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After a brief introduction by Director James as a fellow Rotarian and PDG of District 5050, Gary started his conversational speech with members.  Gary has been a Rotarian for 25 years and he offered the Club some issues to think about membership.   

Gary has read a book - Death and Dying while he was at the New York Airport a few years ago, attracted by the book’s title and the fact that it was one of the top 10 bestsellers at the time.  He got some insights from the book that’s applicable to a lot of things including businesses and Rotary.  In the book it identifies the grieving process as a 5-stage process and Gary explained how each relates to Rotary:- 

Stage 1 – Denial – denies that there’s problem with Rotary even when membership hasn’t been 
increasing for a long time 
Stage 2 – Anger – gets upset when others talk about the problem 
Stage 3 – Negotiation – starts to think that maybe there’s a problem but how can it be fixed and 
how to ensure that it can be fixed 
Stage 4 – Depression – acknowledges there’s a problem but don’t know how to fix it and give up 
Stage 5 – Acceptance – accepts the problem

Gary encouraged the Club to re-invent the wheel and focus on the following 4 areas:- 
Membership – to get new members 
Membership Benefits – to show members how they will benefit by being a member 
Fellowship – to provide opportunities for members to network 
Advocacy – to help others who are less fortunate 

Gary’s talk was inspiring and motivational and gave the Club something to think about.