President Avrum started the meeting with a ring of the Rotary bell and a reading of the Land Acknowledgment.
Anthem: Peter Masson
Toast to The King, Canada, and Rotary. President Avrum
Attendance: 12 (including Dorothy Evans, guest of Basil Dias).
Program:
Basil introduced our guest speaker, PDG Mary Lou Harrison, who spoke on "Rotary Image and Branding." Mary Lou leads a 10-person team of Rotary Public Image Champions in Zone 28, which covers Canada and part of the U.S.
Mary Lou used a slide production to explain the importance of branding and what we should know specifically about Rotary branding. She said that Rotary is founded on the "Triangle of Awesomeness" consisting of Foundation, Membership, and Public Image, and explained that all three work together to make Rotary stronger.
Mary Lou next addressed the statistics of global Awareness of Rotary. 3 out of 4 people have heard of Rotary, but only 35% of those had an understanding of Rotary, and 65% were unfamiliar with Rotary in their community. When Rotarians think of Rotary, we believe in Service, Fellowship, Connection, etc. When non-Rotarians think of Rotary, they think of Elite, Men, Volunteers, Business, Old, Rich, etc. So, there is a gap in Rotary Awareness that has to be addressed.
Mary Lou explained that Rotary's Marketing Strategy is based on raising Public Awareness of Rotary to create understanding, encourage involvement, and ultimately foster membership. Like a funnel, the process starts at the top with the global community and funnels down to the smaller group who will get involved with Rotary. The levels of this process are Awareness> Understanding > Interest > Engagement > Advocacy.
Mary Lou then provided several examples as to how to use and how not to use Rotary's master brand signature of the Rotary wheel coupled with the word "Rotary." The consistency of one Rotary brand was emphasized, and Rotary's brand center, now incorporated into the My Rotary website, has numerous templates and other resources to help clubs use Rotary branding correctly and consistently. Another very useful marketing resource can be found in the People of Action Campaign, such as promotional advertising with consistent messaging, templates, press releases, and many additional resources.
Arthur thanked Mary Lou for a very interesting and informative talk.
To hear Mary Lou's talk, please click on this link:
- Gordon reminded us to Save the Date of December 9th for our Christmas function. Invitations will be sent out soon, and please, please, please respond with a 'yes' or 'no' with respect to your intentions. The function will be at Floga, and we need at least 50 people, so the other Scarborough Rotary clubs are invited, and members should also book for spouses, family, and friends. It should be a fantastic event!
- Basil announced that the Richmond Hill Rotary Club was down to 10-12 members but have added 30 new members. So, it can be done!
- Rocco asked anyone who needs a Rotary name badge to contact him so that an order can be placed to ensure that all members have badges to wear during our meetings. The new badges will be ordered with magnets unless the member wishes a traditional badge.
Sgt-at-Arms Gordon Brown collected happy bucks, including:
- Gerd was happy to see Mary Lou, who talked him into a three-year Assistant Governor position and was also District Governor during one year of his term
- Frank has just returned from the U.K. and was surprised to find they had passed a 30 mph speed limit there. His reaction and I quote: "It's Horrific!"
- Peter was happy that he gets a ride regularly to Rotary
- Avrum is happy to be going on a two-week vacation to Ecuador, the Amazon, and the Galapagos Islands.
Sgt-at-Arms Gordon Brown collected happy bucks, including:
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