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I’ve recently been asked by an acquaintance of mine if I’d like to join the local rotary club. I’m already a member of the local bar association and chamber of commerce (and spend my weekends volunteering already). The bar and chamber of commerce are minimal level commitments (maybe a few hours per month).

Is there any added bonus of being a part of a rotary club? I always thought it was for more established people (like late 30s+), but the acquaintance told me that it’s for everyone.

I’m still a pretty junior associate. I was originally planning on joining the rotary club in the future since it’s a very big commitment (2 hour meetings every week, during the day) and I don’t really have that much flexibility in my schedule.

Is there any added bonus joining a club where most of the members are 20+ years older than me and probably aren’t interested in “networking”? Also, I believe the member dues are around $400/quarter.

My gut says that I should focus more on my young professionals branch of the chamber of commerce since in 5-10 years, those people will be in more senior positions and I’ll have a more genuine connection with them. Plus, annual dues are $100.

However, I am open to anyone’s advice on this matter.

It sounds like a fantastic networking opportunity actually - in my experience older folks tend to enjoy speaking with a young outlier. Would your firm be willing to cover the fees?

As an aside, how has your experience been with your chamber of commerce? I didn't even think to look at these and now that you mentioned it I'm doing some research and considering joining a local one. Any actual benefit?

Hey I’m OP anon. I actually like the chamber. Like I said, I’m fairly junior, so at this point I’m just networking with people with minor benefits. I work at a large firm so I don’t really utilize the marketing stuff for the website and happy hours, etc.

I enjoy it a lot because it gets me face time with non-attorneys. Most of my peers are in low-level manager positions now, but I think that is a better connection to have than an associate at another law firm. I’m one of maybe 10 attorneys that regularly goes to events and I have been able to refer some minor work to my coworkers.

My firm caps the dues it covers a year and with my chamber of commerce, bar association and state bar dues, I don’t think I’d have enough for the rotary club. I spoke with my contact and they said the offer is always on the table (I thin part of being a member of a rotary club is recruiting other members).

So I may hold off on it since I found out that on top of dues, there are a ton of other fees and “donations” that are expected.