DOWAGIAC — Thursday afternoon, over cups of coffee and plates of chicken and dumplings, Dowagiac Rotary Club members sat in a room at the Dowagiac Elks Lodge discussing an issue that has plagued their organization for some time.

“This is becoming a problem,” said Rotary Club President John Seculoff. “We need to find a way to generate membership.”

At the Rotary Club’s weekly meeting Thursday, the club brainstormed ways to gain new members and increase interest in the club. The talk was spurred by a discussion that had taken place previously about the issue.

Several of the members of the Rotary Club said they are passionate about generating new membership, including member Jennifer Ray, who serves as the director of the Cass District Library. She took to sending out a memo to the entire club to encourage members to get serious about recruitment.

“We need a solid game plan to move the Rotarians forward,” Ray said in the memo. “It’s time to talk seriously about recruitment, training and public image. It’s time to talk about showing our community that we’ve got the commitment and drive to score big and make a difference.”

Several existing members shared their ideas of how to improve membership, from having greeters at the door each meeting to having an orientation for new members to simply spreading the message of what the Rotary Club does.

Club member Mary Lou Franks said that she had heard reports that prospective members who had come to meetings had felt unwelcome, which led to them not joining Rotary. She suggested that an added effort to welcome new members, would go a long way toward helping recruitment.

“Let’s get out and get new members,” Franks said. “If a new member comes, let’s make an extra special attempt to welcome them.”

Deven Lambart, of Southwest Vision Center, was visiting Dowagiac’s meeting Thursday. Lambart is a member of the Three Rivers Rotary Club and offered insight into how his club works to generate membership.

He said that the Three Rivers Rotary Club, which has a higher membership than the Dowagiac Rotary Club, hosts meetings every other month during which members bring a guest from the community in the hopes of having those guests become members.

“We do a really good job with that and it seems to work for us,” Lambart said. “Our club is fairly young, but it sparks interest.”

Though the meeting ended without the Rotary Club coming up with a solid plan to improve membership numbers, Seculoff said that it left the club with much to think about.

“We will keep working on this,” he said.