by: PP Eckart Schumacher - RC Tangerang
1. Membership (in general)
Rotary International closed with a Rotary membership of -yet again- below 1.2 mil. members.
RIP Jennifer’s “Imagine Rotary” globally resulted in 1,157k Rotarians and a net-loss of around -15,000
members over 30 June 2022.
Zone 1B ended the RYr. with 19,272 members, = stable with a net-loss of ‘just’ -157 over 30 June 2022.
D3281-Bangladesh with 8,131 members remains the -by far- biggest district in the world.
Note: obviously, there is a district split of D3281 in progress; RI data show 2 new districts “in transition” (D3283 & D3284).
D3410’s ending membership of 1,007 Rotarians, unfortunately, is a major setback with -106 members vs.
30 June 2022. The typical “cleaning house” in June alone resulted in a net-loss of -59 members vs. May.
Calculating “Rotarians per 1 million population 25-79 years of age”, in 2022/23 D3410 -first time- dropped
below 11 Rotarians (10.7 to be exact); World AVG = 250. D3410 is now the 28th smallest district in the world (of 531). After the “quantitative membership pushes” in 2019/20 and 2021/22, we are back to below
-obviously required- 1,100 members and may be facing the next “merger challenge”.
[By the way, what happened to the initiative to unite Indonesia with ASEAN in a contiguous zone, as addressed during the ‘RICCA’
conference in Singapore in May 2022?!]
D3420 also showed quite a dramatic decline in 2022/23. After a “push” in 2021/22 (+186), in 2022/23 they lost a net of almost -200 members, thereof -90 in June vs. May. Result per 30 June 2023 = 1,164 members.
Rotaract globally lost ~42,200 (-20%) members versus end 2021/22, thereof ~34,250 (-38%) in India alone!
Membership of registered Rotaractors now is down to ~166,400. This may be a result of the ‘strategic
changes’ in effect as of 2022/23, esp. the new obligation to pay RI Dues. I assume that many districts and
RACs have cleaned up their ‘inflated’ membership (probably members that were only registered ‘on paper’).
This may be good news, though, since after this ‘clean up’ the remaining Rotaractors may be active ones
and constitute the core for future growth.
D3410 closes 2022/23 with 207 Rotaractors (net +7) in 20 clubs (net +1). However, I doubt that this is a
sustainable membership. Observation: 11 of 19 RACs that have received a RI-Dues invoice in January 2023
have not (yet) paid. If those 11 RACs, indeed, are inactive, eventually RI will terminate them; this will result
in a loss of (currently registered) 95 Rotaractors.
2. Membership “Diversity” and “Rejuvenation”
a) By Region
D3410’s membership is over-represented in the regions ‘Metropolitan Jakarta’ (46% of D3410’s members, versus 25% of the D3410 population 25-79 years of age) and ‘DIY/C.Java’ (22% vs. 9%). Memberships in ‘Bandung/W.Java’ (16% vs. 20%) and ‘Sumatra/Kalimantan’ (16% vs. 46%) are under-represented. These differences may come naturally, due to higher urban resp. rural characters of the regions.
If looking for potentials, it certainly would be better to break the D3410-map down to urban areas. Fact of the matter: D3410 still has a lot of “white spots” on the map. Currently we have a presence in 10 ¼ of our 19 ¼ provinces (Central Java counted ¼) and in only 17 of ~60 major cities (pop. >100,000).
All 4 regions lost Rotarians in 2022/23, the highest net-loss seen in DIY/C.Java with -53, followed by Bandung/W.Java with -32.
Bandung/W.Java, by the way, is the only region that has a negative development versus 1 July 2012, i.e. a net-loss of -56 members since the district split. Probably worth noting: Bandung/W.Java has no ‘surviving’ new clubs since the chartering of RC Bandung Utara in Jan. 1996 (not counting RC Bdg Siliwangi which is in the process of termination).
b) By Gender
The share of female members has increased to 44.3% (ending 2021/22 = 43.1%). This, however, is rather due to the fact that the net-balance of female members added/terminated was “less negative” than the one for male members.
Those 44.3% still are way above the world average of only 25.7%, of course also above Zone1B (20.3%), and significantly beat RIP Jennifer’s goal of 30% by end of 2022/23.
Per ‘D3410 region’, however, the shares of female members are quite different. While Metrop. Jakarta sits at 42.9%, regions DIY/C.Java (37.5%) and Sumatra/Kalimantan (36.3%) are significantly below the district average; the ‘push’ to >44% in D3410 is due to region Bandung/W.Java where the female membership percentage is 65.2% (wow!).
In terms of clubs, we have a wide range of “gender diversity”. Currently, there are 2 clubs with a female membership of 100% and 3 clubs with 100% being male. 8 (of 53) clubs are well balanced with a female percentage of 45 - 55%.
c) By Age (-brackets)
D3410 still does not make progress with regard to the necessary “rejuvenation”. The share of “young professionals” (below 40 yrs. of age) remains below 17% of all ‘age-reported’ members (worldwide, though, only 11%).
In 2022/23 D3410 clubs have added +33 “young professionals”, but have also lost -34. The age-bracket <40 now has 124 Rotarians, spread over 36 (of 53) clubs.
The average-age of (age-reported) D3410 members as per 30 June 2023 is at 53.5 years. This compares to 52.8 per 30 June 2022. Meaning, we could not compensate the existing members’ “natural aging of +1” with new members with a favorable younger age-mix.
There are -basically- no significant differences re. average-age between female and male members.
However, there are significant differences between the regions. With 51.7 yrs. and 54.3 yrs., members in Metrop. Jakarta and DIY/C.Java are around the D3410 average-age. Bandung/W.Java’s average is at 61.2 yrs., while Sumatra/Kalimantan has more of the ‘coveted’ younger members (AVG = 46.8 yrs.).
Same as for “gender diversity”, we also see a wide range of club cultures re. “age diversity”. Members’ average-age per club ranges from 65.9 (RC Kebayoran) to 35.7 (RC Medan Talenta). 8 clubs have an average-age of > 60, 23 clubs = 50-59, 19 clubs = 40-49, 2 clubs below 40.
Looking at the clubs’ covered age brackets, then only RCs Purwokerto, Jakarta, Tangerang seem to be well balanced over all age-brackets (<40 / 40-49 / 50-59 / >60).
d) By ‘Service Years’ (-brackets)
First glimpse, the mix of service years brackets 0-2 / 2-5 / 5-10 / >10 looks o.k. with shares between 20 to 30% each. However, the overall mix has become more unfavorable in 2022/23, shown by the average service years over all D3410 members of 8.9 years (up from 8.0 years end 2021/22). This is another hint at the fact that D3410 has not achieved progress re. “rejuvenation”.
Of all newly added members in 2022/23 (+155), 80% are “newcomers”, 20% are re-admitted Rotarians with already >2 service years ‘on their clock’ (half of those >10 years).
~40% of all lost members (-261) have only been with us for up to 2 years, ~28% for 2-5 yrs. Also see below observations re. “sustainability”.
Like average-age, the average service years are also significantly different per region. Metrop. Jakarta and Sumatra/Kalimantan have a lower average of 6.9 and 6.5 years; members in Bandung/W.Java and DIY/C.Java on average have been Rotarians for 13.0 and 11.6 years. (Note: a low average indicates that clubs are indeed adding new members and/or have a ‘high turnover’ of membership.)
In line with “age”, “service years diversity” also shows a wide range of club cultures. Members’ average service years per club ranges from 21.7 (RC Kebayoran) to 3.5 (RC Palembang, as a club chartered before the district split; newer clubs, of course, have an AVG more or less in line with their charter year, e.g. Walet Kebumen with 1.4). 7 (of 53) clubs have an ‘experienced average membership’ with >15 service years, the membership of 9 clubs on average is rather new to Rotary (below 5 yrs.).
3. Membership “Sustainability”
Sustainability, unfortunately, remains a big challenge for Rotary in D3410. Three compelling facts:
> Over the ‘life span’ of D3410 since 2012/13, we have added a total of 2,621 members, but have
lost a total of 2,496. The balance of just +125 over 11 years is not enough to put D3410 sustainably
‘on the map’.
> Of all members newly added since the district split, 70% were lost again (high ‘turnover’).
> In a ‘case study’ (using only data of clubs existing in 2022/23), 46% of all lost members since 2012/13 have only been in D3410 for 0-2 years. *
In 2022/23 we have added a total of +155 new members (on the ‘low side’ compared to all other RYrs. since 2012/13), and have lost -261 (on the ‘high side’). Only 14 (of 52) Existing Clubs enjoyed a net-gain in membership (on the ‘low side’), while 25 suffered a net-loss (on the ‘high side’).
Looking at the “Exit Reasons” of the members lost in 2022/23 (My Rotary/Club Admin. “standard reasons”), ~20% left because of “force majeure” (like relocation or family-/business obligations), while ~80% exited because -one way or the other- the benefits of Rotary did not seem to be sufficiently endorsed or understood (while having to pay dues for membership in this organization of volunteers). The ‘80%’ seem to be increasing over the years where I have data (since 2019/20).
In the (different) calculation method used in My Rotary’s “Viability Report”, in 2022/23 with 79.0% we -again- only achieved below 80% Retention of Existing Members, i.e. we lost a net of 234 of 1,113 members existing as per 1 July 2022. Retention for newly added members in 2022/23 is calculated with 90.8%, i.e. 13 of 141 new members were immediately lost again. (Note: the “Viability Report” on My Rotary is highly flawed! I have made respective corrections for above percentages.)
* Even more specific re. “unsustainable new members”:
Substantially contributing to low “retention” are members that are immediately lost again in the RYr.
after their year of induction (i.e. a “burden” passed from the predecessor to the incumbent DG).
2022/23, unfortunately, is another RYr. where the “quantitative membership push” in the preceding
RYr. caused ‘trouble’. Of 278 new members inducted in 2021/22, 33.8% (= 94) were lost again in
2022/23. This is the 2nd highest ‘trouble’ in the history of D3410, the highest being 35.2% in 2020/21
after the ‘membership push’ in 2019/20. The average for such “unsustainable new members” since
the district split is 28.0%.
Looking at clubs: of all 34 clubs newly chartered since the district split, 18 meanwhile have been terminated again (and a further 7 seem to be ‘struggling’). The combined total charter membership of the still existing 16 new clubs was 384 and has declined to just 241 members per end of 2022/23. Hence, making newly chartered clubs ‘sustainable’ remains a big challenge for D3410 and “screams” for actions (also see chapter 4.)!
4. D3410 Club Portfolio
Please also refer to the statements made for clubs in above “Diversity” & “Sustainability” chapters.
Per end of 2022/23 D3410 has 53 ‘active’ Rotary Clubs (Note: RC Medan Cemara not counted [‘self terminated’ end of 2020/21] as opposed to My Rotary statistics, but RC Bandung Siliwangi still counted).
There is one new club in 2022/23 (RC Jakarta Golfers, 22 charter members). Two clubs have been terminated with a total loss of -31 members = RC Bantul and RC Yogyakarta Prambanan (Note: RC Bantul had just been chartered in June 2022!). Additionally, RC Jakarta Sentral merged into RC Jakarta Selatan (subsequently name change to become RC Jakarta Sentral International), resulting in a ‘technical loss’ of -16 members (Note: the ‘technical’ starting membership of 24 could not be maintained; RC Jkt Sentral Int’l ended 2022/23 with 15 members).
The 3 new clubs in 2021/22, chartered with 63 members (RCs Jakarta Hope, Bekasi Raya, Bantul),nunfortunately have declined to just 18 members (again, RC Bantul = even terminated).
37 of the current 53 clubs have been chartered before the district split, 16 since 2012/13. The average “life span” of all clubs is a quite high 23.5 years.
The ‘average membership per club’ is down from 20.2 (June ‘22) to 19.0 (June ‘23). World = 31.4!
The mix of our club portfolio in terms of “small clubs” (< 15 members) and “big clubs” (> 15 members) has become a little more unfavorable in 2022/23. While 28 clubs are “big” (prev. yr. = 32), the number of “small clubs” increased to 25 (prev. yr. = 23), thereof clubs with <10 members even to 13 (+1).
In the ‘mapping’ of the club portfolio, the quadrant “below AVG Life Span / below 15 members”, unfortunately, has become quite ‘crowded’.
The “lumayan success story” of building Satellite Clubs (format used since 2019/20), unfortunately, has rather fallen apart meanwhile. Of 11 Satellite Clubs ever chartered (2022/23 = none), 3 have become independent Rotary Clubs, but 7 have to be considered ‘inactive’ with a zero- (4) or just a ‘mindmarker’ membership of 1 or 2 (3). Meaning, there is only 1 -presumably active- Satellite Club left with a sizeable membership of 10 (Gambir / Kampung Sawah). (Note: statistics on My Rotary still show 8 ‘active’ Satellite Clubs, i.e. including the ones with zero members; I do not count those Satellite Clubs anymore.)
Last but not least: as the ‘historic’ D3410 data show, building/chartering NEW clubs is a necessity. As a rule of thumb, existing clubs almost every RYr. show a negative membership net-development (in 2022/23 = -81 [on the ‘high side’ over all RYrs. since 2012/13]). Together with the fact that the termination of clubs also is a common occurrence every RYr., it seems clear that the chartering of new clubs (and making them sustainable) needs to receive high priority in order to maintain (or even grow) the D3410 membership (provided that quantitative growth even means ‘anything’).
5. Service Projects
As so excellently pointed out by PDG Natalia in the August Future Forward article, Service Projects and the
impact we make in our communities are the essence of Rotary and way more important than quantitative
growth. Unfortunately, measuring our impact is rather not possible with My Rotary data.
On My Rotary’s Goal Center (or via ‘Showcase’) there is the possibility for clubs to report (concluded)
Service Projects. However, only few clubs do report! Also on the ‘GML’ (resp. ‘Channel D3410’) only few clubs
-and probably only sporadically- report about their projects. In lieu of “comprehensive data”, allow me to
point out just 3 observations (more ‘quantitative’ details are in the attached ‘Factbooks’):
1) As seen in the available D3410 channels, “Reduction of the prevalence of Stunting” is still running
strong after the launch as a ‘district-driven signature project’ in 2020/21. It continues to be a sustainable
project with the participation of an increasing number of RCs. The ‘drivers’ have done a great job to
provide the clubs with “problem knowledge” and well elaborated “project infrastructure”; PP Finjan has
done a great job with the (consolidated) documentation of project investment and results. I hope that “Stunting” remains supported on the district level and more district-driven “big projects” will
become district-uniting initiatives. With such coordination & cooperation, I am confident that the measuring of Rotary impact will become easier (as opposed to just leaving this to the clubs with individual ‘smaller’ projects), and thus providing a basis to build a substantiated Public Image (… to help grow D3410).
2) Global Grant (‘GG’) projects seemingly are not perceived as an attractive Rotary benefit (anymore).
In 2022/23 only 1 GG was implemented, i.e. by RC Cilacap who already routinely uses GGs for their Land
Reclamation projects (already the 5th GG). Otherwise, the number of existing clubs that have ever
implemented GGs, remains at just 16 (plus 2 clubs that have already been terminated), in the recent past since -say- 2018/19 only 8 clubs. GG projects inherently include the measurement of impact. However, GGs need a lot of club resources and the capability & willingness to go through “all the trouble”. However, referring to size of club membership as per above, probably only a minor selection of D3410 clubs would be big enough with sufficient resources to go for GGs (!?). If D3410 wishes to promote ‘strong impact’ GG projects, I guess that it would make sense to bring GGexperienced- and “capable & willing” clubs together for “one-on-one” coaching, instead of referring to RI’s standard materials on Grant Management. Also district-coordinated GGs may be an option by pooling the DDF-rights of (smaller) clubs. I would also assume that there is a correlation between the aspirations to use DDF and the potential for TRF/Annual Fund donations (also see below, District Grants and chapter 6.).
3) Re. District Grants (‘DG’): Since 2015/16 (where data availability starts) only between ~10% and ~40% of all clubs with DDF-eligibility used them for DGs (in 2022/23 = 7 of 19 clubs). Although the DG DDF-portion only amounts to 25% of ‘invested’ Annual Fund donations (as of 2024/25 only 23.75%), and -as opposed to GGs- does not multiply via World Fund or -generally speaking- International Partner contributions, this still is ‘money’ that can support the clubs’ activities, and even without “big trouble” re. administration/documentation. Therefore, I personally wonder why clubs do not make better use of those funds!? However (if I may say so, with all due respect to the volunteering District Officers), the management & scheduling of the (district-consolidated) DG application to RI has room for improvement!
Generally, the DRFC expects clubs to submit their DG proposals by end of November (sometimes due date extended). But funds from DG-DDF are disbursed to the clubs VERY late, many-many months later only! The 2022/23 (consolidated) DG application was submitted to RI on 5 March 2023 and already approved by RI on 8 March, however, disbursement of DDF to clubs only happened on 5 July 2023, already in the new RYr. In 2020/21 and 2021/22 the (consolidated) DG application was even submitted to RI mid of May only! A project proposal, of course, always needs involvement/commitment of a benefitting community; RCs certainly should be enabled to also commit to reliable timelines to the beneficiaries of such DG projects. Therefore, the timeline between submission of a project proposal to the DRFC and the disbursement of DDF dollars is way too long. Esp. when considering that ‘Governance rules’ require that a project can only be started after the (DG) funds have been disbursed. I would appreciate if the District Leaders could look into ways how to speed up the entire process (which may include to put pressure on RI to disburse DDF ‘faster than lightning’ after DG approval). A more streamlined schedule certainly would help to convince more clubs to use their eligibility for DDF, thus may even increase the potential for TRF/AF donations, and contribute to a wider impact of D3410 activities.
6. TRF Donations
With USD 40,529 Total Giving (w/o USD 120 added by RAC), 2022/23 barely beat the ‘all-time low’ of 2018/19 (USD 39,727). Donations are more than USD 100k down from previous year (where ‘somebody coerced’ participants at the DisCon in Yogya, June 2022, to donate; otherwise, 2021/22 also would have shown a similarly low Total Giving).
Only 63 giving members (-80 vs. 2021/22) in 26 giving clubs (-2) shows an alarming trend that, probably, donations to TRF are not considered a ‘compelling Rotary benefit’ anymore. The declining use of returning DDF (see above) may support this assumption.
Polio-plus ends with USD 4,668 (below the average of USD ~10,000 over all 11 D3410-RYrs.).
Annual Fund per Capita with only USD 31.23 is exactly on the record-low level of 2018/19.
The highest AF per Capita contribution comes from RC Cilacap (USD 277.78), followed by RC Medan Thamrin (USD 250.-) and RC Jakarta Menteng (USD 120.52). These 3 clubs will receive a “Top-3 banner” for their per capita AF donations. However, in 2022/23 no club has achieved the coveted EREY-Banner; in 2021/22 RCs Jakarta Spirit and Jakarta Metropolitan received one each.
21 Rotarians achieved PHF (or a higher PHF-level) in 2022/23. And we have 1 new Major Donor: PP Bastian / RC Jakarta Sunter Centennial.
The Paul-Harris-Society in 2022/23 grew from 32 to 37 Rotarians; 19 of those PHS-members donated > 1,000 USD to AF and/or Polio (2021/22 = 20 of 32 members). A further 9 members also donated > 1,000 USD and have become so called ‘PHS-eligible’ members (2021/22 = 14).
7. Club Goals and Presidential Citation
17 clubs set > 13 goals on the Goal Center (2021/22 = 15). 10 clubs achieved Presidential Citation (2021/22 = 11).
Notes: RC Jogja Merapi achieved 17 goals, but paid one of the RI-Dues too late (= ‘disqualification’ from Citation).
RC Jkt Metropolitan according to the latest available Citation Report was counted as a Citation recipient with 14 goals
achieved. However, 3 of the set / achieved goals were “zero value goals” with “zero value achievement”. I am not
sure whether RI will recognize this club as a Citation recipient (would be no. 11).
8. ‘My Rotary’ Accounts
Good news: the percentage of D3410 Rotary members with a My Rotary account increased to 46.87% (up
from 41.78% end of 2021/22). This is minimally above the world average end of 2022/23 of 46.74%.
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