The Fellowship Director of the club plays a crucial role in Membership Retention !

Although Rotary International's primary motto is "Service Above Self", regular fellowship events which are fun and reasonably priced, help develop and cement the friendships which exist between members, and strong friendships among our membership make serving our local community as a club much easier and more fulfilling.

It is for this reason that the Fellowship Director should maintain records of which members attend fellowship events and which members do not. This, of course, has nothing whatsoever to do with Rotary attendance requirements, but it may help the Fellowship Director identify potential problems. 

There could be a variety of reasons why certain members do not attend fellowship events, and these may include the cost of participation, the timing of fellowship events (e.g. some members may never be able to attend fellowships on, say, Friday evenings), shyness on the part of the member's partner, the member's lack of a regular partner, a lack of transport and so on. 

Hence the Fellowship Director needs to be aware of these possibilities and he should sensitively approach members who do not attend fellowship events to try and determine their reasons, and to try and find a solution.

Ideally, the Fellowship Director should aim to hold one fellowship event each month, and these events should be as diverse as possible. Certain events, such as the "Indian", Chinese" and "NINC" (Non Indian, Non Chinese !!) nights, hosted respectively by our three (3) major "ethnic groups", are regular features on our fellowship calendar each year, and these are invariably a huge success, as is the "Oktoberfest" at the Holiday Inn Golden Mile.

However the Fellowship Director must always remember that our club is comprised of members with varying levels of disposable income, so the cost of attending fellowship events must be kept at reasonable levels. Moreover, while we are extremely fortunate to have such a diverse membership, this diversity often presents challenges in respect of certain types of food and/or the ingredients which can be offered on the menu, and this matter cannot be overlooked in the planning of fellowship events.

Despite this small challenge, the Fellowship Director should try to arrange fellowship events which are as diverse as possible. Apart from organising different "cuisine themes" (e.g. Italian, Mongolian, Spanish, Korean etc.), other types of event should be considered. These may include theatre and dinner events, Sunday afternoon barbeques, boating trips, sports/lunch events (e.g. tennis, ten-pin bowling or horse-racing events combined with a meal) and so on.

While fellowship events should be "fun-raising" not "fund-raising" events, it is also important that they be self-financing. In other words, the participation fee of each fellowship event should cover all costs, possibly culminating with a minor surplus, which may be accumulated in the fellowship "fund" and used to defray the costs of future fellowship events during the year or contributed to the club Community Service fund.

In the (hopefully unlikely) event that a fellowship event suffers a loss, then the shortfall may, on approval by the Board, be subsidised by the club's General Fund.

In either case, the Fellowship Director should appoint an "Event Treasurer" for each fellowship, who is responsible for the collection of participation fees from members and for the payment of associated costs. In other words, the club's bank accounts must not be used for the collection and/or payment of fellowship funds payable or receivable.

On completion of the fellowship event, the final surplus or loss should only be reported to the Club Treasurer IF there will be a contribution made to the club Community Service Fund or if an appeal to the Board for a subsidy from the club General Fund will be necessary.

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