Fireside Meeting (Group 3)

Theme: Talking about the next 10 years of the Shintoshin Rotary Club

The emcee opened by saying, “At the last fireside meeting we looked back on our club's past 30 years; this time the theme is ‘Talking about the next 10 years of our club,’” and the meeting began with a toast by Member 豊田.

While enjoying French cuisine, members shared a variety of ideas on increasing membership and revitalizing the club.

On membership growth: ① Some Rotarians have passed their businesses on to the next generation. Since it may be difficult for parent and child to join the same club, how about having second-generation members join through a kind of “trade” among the Shinjuku 5 Clubs? ② Clubs that are losing members tend to have older age groups, so discussions about 10 years from now should center on people in their 40s and 50s. ③ To reach 70 members, it may be better to set the goal at 80 rather than 70. And so on.

On club revitalization: ① It is important that other clubs can clearly see what service each club does — for example, polio for the Kojimachi RC, and Cambodia and, more recently, Nepal for the Shintoshin RC. To that end, while Rotary centers on fellowship and service, perhaps we should devote more time to service. ② If senior members of each of the Shinjuku 5 Clubs take several younger members along to do make-ups at one another's clubs, they will better understand the features of their home club and the activities of other clubs, and cooperating on activities the clubs can work on together could help revitalize the clubs. And so on.

Finally, after remarks from Member 青山 and President 半場, the meeting adjourned.

浅利隆文