The 68-year-old club is working to recruit new members.
At their weekly meeting last Monday, Berlin Rotarians sporadically approached the podium with pieces of good news.
Some mentioned recent employment, others a successful vacation. But, each followed their positive reports by dropping a dollar bill.
While the Berlin club has retained Rotary traditions such as “Happy Dollars,” it’s releasing some, as well.
“Rotary International has realized a lot of its rules and guidelines that were in place were actually hindering them,” said Ben Gindville, who was inducted as president of the Berlin group in July. “Over the past year, they basically have thrown the book away.”
Gindville, who has been a club member for six years, has noticed membership dwindling by nearly half, plummeting from roughly 40 to around 20 in the past half-decade. This decline tends to stem from outdated standards, such as mandatory attendance at meetings.
Since this trend has been plaguing the institution on a global level, over the past year, Rotary International has passed new guidelines that ultimately strip the guidelines themselves, allowing each club to create its own rules regarding membership recruitment and attendance.
As long as the changes are recorded in the organization’s bylaws, local clubs have been granted the liberty to experiment.
As the new leader, Gindville, who manages the environmental department at Stout & Caldwell Engineers in Cinnaminson, plans to take advantage of the malleable amendments for the Berlin Club, which was chartered in August 1949.
“I think where we, as a club, have fallen short is not getting ourselves out there enough, we’re not portraying what we do,” he said. “My big push is reaching out to millennials.”
A large part of the club’s resurrection is its developing presence on social media. As of last week, the club launched an updated website. It also made its first posts on Twitter and Instagram.
The club has also instituted a monthly fellowship event, in which members’ friends and families of all ages are welcomed to meetings, in hopes of gaining participants.
Although the club strives to mend an age gap, it maintains a spectrum of professionals, from environmental scientists to insurance agents.
“We really have a mixture of individuals who come into the clubs,” Gindville said. “They all bring their own little piece into whatever they have.”
That assortment now includes local politicians, as Berlin Borough Councilman Ron Rocco, who has acquired an extensive history of community service as a Vietnam veteran and Freemason, was inducted at last Monday’s meeting.
“I know the Rotary is a charitable organization,” Rocco said. “I want to get involved in giving back to fellow man and my local community.”
The club’s resurgence also encompasses new initiatives, such as an established veterans’ foundation.
Finances will go in a specific account dedicated for former servicemen and women, including individuals, organizations and the renovation of memorials.
The fundraising will commence with the club’s first annual “Berlin Rotary Never Forgets Our Veterans,” trap shoot taking place on Saturday, Oct. 28 at Pine Valley Gun Club, located at 166 New Freedom Road in Berlin.
A month or two after this event, the club plans to spruce up the Vietnam War memorial on White Horse Pike and Franklin Avenue with names of local veterans.
“We finally have gotten a list of over 30 names,” said Randall E. von der Tann, a former club president whose great-grandfather was one of the club’s original members. “It’s always nice to support our veterans, and I thought it’d be a good idea to do something for them.”
With more membership, the Rotary aims to foster new charities like this for the residents of Berlin.
“The club boils down to, if I could sum it up: good people doing great things for the community,” Gindville said.
The club can be reached through the following:
Berlinrotary.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BerlinRotary/
Twitter: @BerlinRotaryNJ
Instagram: @BerlinRotaryNJ
