We recently connected with Beaches Rotaract and have shared our conversation below.

Beaches , appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?

Our club was founded in 2005 with a small group of like-minded young professionals focused on making an impact within the community. Over the years the club has grown exponentially, averaging around 65 members annually. Despite our high membership, recruitment and retainment is a top priority each year. Since our club consists of young professionals our members often move for new job opportunities or continuing their education. Throughout the pandemic and recently we have relied heavily on social media and personal referrals for new members. The shift towards a heavy social media presence was originally daunting with many trials and tribulations, unsuccessful ideas, and of course the dreaded “can you hear me now?” moments during virtual meetings.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

The Rotaract Club of Jacksonville’s Beaches is a community-based service organization for young professionals. Beaches Rotaract is a part of Rotary International and is just one of nearly 11,000 Rotaract clubs in over 180 countries. Rotaract members form a global community of young adults taking action for positive change, sharing ideas, and looking at the world’s challenges in new ways. Beaches Rotaract members engage in hands-on service projects, social activities, and professional development opportunities. Our mission is to provide an opportunity for young professionals in the Jacksonville Beaches area to enhance the knowledge and skills that will assist them in personal development, to address the physical and social needs of their communities, and to promote better relations between all people worldwide through a framework of friendship and service. Finally, our vision is to be the most impactful young professional group in the world through service, professional development, and meaningful relationships.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media has played a vital role in recruitment and in ensuring our presence is known within our community. The club added a social media chair position in 2019 to ensure our online platforms were streamlined and engaging. This board position manages all online platforms including the website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Slack. Slack was our most recent platform we added, and it has helped us to streamline communication for our members. When working on growing our online presence we focused our posts on being relevant and timely but also used programs like Canva to enhance the content we pushed out. We try to document events using Instagram stories, and several new members have reported finding out about the club from a shared Instagram story. For a club or organization looking to grow their online presence, be sure that you are organized, remaining engaged, and posting on all platforms regularly. Engagement might be low at first but keep posting and tagging members to encourage shares\

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Any advice for managing a team?

We are fortunate that our Board members are all fabulous and excel at each of their roles. Most of the board members chose their current positions to learn a new role that may hopefully aid in expanding and exceeding their personal or professional goals. To maintain high morale, we try to focus on ensuring all our events are built around current members interests. We have various committees that plan each event (community service, social, professional development) and members are encouraged to attend the committee meetings to ensure the events are exciting and members want to attend.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.beachesrotaract.org/
• Instagram: @beachesrotaract
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beachesrotaract
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beaches-rotaract/

Image Credits
The board member photo on the beach was taken by Dani Adamo @daniadamophotography