a better future for our community.

 

We heard from two of our newest members about why they joined Rotary. Patrick Morgan said that several people he knows were involved with other Rotary clubs, and in discussions with them, he was impressed by the international reach and effectiveness of what Rotary was doing. His friends encouraged him to seek out a local Rotary club to join. He decided to take a look at our club, and he served on the Tastes & Tunes Committee before he even became a member. He will be giving his classification talk in 2 weeks. Don't miss it.

 

Michael Renneisen said that he was getting his shoes repaired, when a stranger introduced himself. After a short discussion, the stranger was a stranger no more, and asked him to join Rotary. He looked up Rotary on the Internet, and was so impressed with Rotary's accomplishments and commitment to a better world that he decided to join after further encouragement from his new friend. The stranger who is now a friend is Gerry Long. For Michael, who is an attorney and whose business is immigration law, the Rotary message of goodwill and service to all is particularly poignant. How many more people are there in our community, who like Patrick and Michael, would like the opportunity to serve? How will we know if we do not ask? What will our club look like in 10 years if we do not ask? What will be our legacy if we do not try?

Announcements: