Great Yarmouth Haven Rotary Club in Norfolk has an average of 77, is one of three clubs in the locality with a declining membership and struggling to recruit new members.

Great Yarmouth Haven is a traditional Rotary club that dines fortnightly and like most Rotary clubs in Great Britain & Ireland, supports projects both at home and abroad.

So what’s the solution? In 2021, as a member of the Rotary Club, and also the Specialist Adviser Team for Membership, the time had come to set out the facts that if the club continued to ignore the issue of a declining membership it could cease to exist by 2029 or sooner.

Having been a member of the Norwich Speakers Club (Toastmasters International), I had a vision of starting an interest-based Rotary Speakers Club which would help individuals improve their public speaking ability whilst promoting the ideals of Rotary.

Members would support fund-raising events organised by their sponsoring club and embark on their own projects at a pace which suited the club.

Haven backed the proposal and with funding support from the District, the Great Yarmouth Rotary Speakers Club was registered as satellite club in September 2022.

That then prompted the formation of a second satellite club.

Victor Ling is a past member of the Haven Club who was keen to form another ​satellite group which would focus on embracing business networking. After all, ​this was Paul Harris’s working model when Rotary was created in 1905.

Robert approached Great Yarmouth Haven Rotary Club and, to his surprise, they ​were happy to support a second venture.

A steering group was formed and they became HR2 (Haven Rotary Two), ​registering as a satellite club in November 2023. It has 17 members and is hoping ​to charter in July.

This diverse group mainly consists of young business people, with Amber Docwra ​being their youngest member age 23. They do not have a meal and keep their ​running costs to a minimum. They have now formed a partnership with the ​speakers’ club where members can attend their meetings to help them improve ​their public speaking skills and offer advice on business presentations.

Robert is a big advocate in encouraging clubs to start a satellite group when a ​club is reluctant to change and membership is declining.

Critically, you must sell the concept to the club members and seek their approval. ​Research what kind of satellite club would work in your area and then identify an ​individual or individuals who could assist with the process. Also, use the power of ​social media to promote the club, something which has been very effective in ​securing new members in both clubs.

Other ideas include selecting one lead Rotarian to be the link between the ​sponsoring club and the satellite group. The sponsoring club should not interfere ​with the running of the group, but will be on hand to offer advice when ​requested.

If a traditional Rotary club is willing to sponsor two groups with a combined ​membership of 31 and growing, in a locality which has many economic and social ​problems, then I am confident that other clubs could do the same.

Now in Great Yarmouth, Rotary is back in business.