Stronger together

Rotary Community Groups across Zone 8 are highlighting the power of collaboration.

Some of the new Rotary Community Groups have shown remarkable growth in membership within their clubs in their first year of operation as part of the Zone 8 pilot.

Each of the 105 groups across the South Pacific region were charged with developing a growth plan to create a project among the member clubs that will positively impact their local community and encourage members of that community to join Rotary. So far, just over 50 groups have such a project completed or underway.

The Rotary Community Group in D9560 topped the chart, with 27 new members inducted in 2024-25. The group embraces the Queensland cities of Bundaberg, Hervey Bay and Maryborough and the surrounding district. There are 11 Rotary clubs in the group, one satellite club and a Rotaract club. The Rotary Community Leader is Danny Mattson, of the Rotary Club of Hervey Bay Sunrise.

The work of District Governor Andrew Gillespie and his wife Susan also needs to be celebrated as they not only chartered new clubs across the district, including one in this group (new clubs are not counted), but worked with all the groups across District 9560 to grow Rotary. This included some specific membership summits.

The other groups that grew their membership in double figures in 2024-25 are:

• D9560-7 – 27
• D9780-4 – 24
• D9920-4 – 23
• D9705-7 – 22
• D9920-7 – 18
• D9790-6 – 16
• D9510-3 – 14
• D9920-5 – 13
• D9423-1 – 11
• D9815-7 – 11

Others to do well include D9560-1, D9640-1, D9660-3, D9705-2, D9790-2, D9790-9, D9815-6, D9930-1 and D9930-4.

Overall, 19 per cent of the active groups in 2024-25 have already shown positive membership growth from their growth plans. It is expected that many more will join the list in 2025-26 as the pilot places new emphasis on membership growth.

This has been helped by a marked revitalisation of clubs across the whole region through the actions of the pilot, which has increased the retention rate in clubs quite noticeably. There has also been a marked drop in clubs handing back their charters as the Regional Community Leaders work with such clubs to help them find alternate ways to survive and thrive.