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- [00:03]
Trumi Lee Patrick
We decided this year we're setting a big goal. We're going to induct 50 new members this year. I can tell you right now, as of Today, we have 24 new members in our club that we've inducted.
- [00:19]
Jose Gonzalez
It sounds like you're really utilizing service to engage with your members and your prospective members. Because you're right. The members are the resources and the network that can expand to invite more people to come and join Roswell.
- [00:31]
Tom Gump
A lot of times when we travel around the world and look at the clubs that have been there 75, 100 years or more, they're very set in tradition. I was amazed that they were actually taking surveys and doing surveys. They really did have a two way conversation with the people coming in and it seems like they really are trying to improve their culture.
- [00:56]
JP Swenson
Welcome to the Rotary Voices Podcast. I'm JP Swenson. Today we'll be talking about a very important topic to Rotary membership. This month, the Rotary Club of Roswell in Georgia will celebrate its 75th anniversary. This is a momentous occasion for any club. But what's especially striking about this club is that after 75 years, they're still gaining members and fast. We wanted to find out what their secret is for their membership growth. So we invited two Rotary membership experts onto today's show to sit down with Trumi Lee Patrick, the president of the Rotary Club of Roswell to get to the bottom of their success.
- [01:39]
Tom Gump
Thank you, Rotary International for giving us this opportunity. I am one of your hosts, Tom Gump. Just think, Tom Hanks and Forrest Gump. Tom. Tom Gump. I'm the chair of Roadie International's Membership Growth Committee.
- [01:51]
Jose Gonzalez
And I'm your co host, Jose Gonzalez, regional membership Officer for zones 33 and 34, which covers the southeastern United States and the Caribbean.
- [01:59]
Tom Gump
So, Trumi, why don't you tell us about yourself?
- [02:02]
Trumi Lee Patrick
Thank you. I'm excited to be a part of this podcast. I'm originally from Roswell, Georgia and I'm a second generation Roswell Rotarian. My father was president of Roswell rotary in the mid-80s and I'm president today.
- [02:18]
Tom Gump
Fantastic. Now I know a little bit about Roswell, Georgia because my father lives in Alpharetta, not too far from you. And I know visiting him over the last 15, 20 years, there's been a lot of change in your city. How has that change affected how your Rotary Club has grown?
- [02:33]
Trumi Lee Patrick
To be honest with you, it has affected it and it hasn't affected it before the Olympics, really. 80s and early 90s, Roswell was still a sleepy little Town we had between 8,000, 15,000 people, depending on how far you go back. And after the Olympics, Georgia 400, that wonderful corridor of traffic opened up. And Roswell's now proper, probably 85,000. But you add in surrounding communities, it's tipping well over that. Obviously we're here to discuss membership. The more people you have in your community and surrounding communities, the more opportunity you've got to grow your club. So that makes sense, right? But in the ways that it hasn't changed are the ways that I think are very important to make Roswell Rotary so unique. For example, we've been involved in the Youth day parade for 75 years. It began in 1951, and Roswell Rotary began in 1951. We've been hosting a golf, tennis and pickleball tournament to raise funds to, to help local charities and community charities for over 50 years. This year we just announced to our club today that we raised over $240,000 that will go right back into our community. And that was something special. But Roswell Rotary's always had a history of supporting the community. You know, the government shut down a few months ago. I think everyone can remember that. And local schools. I had a little trouble with funding for programs like snap where kids get a snack and that sort of thing. One Rotarian and actually two Becky Nelson and Jim Coyle got together, pitched the idea that with raise a little money, next thing you know, we're buying more Walmart gift cards you can shake a stick at and providing to these schools so that these kids can have a snack in the day, elementary, middle and high school. It's just a quick example of what happens at Rawls Rotary that really is independent of our population, but creates awareness of the good we're doing.
- [04:36]
Tom Gump
Well, that's wonderful. And we love those real life practical examples that we can share with other clubs so they can grow as well. So thank you, trumi.
- [04:44]
Jose Gonzalez
With nearly 200 members and a wide range of personalities and priorities, how has the Rotary Club of Roswell ensured that its membership reflects the demographics of the city of Roswell?
- [04:56]
Trumi Lee Patrick
That was a great question. That's very important, I think, to all organizations, whether you're talking about a church or you're talking about a civic organization like Rotary, making sure that you've got a good representation of what the community looks like and diversity within that. You know, it's funny, I just brought in a new member. He's a neighbor of mine named Mason, and we were talking and of course he knows about Rotary service organization and what we do in the community. He's no stranger to that. But he asked me a little interesting question. He said, what is it behind the scenes that makes Roswell Rotary so special? I thought about it for a second, and then it hit me. Some of my best friends in Roswell Rotary are men and women that we don't share the same political belief, we don't share the same religious belief, we didn't grow up the same, we're not the same age, and we have socioeconomic differences. But that is all put aside. It somehow vanishes inside that vacuum that is Roswell Rotary. And we collaborate, we hang out, we go get a drink together, we go have lunch together, we have breakfast together. You know, there's things that we do that bring us together because of that commonality of service above self. And I told him, and I believe that is what makes Roswell Rotary and Rotary so special.
- [06:25]
Jose Gonzalez
Trumi, it sounds to me like the Rotary Club of Roswell has maintained an inclusive environment that is open to all backgrounds, all people, and all of the city of Roswell. Great to hear.
- [06:34]
Tom Gump
So, Trumi, you talked about bringing in your friend. How do you attract new members to your club?
- [06:39]
Trumi Lee Patrick
I've served as membership chair in our club. It's one of my favorite jobs. Membership is my number one priority this year. Okay. Make no bones about it. And it's a struggle for all organizations. But since COVID our numbers have slipped. We have an attrition rate between 15 and 20% the last two years. We've lost 31 Rotarians each year. Okay, so that's 62. And we've grown in the 20s every year. We were slipping down. And it was a problem both financially when I had to put my budget together. And it's a problem if you look to where that's going to lead in the future. Courtney Lott is my membership chair. She's fantastic. We have a membership committee that is fantastic. And we decided this year we're setting a big goal. We're going to induct 50 new members this year. I can tell you right now, as of Today, we have 24 new members in our club that we've inducted. So looking ahead, that's 34 that we've got coming in. That 31 member attrition I was talking about, that's a percentage, about 16 to 18%. Right now, we're at 1.5% attrition. We've lost four members. I get a lot of credit for this. And let me put my foot down and tell you right now, I'm not taking credit for it. It is the committees we have, it is Courtney's leadership. It is this club's involvement and buy in. I challenged them at the beginning of the year. I said every member in this club is responsible for membership. This nonsense that it's the membership chair, it's the board or it's that three or four really active chamber guy and gal or, you know, that's out the window. We started in our, we call it the lunch club and we actually have an after hours club we can talk about a little bit later. But the lunch club went from 2:30 at Covid to 198 and that was putting us in a financial strain. I challenged all 198 members to replace yourself, to bring in someone into this club. Just one. Mickey Deaton, a tenured member of our club, came up with the idea of make a pledge, fill out a pledge card. You've seen it probably in church somewhere or some other organization where they ask you to fill out, hey, I'm going to do XYZ this year. Well, how many members are you going to bring in this year? Some people said five, some people said one, some didn't fill it out, I'll give you that. But with that challenge I threw out there, the members that bring in a new member this year will enter into a pool and we're going to raffle it off. You are the one I pull out of that. Then at the end of the year, I'm paying for your next level. Paul Harris so there's a thousand dollars I'm willing to put behind what I'm saying and encourage you to grow new members. I think it's also important that when you bring a guest in, I talk every meeting. What is Rotary service above self? So these folks that come in and say, hey, I thought this was a business networking group. And granted, you may get some business from being in Rotary. Cool, Good for you. That's a relationship building thing. We're about service. So when our member brings somebody in, okay, step one, step two is we've got to get them interested. We don't want to bore them with something that's not a great program. So in fact, in Georgia, we're going through an election cycle. We'll have all four major candidates running for governor come through our club. We've had the attorney General, we've had the Secretary of State, we've had the lieutenant Governor, we've had Danny Warfel, Heisman Trophy winner. We've had, gosh, Tony Barnhart, chancellor Sonny Perdue, Former governor. Roswell High School's got this famous group of coaches. I did a panel discussion with them. We had almost 300 people in that room to hear these famous coaches from our community speak. It was engaging. People talked about it. We publicized it on Facebook, LinkedIn. We made a big, big time push. So when people come in, they see it's a great program. They see the energy, they feel it. We have music playing when you walk in the room. Someone said, I can smell the energy in here. I mean, it's just, it's real. I sent a survey out last April, then I sent it out again in June. There's only two questions. Do you know anybody interesting that could speak at our club? Second, what's their lehman number? And that's where we got a lot of people engaged in this buy in and making the program exciting and interesting. People came out of the woodwork, as they say, I know somebody. My neighbor went to school with this person. And the next thing you know, we've got a list of folks that's just fantastic because guess what? You'd be surprised how many people in your club know somebody who knows somebody.
- [11:18]
Jose Gonzalez
And you know what, Trumi? It sounds like you're really utilizing service to engage with your members and your prospective members, even so, challenging them to end, invite people to come and join. Because you're right. Rotary in and of itself, the members are the resources and the network that can expand out to invite more people to come and join Roswell.
- [11:34]
Trumi Lee Patrick
Spot on, buddy. And you know, I'm in sales, okay. It's easier for me to retain a customer than bring one in. So I want to talk just one second about retention in our club programs. I just mentioned it's interesting. People start to want to come to the meetings. You create some energy playing music, something like that. Simple just gets people in a better mood and excited, talking. But this year I started this program, or our board did, called the Rotary Y and the Rotary Spotlight. Let me tell you just briefly about both of those. The Rotary Spotlight is nothing unique. Every week I choose a either a new member or a tenured member or somewhere in between. And they have two minutes to stand up and say a little bit about themselves. You can mention that you're a realtor or you're an insurance or you're a lawyer. That's great. I want to hear. I like to go skiing. I got three kids. I'm a Georgia graduate.
- [12:24]
Jose Gonzalez
The personal aspect of the individual.
- [12:26]
Trumi Lee Patrick
Heck yeah. Let me know something that I didn't know about you. You played baseball. In college. I didn't know that. It's really something interesting. Now, I will warn you to the clubs listening to this, you put a past president up there, you better put a timer because they could go a little while, all right? That two minutes is ignored quickly. And the other thing I think is really cool is this Rotary Y. So what I've asked a member to do is take your iPhone, set it up, or have your spouse or kid record yourself, sit down or go out in the yard, whatever, and tell me in two minutes what you love about Roswell Rotary, what inspires you about Rotary? Why are you Rotarian? What is the coolest thing you've ever done inside of Rotary? Basically my plan is, or thought was, let's inspire those folks that may be, should I stay in this club? Are we really doing anything? I haven't done a service project in a while. And then you get somebody talking about the youth services or you get someone talking about veterans and you inspire that member that may be thinking about leaving to re engage and to get back in the club. I had a tremendous amount of feedback with the Rotary Y. It literally is as simple as someone recording themselves and then we replay it.
- [13:38]
Tom Gump
So, trumani you have a history in your club of having past presidents and you are actually a legacy from that standpoint. Your father was a president. What have you done to retain your members that you have kept those past presidents, residents for so long?
- [13:52]
Trumi Lee Patrick
I think the key is just engagement and again, keeping why they are in Rotary and why they join Rotary and why they chose to serve in Rotary in front of them and making it a priority in our club to involve the more tenured members and the brand new members.
- [14:09]
Jose Gonzalez
Truman, you talked earlier about the retention strategies that you've implemented to retain more members, building off of that onboarding in and of itself when you have new members, because you have an ambitious goal, 50 new members this year. Can you share with us a little bit about the onboarding, onboarding experience that your membership committee puts into place to ensure that these newest members stick around long term with the Rotary Club of Roswell?
- [14:31]
Trumi Lee Patrick
Great question. So that's very important. We have an orientation the day that we initiate you into our club. You meet with two past presidents and you go over the history and traditions of Rotary International and you go over the history and traditions of Roswell Rotary and it's about an hour long interactive Q and A orientation and you learn about the club. And I don't know if all clubs have this, but once you're initiated, we give you a Red badge. And you'll wear that red badge until you complete certain tasks, for lack of a better word on your checklist. And that could be something as simple as being the greeter. In our club, we have two Rotarians that stand out front and greet members as they come in, welcoming them, guests and members and that sort of thing. Doing the four way test at the end of our meeting, doing the pledge, you've got to bring a guest, you've got to engage yourself in a service project. So you're getting plugged into the pieces that are important, I think, to Rotary and Roswell Rotary. We also have a new member social. We do one each six months. So in the first half of the year and the second half of the year, this past new member social is at my house. We invite the board, we invite the membership committee, and we invite all new members from this year and last year. I think it's important to have that connection to, even if you're technically not a new member, you're in your second year to come back and be a part of that. And it's a real cool thing. We do a service project this year. We did backpacks for homeless veterans that we use our community grant money for. And so we got to talk about how the foundation gave back and here it is in real life right there on that table and we're going to go pack it up. It was awesome. So we assign a mentor to every new member and they're good. I mean, they get folks plugged in, but sometimes that's a hit or miss relationship. And so this membership committee identifies, okay, who hasn't been coming around, who have we not talked to in a little while? Have you seen such and such? And we reach out to these people that our flight risk, for lack of a better word, and make sure they're plugged back in. So at the new member social, they were actually two new members this year, the 24 that we've already inducted. And we pulled them aside and had a conversation with them and not anything confrontational, but just an encouraging conversation with them about we want you to get plugged in. What are you talking about? I love Russell Rotary. So it was a misunderstanding, I guess, but it's a process, Jeremy.
- [17:02]
Jose Gonzalez
So it sounds to me three steps. There's essentially the Red Badge Blue Badge program, which is a sound strategy that many successful clubs utilize. So thank you for sharing that. The second is the new member orientation that they do at your house or someone else's house that rotates. And third, they're mentored up, partnered similar to that of like an ambassador program. And this is the three steps that the Roswell Club has used to retain more members throughout the orientation process?
- [17:27]
Trumi Lee Patrick
Pretty much, yeah. Yeah Jose.
- [17:29]
Tom Gump
That's a great summary, Jose. And that's a great description. Trumi. So you talked about how you bring in new members. You talked about starting a new club that after hours club. Talk about engagement. And I know your club is big into veterans and I know that my father was actually hosted by your club as an honor flight person. So can you tell us a little bit about your engagement?
- [17:51]
Trumi Lee Patrick
That's a certainly a big open ended question right there. The Honor Air flight, it's one of those events where does the member that go or does the veteran that goes who appreciates it the most? Because it's just such an awesome, you know, it starts at 5am Police escort and buses to the airport, a flight waiting on you. A whole entire issue is American airlines flight to D.C. meeting with legislators, seeing the monuments. It's emotional, it's rewarding, it's fantastic. I'm so proud your father got to do that. We started with war, two vets and that's now extended on to Vietnam and beyond. So it's powerful. We've got Roswell Relay, something been going on forever, since I was in high school and I'm 50. Golf, tennis, pickleball tournament, the backpacks, the snap. Our engagement doesn't end. So our district governor Steve Ivory challenged us to honor heroes this year. It's part of 6900's theme, if you will. So we've been honoring a police officer, a fireman, a teacher, a healthcare professional and certainly veterans. And this past month we honored Chris Cathers who has a charity, a Brother's Keeper that helps veterans. It could be anything from they lost their service dog and they need some financial help to double amputee, his wheelchair is broke to I'm in a program for alcohol recovery and I need some money to keep me there. And we had a club member hear his speech, step up and offer $10,000 if the club could raise that in a match. And it's just that kind of engagement that is organic, that comes from that true service above self belief that was so powerful and moving that I mean there were folks in tears.
- [19:38]
Tom Gump
And so how does your club decide which projects to do? Do you do survey and would you recommend that to other clubs?
- [19:45]
Trumi Lee Patrick
Yeah, I do. You get a great understanding of what your club's interested in and what direction to try to lead them. I would doing that before the year begins. So many things are set in motion so quickly when you become president, you know, you come up for air and there's another wave that slams you back down. But that's part of the fun, I believe, certainly getting an idea of what the club is interested in. Some of those things like that you can't identify, they just happen. Dave McCleary, his ending human trafficking movement has taken off since he started that and got Rotary involved with that. And he's meeting and continues to meet with the World Cup. One of the matches will be in Atlanta. A major concern for human trafficking around that. And anytime you have that kind of massive event and the people he's meeting with and the stuff he's doing, he mentioned that at the club today, people jumped on board to see how they can help him. So it's important to provide direction, but it's also important to be flexible and look for those dare to be great moments.
- [20:49]
Jose Gonzalez
Wonderful.
- [20:50]
Tom Gump
So how often do you do survey?
- [20:52]
Trumi Lee Patrick
We are going to send another one out about speakers and about projects. So that'll be my second true survey of the year. We sent the other one out multiple times. And it also does something that it's important to me is Leslie Bassett is the president elect coming up July 1st, and with this survey and the momentum of speakers and things like that, it'll help her year get it off to a really great start. The previous president, Nancy Alterman, did a fantastic job leaving me in good shape with high energy for our club. And she brought some things back that were important to us. So I think that's extremely important as well.
- [21:32]
Tom Gump
Well, it's good that you keep doing that because new people are coming, other people are leaving. So that club culture is changing. So it's important to keep doing that.
- [21:39]
Jose Gonzalez
And speaking of club culture, Truman, your club's well known for the engaging club experience and member experience that members have because of the positive club culture within it. Can you describe for us how your club's culture and overall member experience have helped drive membership growth? Why do people want to join Rotary Club with Roswell?
- [21:58]
Trumi Lee Patrick
Really good question.
- [21:59]
Jose Gonzalez
Thank you.
- [22:00]
Trumi Lee Patrick
People join Rotary for different reasons. I joined to hang out with my dad and I'm so glad I did. He passed away in January and for 10 years I got to sit next to him in a chair and enjoy fried chicken at Roswell Rotary and help do service projects, make fun of people. We had a great time together. You know, it's a family environment. We get along really well. I think you've got to put service first. I Mention service every meeting and what we're doing. And service above self is the motto of Rotary. So when you have that focus, it does create a culture that puts that in the forefront of everyone's mind. But we also have fun. We have a happy hour every single month or some event where we socially go and we get together and break a little bread and have a drink or two and get to know each other on a personal level. So we're welcoming. We get out there and get our boots dirty and service projects and it's just, it's a good environment.
- [22:56]
Jose Gonzalez
It sounds like it's a phenomenal environment for me because if you're out socializing and having a drink, post meetings in the evening, people are going to come together and socialize. And if you're offering as many service projects as you mentioned, especially with how often you're talking about it, oh, there's going to be something for everybody.
- [23:11]
Trumi Lee Patrick
Yeah. You know, speaking of something for everybody, last night, kind of a neat thing within our organization. They called themselves the Women of Roswell Rotary Creative. But they met last night and had a party and it was just the women of Roswell Rotary. I threatened to go, but they had a great time. About 2030, the ladies in Roswell Rotary got together and had a wonderful time and they invited a lot of the spouses. And so kind of goes to making sure that our club is a diverse group, but they have a bond there that is really awesome and I think it's just wonderful.
- [23:45]
Jose Gonzalez
I'm glad to hear that the invitation was also extended to the family of Rotary, those partners of your members, because they in and of themselves are so heavily invested and involved with your club like any other club because they're a part of all the programs and services.
- [23:59]
Trumi Lee Patrick
Yeah, that's right.
- [24:00]
Tom Gump
Well, I'll tell you what, this has just been a great day, Trumi. We learned a lot from you and a lot of practical advice that we can pass along to other clubs. We learned about how you attract individuals into Rotary. We heard how you retain them through engagement. Got some tips there. You talked about how you can form new clubs. We talked about the importance, importance of having fun. Because after all, people join Rotary to have friends. And it's great that you make time for that informal get together. So like you and Jose said, you can have fun. You talked about belonging, inviting family members. So I don't think we could have gotten any better advice. And I can't wait to go back to my own club and implement what you said at our club. So thank you so much for joining us here today.
- [24:43]
Trumi Lee Patrick
Thank you. Thank you for having me one last time. Thing I want to add a new member of our club. Tim Ma has been featured on Good Morning America and some other the financial host. But he wrote about what his experience was in joining Roswell Rotary and it was published in Forbes.com and I sent you the article and it's amazing because it walks you through his perception of what he thought Rotary, Roswell Rotary, but Rotary was going to be like and how his experience through the first time he walked through our doors to the day we initiated him was just such an amazing experience. So it's something I'm proud of. I didn't ask him to do it, but I'm glad he did because I think it's a great thing to share.
- [25:33]
Tom Gump
Well Trumi, that's great advice. We can work on getting the members in there, but we have to get more more members so we have more hands and hearts for service and the best way to do that is to publicize that. So thank you Trumi Lee Patrick for having us, for being on our podcast and we look forward to hearing from you again about the great growth you'll have throughout the rest of your year.
- [25:54]
Jose Gonzalez
Have a good day Trumy.
- [25:56]
Trumi Lee Patrick
Thank y'. All.
- [25:57]
Tom Gump
Well, that was an amazing discussion we had with Trumy. We took away so much. It was jam packed full of information. Jose, what do you think that other clubs can learn from this? What we heard today?
- [26:07]
Jose Gonzalez
Oh Tom, you're spot on. It was a great conversation. I had so much fun listening to Trumi speak about the Rotary Club or Roswell. I think there's a number of things that clubs can take away from his conversation today. But my general takeaway is that even if large clubs with long standing tenure can continue growing year after year, and sure there's some ebbs and flows there, so long as they adapt to their members needs and offer an environment that's supporting a positive club experience, other clubs can do the same. Roswell's ability to be consistently successful in membership growth, it's inspiring and something that other clubs can replicate should they put the strategies that Trumi talked about today into practice. The things that Trumy has shared are similar to that of what we often recommend when speaking with clubs conducting annual surveys, offering an engaging onboarding process that follows through even after the orientation. And I hope that Rotarians and rotoractors around the world are listening today to our message and to the message discussed, because they too can grow their clubs by using these strategies discussed today.
- [27:13]
Tom Gump
Jose, I couldn't agree with you more. It's interesting because a lot of times when we travel around the world and look at the clubs that have been there 75, 100 years or more, they're very set in tradition. I was amazed that they were actually taking surveys and doing surveys. And it's interesting. They bring the members in. And I loved your question about the new member orientation because it seemed like they really did have a two way conversation with the people coming in and it seems like they really are trying to improve their culture and even though they've been successful, they're still working at it. So if you had to give the top three highlights of today, what would you give them as?
- [27:49]
Jose Gonzalez
Oh, top three. Okay. Number one, I'm going to keep it at surveys because if we're not asking our members, especially our newest members, those that just joined their clubs, what it is their interests are, we're not going be able to meet their needs and in turn will end up losing them as a member. So number one, surveys. Second is offering an engaging member experience, one in which once again meets the needs of those members, but it's dependent on what their individual needs are. Because we often talk about this idea that we need to determine what the value proposition is for each member. And if we don't, well, unfortunately they may not stick around as long as we would hope. And the third, I would say is. You brought it up, Tom. Be adaptable. Even a club that's been around for a long time can make small changes in their general operations and their day to day practices so that they can be much more inclusive and welcoming to all the different people of the world. Rotary is a large organization with more than 1.2 million people around the world. I want to see it continue to grow even further. So I think if clubs mirror these three sound strategies, we'll be in the right place.
- [28:53]
Tom Gump
Absolutely. I think that's a good place to focus. The other thing that was very impressive about this club is that they really had a holistic approach to membership. You know, some clubs are good at recruiting and they bring a lot of people in, but they don't have that new member orientation and they don't have that red badge that he talked about or the partnering up with a mentor or assigning to a committee. It was great. They not only bring members in, but they actually engage them and they really retain them with all those different aspects and those different service projects. And they're also at the same time thinking about adding that new after hours club. So they are focusing on everything that you need, bringing in new members, engaging members and retaining them, focusing on starting new clubs and also working on that belonging and that club culture. It's a perfect example for us to share around the Rotary world.
- [29:46]
Jose Gonzalez
Spot on, Tom. The perfect package we can say with the Rotary Club of Roswell. Pleasure speaking with you today.
- [29:51]
Tom Gump
Great meeting with you. Thank you.
- [29:56]
JP Swenson
This episode of the Rotary Voices Podcast was produced by JP Swenson and edited by Wen Huang. Production by Yusu Kim. Tom Gump and Jose Gonzalez were our hosts. If you enjoyed the show, please rate us five stars on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and share it with your friends. The Rotary Voices Podcast is a production of Rotary Magazine, the official monthly publication of Rotary International. Thanks for listening.