IF you are reading this that means you have submitted an application for membership in The Lakeland Rotary Club. If you have not yet read about the club, Please click here to learn more.
Once you have submitted your application for membership, your application is distributed to The Lakeland Rotary Club Board of Directors for review. Hopefully while attending as a guest, you have met many of the board members. If your application is approved by the Board, you are then “bulletined”. This means you are presented to the club at large for consideration. This process takes 2 weeks.
Once bulletined, you go through the following initiation process:
• ROTARY INFORMATION
This is an information session that typically occurs the hour or so before a regular Tuesday lunch meeting. This is where you get an overview of Rotary and this club. At this meeting, you are expected to pay the $125 initiation fee.
• RED BABAGE PRESENTATION
Once your initiation fee is paid, you will be presented with your RED BADGE. This makes you officially a member of The Lakeland Rotary Club. The badge presentation is during a Tuesday lunch meeting. Beth will contact you about interesting facts about you to be shared during the red badge presentation. Your dues will be prorated based on the number of months remaining in the Rotary year and you will be invoiced for those dues.
• STARS
CONGRATS! You are officially a Rotarian when you receive your red badge. However, all new Rotarians attend STARS classes so that they can learn more about The Lakeland Rotary Club, bond with other new Rotarians, and determine how each of you may want to serve the club and the community. STARS classes are 4 sessions immediately prior to a Tuesday lunch meeting and take about an hour each time. You will be given the dates, times and locations in advance. Each STARS class will also participate in a service project of their choosing as well as attend STARS graduation which is simply an evening social event with the current and past presidents.
Your STARS class may not begin immediately after receiving your red badge. It may take several weeks to accumulate enough new members to create a STARS class.
• BLUE BADGE
Once your STARS class is complete, your sponsor will join you and your fellow class members for your blue badge presentation. Again, this happens at a Tuesday lunch meeting as part of the program.