Report from Membership Committee (2016-2018)
Co-chairs: Marisa Kwok, Alice Siu
At commencement of Term, our Membership Committee set its Terms of Reference prepared by our Legal Affairs Committee and focused on the 3Rs of Membership – Recruit, Retain, Rejuvenate. Since Global Membership Drive was of key importance under this biennium of ZI, we adopted a two-pronged strategy in our Recruitment efforts: one, we adopted recruitment criteria that were particularly relevant to our Club. As our membership number already stood at 54 and in line with Zonta International directive, we did not want to recruit just anyone. We wanted to recruit new members who were prepared to embrace our mission and passion for empowering women; who preferably brought new knowledge and skills into our already rich resources, and brought in younger members without compromising on the requirement for outstanding achievement in their profession. During the Term, we were successful in recruiting two new members who satisfied our aforementioned criteria. One was Winnie C S Wong, Chief Executive of a leading Insurance company while the other was Anna Lee, Chief Pharmacist of the Hospital Authority of the HKSAR. In addition, we obtained Board and members’ approval to install Connie Wong, ex-banker turned entrepreneur, in the new biennium.
We embarked upon our second and most significant prong of our Membership Drive in March 2017 with the target of setting up a new Club Zonta NT II under the SOM leadership of Winnie Wong and Margaret Chan. Core members were recruited from our pool of ex-Golden Z members, our first prospect being Jacqueline So, a former HKCU Golden Z vice president, who became the Founding President of Zonta Club of NT II. Very quickly, other prospective members were recommended by many NT Zontians. After careful interview and selection by our President, SOM Committee, Membership Committee and NT Zontians, 23 members were recruited and Zonta Club of the New Territories II was officially chartered by ZI. Part 1 of their Chartering Ceremony had our Patron, Professor Sophia Chan, Secretary for Food and Health as Guest of Honour; and Part 2 by District 17 Governor “Baby” Perez-Sison and the District 17 Board. With the founding of Zonta NT II, five Zontians of our club and three Zontians from NT II were awarded Membership Recognition Award 2016-2018. They are: Teresa Lin, Margaret Chan, Beatrice Wen, Florence Yip, Winnie Wong from the former, and Shireen So, Jacqueline So, Rebecca Lim from the latter.
We recognized the importance of Member Engagement and Retention. Our Committee identified engagement through personal contact and fellowship functions to boost the Zonta spirit, thereby maximising the opportunity for retention. Thanks to our Committee Members and Ambassadors, we were successful in accelerating our members’ engagement. As a result, our member retention rate was a high 96.3%. We accepted two resignations that arose due to these members’ obligations, for example, to elderly parents, as we believe in active participation from our members in order to deliver women empowerment.
Recruitment, Retention and Rejuvenation of the right members remain our Committee’s top priority. We will continuously enhance our best practice through our learnings, listening and sharing. As we celebrated our 35th Anniversary, with passion and unity, we look forward to building an even stronger and closer Zonta family.
