THE METAMORPHOSIS
By Ernie D. Delfin
Asst. Gov. 5320 & District
Chair, Club Development
Member, Newport
Irvine
ANOTHER
YEAR, WHERE IS YOUR ROTARY CLUB HEADED TO?
Happy and an exciting New Year to
everyone!
If you were like most people, another set of resolutions has been
thought of and are probably being implemented each day for a few weeks and even
months. By mid-summer, however, most of such resolutions would have evaporated with the wind and set us
back to our personal thermostat that we have unconsciously set for
ourselves. That is also often true to many
Rotary Clubs all over the world. For many RCs that are struggling to fulfill
their ambitious 2006-07 goals, especially on membership and retention or having
exciting programs, it is never too late to begin and be on the right
tract. January is the most natural month to start anew. Decide to have a bold mid-year commitment to
do something different to create a new paradigm in your club. Do not be that
“insane” leader of your club. “Insanity”
being defined here as doing the same things over and over again and still
expecting a different result!
One proven way of being on tract and
to inspire your club membership (for any organization or business enterprise
for that matter) is to involve them by going through a mid-year Strategic
Planning using the popular S.W.O.T.
method. For small clubs, invite
(require is probably more appropriate) and involve the entire club membership;
for the bigger clubs, the club officers and board of directors should be
sufficient. If moderated by an
experienced facilitator, this SWOT exercise can be very stimulating and will
produce a united course of action to chart your club into orbit.
It is a TEAM effort to move any club or any organization to greater heights. No leader in any club or in
any district can do it alone. The term “Equality of Sacrifice”, the marching order of then Chrysler Chairman
Lee Iacocca to all his employees decades
ago in his mission to revive the bankrupt Chrysler Corp. (and he was successful!)
comes to mind as his concept and/or philosophy
can also apply to all Rotary Clubs. Each
Rotarian must do his/her part and sacrifice something of value (time, talent, and
treasure) for the greater good.
For instance, to increase club
membership by ten percent can be very easy to achieve if there is a collective will
to do it. How? Just divide the club membership into ten
groups and challenge (and reward) each group to invite potential members strategically and from
those invited guests, a recruit will appear in 30-60 days. I know it works as I have recruited a dozen
Rotary Club members last year, unfortunately, they joined different clubs and
districts internationally. More than half of those signed up to become charter
members of the emerging Westminster Global City RC are invited by me, however,
several decided to join other clubs in the district nearer their homes or places
of business. (So, PDG Grant and other charter
members of Westminster Global City RC,
we all have to work overtime
beginning January 2007!)
Having visited more than
half of all the clubs of District 5320 the last two years, I believe there is great room for improvement in many clubs. Every Rotarian has ideas or
solutions to make their club more dynamic.
However any individual idea alone cannot move the club to become more
dynamic or progressive unless it done and supported by the club. The majority
of the club membership must OWN its program and support it wholeheartedly
to become a more effective club and in the process making each member a prouder
Rotarian. The SWOT analysis method can
be a great tool in coming up with such a strategic plan.
S.W.O.T. simply means Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, Threats. (You can google SWOT in the internet and get many
helpful articles about it with suggested format.) I recommend that each struggling club in order to put some sharks in its tank
should devote a 3-5 hour session to really discuss and analyze their club’s peculiarities or characteristics using this
proven SWOT method. I often use this
effective tool to help my clients that hire me as their business consultant.
A few months ago, I took an
unprecedented and bold action in including a SWOT exercise in our Planning Session of the
Filipino American Chamber of Commerce of OC, where I was elected president, to inject a new paradigm and fresh
perspectives into this 12 year old organization. I was thrilled and surprised that the two
hour that I allotted for the SWOT discussion seemed not enough as many ideas
surfaced by each group (I divided the
board into four groups) On the second
part of the session all the sub-groups were reunited into one group as we all summarized on huge white
boards the nouns and adjectives that came up from all the sub-groups under each
letter of S.W.O.T. As everyone was then
emotionally involved, it became very easy to come up with our collective
strategic solutions to address the weaknesses and threats utilizing the
strengths and opportunities that were unveiled and discovered. Each director became an OWNER of the
solutions that we are now adopting during this chamber fiscal year. Corollary
to that exercise, I also tried a fun “Values Auction Game” that reflected where
the passions of each member lie, the result of which became my basis for asking some of the directors to
chair a specific committee or assignment.
Any Rotary Club that wishes to try
these outside-the-box-ideas in their club meeting or board meeting may contact
me for help. I can help to facilitate your SWOT Session Exercise. I have done it many times and I can assure
you it is very stimulating exercise and who knows you can discover an eagle or
two from your dormant membership. For
the love of Rotary, I would not even bill you for my professional fees;
probably a small check contribution to the District 5320 Charitable Foundation
c/o the Newport Irvine RC is more than enough.
Good luck and have a more
exciting 2007 everyone!
* * * * *
As it is the start of the New Year,
let me share with my readers RESOLUTIONS hanging in my home office for decades now that always brings me to my true north
compass whenever I am disillusioned in this topsy-turvy world:
R
E S O
L U T
I O N S
No one will ever get out of this world alive.
Resolve therefore to maintain a reasonable
sense of values.
Take care of yourself. Good health is everyone’s
major
source of wealth.
Without it, happiness is almost impossible.
Resolve
to be cheerful & helpful.
People
will repay you in kind.
Avoid
angry, abrasive persons.
They
are generally vengeful.
Avoid
zealots. They are generally humorless.
Resolve
to listen more & to talk less.
No
one ever learns anything by talking.
Be
chary of giving advice. Wise men don’t need it
and
fools won’t heed it.
Resolve
to be tender with the young, compassionate
with the aged, sympathetic with the
striving & tolerant of the
weak and strong. Sometime in life you will have
been all of these.
Do
not equate money with success.
There
are many successful money-makers who are
miserable
failures as human beings.
What
counts most about success is how a person achieves it.
By Lloyd
Shearer
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