Membership & Extension Officer Jim Smith Profile

Membership News

Now here's a great idea, with most camera phones these days able to shoot video, why not shoot some of your events, edit them down to two or three minutes and share them with the rest of us on YouTube. Here's a Club that did JUST that and want to share their 'Favourite Table Moments' with you.

At the July Council meeting I reported that membership figures were as follows:

Clubs: 806 Members: 17,911

This is the first time for many years that the numbers we know about have fallen below 18,000. This is however a positive result at this stage of the year. The general pattern is that if a club is going to close or disaffiliate it generally happens around the time of their AGM’s and virtually all those are past. It was even more pleasing that at this first National Council meeting of the year we were able to match the closures with new clubs being opened.

This is positive news and shows that the initiative we launched in 2010 to get back potential members who had either left or never joined is starting to work. Even more encouraging is that most of the clubs we have affiliated recently are from younger ex-tablers who want to continue the fun and fellowship but in a slightly more active way. They are adopting the objectives, they are supporting their Round Tables and in many instances they are also getting out into the community. So on this occasion we welcomed Bollin Valley (Wilmslow) in Region 7, Launceston 41 Club ‘Active’ in Region 22, Locksbottom (Farnborough in Kent) and a revitalised club in the Vale of Evesham Region 21. These new clubs join the other 13 we have opened over the past couple of years. Even more positive is that we are currently to talking to a potential 9 other new clubs and our aim is to get membership back over 18,000 by the end of the year.

In discussions with Round Table members it is clear that many of them want more than a dining club when it comes to leaving Table. That is probably one of the reasons why Table has at least 1,500 known honoraries attached. At the National Council we made it clear that we were looking for new clubs to form. This is not to detract from the many clubs happily continue to exist as dining clubs, or clubs who manage a seamless movement of Tablers into 41 Club which of course is the way it should be. Regrettably though many 41 clubs have lost that link with their Table and that is where we will step in.

I still think the quote I put on the web site last year is relevant from Nick Lewis but it should extend to 41 Club as well as Round Table so I leave it on the site again for this update.

“Many potential members are lost to the Association simply because we are not continually aware of membership needs. There are thousands of young men throughout this country who would benefit
from being members of Round Table and if we do not retain this membership awareness, then we deny them the opportunity. The future of the movement is in our hands, not in the hands of future Tablers.”

Round Table

Round Table report that the tanker is turning. At a recent Round Table Family meeting Steve Glaister the new Membership officer responsible for Recruitment was very positive about the signs. They are getting more enquiries than they have had for many years, they are in the process of re-opening some new clubs, the average age of tablers is falling, the average age of new members is falling and they are very positive about the future. There are two more things that we can do to help. First of all if you haven’t completed a questionnaire for their current consultation please do it (see front page of our web site). Secondly as part of our support for Round Table please continue to introduce potential new members to them. If your local club has closed but you have a likely candidate either encourage them to phone the Round Table membership hotline on 0843 506 0041 or alternatively put their details on the web site as an introduction on www.roundtable.co.uk. “Get one in for Round Table”

Membership Committee

The membership committee comprising of Ken Donald (Region 2), David ‘Bacardi’ Yardley (Region 8), Nigel Davies (Region 16), Sean McCormick (Region 17) and Manny Martins (Region 24) are working together on a number of issues including retention, new clubs, new members and promotion issues. I’m sure we’ll see the results of some of the hard work they are putting in as the year progresses. There is however one thing that is likely to dominate our work this year and that is Ireland.
Membership of 41 Clubs in Ireland has continued to fall for a number of years and it is now down to 16 clubs and just over 250 members. Even worse than this Round Table in Ireland has almost disappeared and the Dublin club, which should be the mainstay, recently announced a suspension of it’s club with less than 5 members. Phil Ellis (Regional Councillor for Ireland), myself and Ken Donald are going to be working very closely with a team from Round Table led by Immediate Past President John Kilshaw and Membership Retention Officer Nick Ormerod to try to re-build Round Table in Ireland. This is a major challenge for us but if we don’t succeed the bottom line is that we lose the “I” from RTBI. If anyone has any contacts in Ireland who they think might be interested in Round Table or who is an ex-member who wants to join 41 Club or set up a new one please contact us as soon as they can.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your summer and that you continue to enjoy your membership of 41 Club.

Yours in Continued Friendship
Jim Smith – National Membership & Extension Officer

0843 506 0041

Introduce someone to Round Table using this dedicated hotline number.

Calls from a BT line cost 5p per minute. Calls from mobile phones may cost more