Applications have now closed.

Transform your Club through the Fit for Purpose Program.

Is your Club fit for purpose?

The Zone 8 Membership Team is seeking 100 clubs to participate in a unique club cultural transformation initiative called the Fit for Purpose Program. This program will run alongside the Zone 8 Regionalisation Pilot, across the 2024/25 and 2025/26 Rotary years.

Selected clubs will send a delegate to a Club Transformation Workshop run over a weekend, where they will participate in an intense interactive learning and development experience featuring the best available presenters on membership development topics. A team of facilitators will work with delegates to create a customised Club Fitness Plan for each club. We are confident that as clubs implement their customised fitness plan in full, the resulting transformation will lead to substantial membership and impact gains. Each custom Club Fitness Plan will draw from a comprehensive Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) Analysis.

Mark Huddleston speaking on the Membership Voice podcast, Wednesday, July 17 about the Fit for Purpose program.

Club Transformation Workshop

The Transformation Workshop will focus on four major elements of membership development which will feature in presentations and discussions, and the creation of the customised Club Fitness Plans:

Product: What the club is offering to its members and community.

Promotion: How effectively the club telling its story.

Recruitment: How the club attracts new members.

Retention: How the club maintains member engagement and satisfaction.

The workshop will be held on October 12 -13 at the Stamford Plaza Sydney Airport, and will include accommodation, breakfast, morning and afternoon tea, lunch and training materials. Clubs will be responsible for arranging return travel for their delegate, but a generous travel subsidy scheme will assist clubs outside of the Sydney metropolitan area with these costs. Our scheme will rebate approximately 50% of travel costs to clubs once they have provided appropriate receipts and their delegate has attended the entire workshop. Conditions apply.

Monitoring, Mentoring and Follow-up

Each participating club will be appointed a Club Fitness Coach who will mentor the club throughout the implementation process and offer monitoring and follow-up on a quarterly basis.

Implementation

Like any fitness plan, positive results will only come with full implementation and adherence to the Club Fitness Plan. Participating clubs will be expected to sign a Partnership Agreement with the Regional Council in which they agree to implement the changes and initiatives outlined in the plan in full for the period of the pilot.

Eligibility and Selection

Clubs must self nominate for the Fit for Purpose Program. To be eligible for selection, clubs will need to:

• Nominate a member to attend the workshop.

• Be 100% compliant with age and gender reporting on the RI Database.

• Have a club president appointed for both the 2024/25 and 2025/26 years and registered in myrotary.

• Sign the Partnership Agreement to implement the Club Fitness Plan in full.

The primary selection criteria for participating clubs will be their capacity to benefit from this program. Clubs will need to demonstrate that they are strong enough to be able to adopt and benefit from this program.

Cost

A non-refundable registration fee of AU$450.00 inc GST will be payable by all selected clubs. Applying for the program does not guarantee selection.

Questions

Please email Club & Cultural Transformation Chair, Mark Huddleston (mark.edward.huddleston@gmail.com), if you have further questions.

“I’m all about helping clubs look for ways to change their culture so they become simply irresistible.”

— Stephanie Urchick, RI President 2024/25

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Your club delegate will work with your appointed Club Fitness Coach to identify your club’s current challenges and barriers to growth at the commencement of the pilot (Point A) and envision where your club needs to be positioned at the end of the pilot on June 30, 2026 (Point B).

    The Club Fitness Plan prepared for your club will be a unique road map to take your club on a transformational journey from Point A to Point B. It will identify they key components of club life that need to change and plot a timeline for implementation.

  • This will be different for each participating club. Historically, some clubs have experienced significant rejuvenation by changing meeting venues, times or days. For others, a change in focus on service projects or causes has enabled significant improvement. We will consider leadership structures, meeting practices and frequency, recruitment initiatives, promotional campaigns, new member onboarding and mentoring procedures, and even fundraising opportunities and social events. Some clubs have even found relocation and/or changing their name has been successful. So, the answer is, anything could be on the table.

  • Our inability to reverse our membership decline is due not to a lack of knowledge, but a lack of will. Rotary’s membership problems are well understood by our global leaders. The solutions are available, and we know that club growth and rejuvenation is possible, but only if innovative ideas are implemented. We cannot invest in an intensive learning and development program where we identify barriers to growth and propose solutions only to find the participating clubs fail to implement them. There is no point in engaging the services of a fitness coach if you’re not willing to follow a fitness plan.