Ken Chong, District 5280 Membership Chair, graduated from UCLA in microbiology and genetics. He joined Rotary in 2004 and was President of the LA5 Rotary Club for 2013-2014. He has sponsored over 30 members to Rotary. He is well known to our current President, PDG Lew Bertrand, and to John Jaacks, a former LA5 member and our President-Elect.
 
Ken is Executive Vice President of BRC Advisors, a commercial real estate company with 5 Southern California offices, and has experience in real estate syndication, investor relations and commercial brokerage. Previously, he was Advanced Markets Director at the Principal Financial Group for estate planning, compensation packages, retirement programs, taxes, liquidity, yield, and diversification. He has also been a guest lecturer at UCLA Extension on real estate investing.
 
Ken spoke on Rotary’s need to adapt to social changes in order to attract younger members (under age 40). Rotary is focused on improving the diversity of age, gender and ethnicity in membership. In addressing why people joined Rotary, they often recite business interests (networking) and opportunities for service. We need to show prospective members how Rotary membership can provide value to them for these interests. He illustrated this process by discussing how and why he joined Rotary.
 
An important factor in recruiting and retaining young members is having a designated person as a mentor to support each new member, to explain our service projects and to promote introductions and friendships for networking within the Club and community. Younger members are more likely to have family responsibilities and financial barriers, which we need to recognize and address. We need to promote active involvement of all of our members to promote member retention. (Rotary also has a goal of 50% of Club members being registered in My Rotary, to promote better communication and to review inquiries from prospective, referred, and relocating or returning members. Ask President Lew about login privileges to our Club website, http://portal.clubrunner.ca/2533.)