General News
21 January, 2025
Rotary marks milestone with satellite club
For the Maryborough Rotary Club, Saturday was the beginning of a new future, one which will attract younger members with the launch of a satellite club.
The induction of 14 people last Saturday is another step to address a trend of ageing membership and irrelevancy of the Maryborough Rotary Club to younger people, according to Rotary’s own Garry Higgins, who has spent 20 years with the club.
“Every club is having the issues that our club has, we’re no different,” he said.
The challenge is both maintaining the club as it is for the current members while appealing to people at a different point in their life.
“Our current membership see Rotary as a really important part of their life. It was important to respect that and to continue that,” he said.
“If they’re going to break they’ll break in the middle. So, the journey was really critical on how we get these two groups up and running and be respectful of everybody.”
This process involved three consultations with current club members and a focus group with people outside of Rotary.
The consultations discussed current issues, what the club looks like to outside people, and what a new club might look like.
The findings from this consultation are still being acted upon, but the satellite club is one step in a new found flexibility from Rotary.
“We spoke about — is the meeting night okay, is the format of the meeting still relevant, are the rituals and protocols relevant anymore, are they attractive to younger people,” Mr Higgins said.
For example, according to Mr Higgins, this month will be the first time in 70 years where they change the night that they meet.
“There’s some really positive stuff that’s come out of [the consultations],” he said.
The focus group also revealed preconceptions and obstacles that may have previously kept young people away from Rotary.
“One young woman on the focus group said ‘well look, that $280 annual membership, that’s a week’s rent to me and my family’. That really drove home the fact that we had to look at other ways of being affordable,” Mr Higgins said.
The satellite club hopes to give people a new way to connect socially in town. Mr Higgins has found the quicker someone connects socially when they move to Maryborough the more likely they will be to stay.
The Rotary Satellite Club aims to be a new social space that’s attractive to young people.
The club’s response to there not being things for young people to do in town? They’re onto it.