On March 4, President Rob Marschke and President-Elect Del Benson led a follow-up to the December strategic planning feedback session. Rob outlined the following developments and possibilities:
Rob outlined the following developments and possibilities:
- Have an annual distribution of perhaps $20,000 from the Legacy Fund;
- Membership accounts receivables are in good shape;
- Recent problems with accounting for charity monies are being resolved;
- We have received the new constitution and bylaws. The constitution cannot be changed but the bylaws can be changed locally;
- Budgeting: our Charities and Operations budgets have 55 line items; by April 1 (beginning of the next fiscal year) activity leaders must provide accounting for this year a suggested budget for next year in order to have any monies allocated for next year;
- Should we eliminate or consolidate some of our overlapping programs and services (e.g., we have some 13 scholarships administered by 4 committees)?
- Membership: noon membership is declining, evening membership is increasing;
- Changes to venue and food: noon food guarantee has been reduced from 100 to 85; new venue at 1st Presbyterian Church is being investigated for significant cost savings;
- New fund-raising ideas: some being investigated by Marty Bachmann and Del Benson.
Del outlined the procedure for the rest of the session focused on roundtable discussions of the issues raised in December. After 20 minutes of discussion, a facilitator at each table would summarize the inputs from that table. Del suggested that discussions focus on: what do we want to keep or get rid of; what do we want our club to look like in the future.
The facilitator at each table was asked to briefly review an important item from that table’s discussion. Some of the items highlighted were:
- New meeting location: where will the extra money go?
- Support for reducing overlap of committees.
- Support for a wider range of fund-raising possibilities; emphasis on fun & fellowship?
- Diversity of opinion about distribution of Legacy funds; there is some $600,000 in hand and significantly more pledged.
- Do we need a new hospitality committee?
- How do the costs of this club compare with other clubs, including non-Rotary?
- Support for more opportunities or requirements to meet other club members.
- Support for “better” meeting time management.
- Membership: go to businesses to “sell” Rotary? Hire a marketing director?
- Support for more Quad-Club activities.
- We want to act, not react. When we complete the strategic planning process we should have: 1) a list of strategic goals; 2) tactical plans with measurable outcomes for each strategic goal; 3) standard operating procedures to achieve the goals of tactical plans (e.g., checklists).