This document summarizes a training session on membership reports. It discusses three methods for capturing membership data: direct entry by staff, direct entry by club officers, and indirect entry through syncing with club systems. It notes that reported membership numbers can change retroactively up to 180 days. The document demonstrates accessing reports in Rotary Club Central and explains why membership numbers may not match between point-in-time and transactional reports due to retroactive changes. Finally, it outlines the different reports available to club officers, district officers, and regional coordinators.

1. Membership Reports Training Session – Webinar
CINDY: INTRO
JEN: REPORTING DETAILS
How data is captured in Net Forum; 3 input methods:
1) Directly by RI staff into netFORUM database: possible delays stem from the length of time it takes club
officers to send the data to our staff; most of our clubs do not report membership terminations until they are billed for
the next semi-annum
2) Directly by club officers through Member Access: possible delays stem from the length of time it takes club
officers to input the data, once in it refreshes every 24 hours
3) Indirectly by club officers through synch (if selected) of select club systems: Club Runner, ClubWizard, DaCdb:
possible delays stem from the length of time it takes club officers to input the data and the frequency and success of the
data synch
Challenge of understanding the data—point in time vs. frozen data
All of these methods suffer from the reality that membership terminations and admissions can be retroactively
up the 180 days through either online method (#s 2 & 3) and longer than that for #1. These are the transactional issues
that we have which is why we have to take snapshots at certain points in time and publish them such as the report the
governor was referring to. nF, Member Access and RC Central will continue to update forever as clubs make changes
retroactively. Some of our point in time data is loaded back into Member Access and RC Central.
Demonstration of how to access the reports
Once inside RC Central: Club officers can see their goals; age and gender trends for the current, immediate past, and
immediate future years, and additional detail; and the membership growth and retention transactionally.
PRINTING / EXPORTING: To print or export any of the reports in RC Central the user needs to click on the Design button in
the upper right corner, then right click on the page tab at the lower left corner, and select the ourput format. This will
download the selected format to the user’s PC and then it can be viewed, printed, and emailed.
Why do the numbers change?!?
The next three slides show the difference between point in time data and transactional. The first red circle shows the
prior year membership start figure, this is calculated by us, frozen, and loaded in by 1 November and you can see it
matches the report we sent to the governor in October 2011. The blue square shows the year to date membership
number, the “UNOFFICIAL 30 JUNE MEMBERSHIP NUMBER.” And as you can see it matches with what is in netFORUM
right now.
This is transactional, in many cases this will be the final membership number for the club, but in many other cases this
number will change during the time we are auditing the final membership numbers. That final audited “OFFICIAL”
membership number will appear by 1 August in the yellow star and the table below willautocalculate the achievement
of the retention goals. This is where retroactive terminations or admissions get to be a problem and from where many
of the complaints from club and district leaders stem.
We are this week auditing and calculating the final membership numbers. I pulled the preliminary year end membership
report yesterday and this club has 41 members. That is what we are going to officially report on 1 August and that is
what will get plugged into the yellow star. However, I know this club, it’s in my hometown and they meet on Thursday.
Let’s say during the Thursday 1 August meeting a prospective member who has been courting the club for a few months
comes in and the club extends a formal invitation to join. This new member is of the highest caliber and recognizes that
while she could wait to be reported to RI until the next semi-annual billing in January, she wants to be a full member
right away and offers pay dues for the remaining 5 months of this semi-annum. If the club secretary is on her game, she
will go into DaCdb and add the member over the weekend and maybe the next synch is scheduled for sometimethe
following week, let’s say Wednesday 7 August. Well, what is going to happen is that RI will publish an “OFFICIAL”
membership number in the yellow star of 41 and for 6 days that will be accurate…then when the club’s records refresh

2. the blue square will reflect the new total of 42 and now it looks like our membership numbers don’t match. Which they
don’t, but the only thing that can fix this is clubs reporting in a timely manner all year long, and especially at year end
and not backdating admissions (or terminations)< 30 June.
The club example is simple, now let’s roll that up to the district:
This district aggregate shows 2,370 at the 2012-13 year end total. Which is what I calculated for the year end audited
report as seen here…BUT!!! Check out the next tab. The year to date 2013-14 total is 2366?! How can that BE?! Well,
in this case 4 members have been terminated in the last 24 days with dates after 1 July. Which is further validated by
the next screen which shows what is sitting in our transactional database today.
Reports available on-line / Who can see what?!
1) Some views are not yet complete, some will change with new website next month, some views are still
several months off
2) Highly dependent on person’s role
2A) Club officers really can’t see any membership reports at the home page of Member Access
2B) District officers can see different things in Rotary Club Central and Member Access:
RCC: An aggregate of that which club officers can see, their goals; age and gender trends for the current,
immediate past, and immediate future years, and additional detail; and the membership growth and retention
transactionally.
MA: In Review Club Data and Review Membership Trends – we are working on a detailed of reports and
definition of what they illustrate, to include 6 – 8 new reports that will launch by 15 August.
2C) Regional Coordinators can see the same reports as the district; HOWEVER, to be able to select
districts under their responsibility, navigate to them in Member Access then select Review Club Data and Review
Membership Trends. The same reports are posted in RC Central but they currently only show your home district. We
gain new functionality with the new website that will enable us to create aggregate regional views in the future. Timing
TBD…
CINDY:
How best to use the reports
Planning
Establishing Metrics
Tracking
Updating Records