Rotary District Governor gives motivational presentation

STEPHENVILLE, N.L. — STEPHENVILLE, N.L.

Mel Dean of the Stephenville Rotary Club believes their organization’s membership is going to grow because of an address to their members by their district governor.
He said in a prepared release he thinks several other groups with representatives at the meeting where Rotary District Governor Louisa Horne spoke last Wednesday on “How the Make Your Organization Irresistible” will also benefit from it.
Her district covers Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador and St. Pierre and Miquelon with a total of 47 Rotary Clubs.
Horne has her own company and specializes in Leadership Development and Strategic Thinking.
Members of the Stephenville Cultural Destinations Committee and representatives of the Stephenville Theatre Festival MusicFest attended the meeting.
Horne said the idea is that instead of recruiting members, do such great things in the community that people are asking how they can join.
She told those in attendance the question should be “What would you like to do for the community?” and the answer is “Maybe our organization can help.”
Horne gave an example of how two members in one club wanted to do something to respond to a community tragedy. They took the ball and ran with it and had many other people in the community want to help, which resulted in increased numbers of people wanting to join Rotary.

Some of Louisa Horne’s points in her address:
• It doesn’t have to be big – start out small.
• Start the conversation about what people would be interested in.
• Find a cause people could rally behind.
• Do things to make the organization vibrant so that people want to be part of it.
• Have different models for club meetings.
• The basic concept is spending less time in meetings and more in the community doing things.
Source: Rotarian Mel Dean