New Club Chartering Process – Developed by district 6820 Paul and Jen Bucurel
****note: All files and support materials are located in Drop Box****
The chartering process is relatively easy provided that all of the pieces are there, kind of
like a perfect storm. The focus of these new clubs was to be able to offer fellowship,
networking and service opportunities. There are three types of charters possible:
1. New club charter where existing clubs in the area don't want or aren't willing to help form
new clubs.
2. New club charter where there is no Rotary presence in the area.
3. New club charter where there is a Rotary presence and local Rotarians are willing to
help with new club formation.
The first step is to identify areas where Rotary is underserved or absent. Meridian, Mississippi
falls under category one in areas where Rotary is underserved and the local club doesn't feel
there needs to be another club and are unwilling to help form a new club. Meridian has one of
the lowest percentages of Rotarians to population of any clubs in our district and would be
classified as a somewhat typical “meet and greet” old men's club that meets at the local country
club on Wednesday's.
The first step was to poll non Rotarians in the area to find out if there was any interest in forming
a nontraditional service orientated Rotary club that met after hours. Having received some
positive responses a date and location was set for a Rotary social to take place after hours. The
initial invitation list of some two hundred people was made up of friends, community leaders and
business contacts known by the sitting district governor and his wife. The invitation to the wine
and cheese social included Past Rotary International President Richard King's "twenty benefits
of Rotary" spelling out what benefits a perspective member could hope to enjoy by becoming a
Rotary member. Invitations were presented based on a best guess as how to get positive
results. Some were mailed, some emailed, some telephone calls and some when made in
person.
Jennifer Bucurel, who later became the charter president, created story boards telling the
twenty benefits story, the Rotary story, the Foundation story, and a story board segment entitled
"the pin gets you in." We had the story boards printed at a local print shop. Prior to the social we
ordered in as much printed material that we could find that told the Rotary and Rotary
Foundation story and had it at each place at the tables.
An important ingredient was charter member applications and a sheet labeled “I would like more
information". We set the room up so that we had a standing social area for the first part of the
meeting and had tables and chairs set up in a facilitator fashion for the presentation session.
We had sign in sheets with places for contact information and used name tags. For display we
had the Rotary theme banner, district banner and the three story boards on easels. We had a
screen and projector for our videos. We served heavy Hors d'oeuvres, soft drinks, tea and
coffee and had a cash bar available.
We had a number of district level Rotarians in attendance to meet and engage guest during the
social time. The agenda for the meeting is located in the drop box files. One of the things that
we repeated numerous times from the start of the meeting was that if any time during the
presentation you saw something that told you that you wanted to be part of Rotary, please fill
out the charter member application or if you saw or heard something that made you want to
know more, put your name on the tell me more contact list.
At the end of the meeting we had twelve applicants including people who could not attend but
had indicated that that they wanted to be members. We charged them with bringing potential
members with them to the next meeting. Subsequent meeting agendas are attached. In the
case where Rotary is absent, we compared the demographics of existing clubs in our district to
areas where there is not a Rotary club. In our case, Clarke County, whose county seat is
Quitman, has a county population of 16,000 people which is comparable to our Rotary Club of
Macon in demographics.
I contacted the mayor of Quitman who I knew to be progressive and talked to him about the
idea of Rotary coming to Clarke County. In an area where there is no Rotary presence it is
critical that you find a local person to be the champion and leader. He has the responsibility of
creating the potential member list, meeting location and inviting guest. The mayor agreed to
assume this position. We followed the same meeting agendas that we used for the East
Mississippi Rotary club and the same displays and pass outs.
The two additional clubs we created fall under category three were areas where there is a
Rotary presence and willing Rotarians to spearhead new club formation and at the same time
had no nontraditional Rotary clubs. This presents opportunities for additional clubs. Our
membership chair PDG Danny Williams formed a committee of Rotarians from the Jackson,
Mississippi area and they compiled list from various sources in the community. We followed the
same format that we had used in the two previous club formations; wine and cheese social and
used the same displays and pass outs. The only difference is that we announced the desire to
form a morning meeting club. Some of the people attending like the idea of Rotary but not the
time. This became the start of forming the Evening club.
A critical ingredient in the formation of all of these clubs was the nontraditional club with a focus
on fellowship, networking and service. We encouraged the clubs not to straddle their members
with $1000 a year meal plans and focus on fund raising to fund projects and support for the
Foundation. As a result all four clubs are much younger and more diverse in gender and
ethnicity than a typical North American Rotary Club. The Rotary Club of East Mississippi and
The Rotary Club of Clarke County were formed without a sponsoring club. The Metro Jackson
Sunrise Rotary Club and the Capital Area Sunset Club were sponsored by local clubs.
The correct selection of a Governor's Representative is critical to the process. He has to be able
to provide knowledge and advice without mandating to the new club how they must do things,
particularly when it applies to tradition as opposed to rules of procedure.