GUIDELINES FOR ROTARY CLUBS Rtn. C.J. Singh . District 3080 Public Image Coordinator 2011-12
‘
For any information or query, please send email to seejaysingh@gmail.com
Inform, Educate & Inspire Your Members
How to publish your own club bulletin. Club bulletin helps the President in reaching out to its club members, the District leadership, and the community. A regularly published bulletin informs, educates and inspires. It helps the club leadership reach out to the members and their families. It is a great tool for promoting Rotary’s public image by distributing it to the opinion leaders like local MP or MLA, District administration, including Deputy Commissioner, chief of Police, heads of health, education, and public health departments, and of course, the journalists.
Does your club has a club bulletin? If you do not have a club bulletin till now go ahead and start one! Here are a few quick steps : • Decide the name. • Ask a club member adept with designing or desk-top-publishing, to design the masthead. • If you have less than 50 members in the club, you can take direct print out from your office laser printer, or an inkjet, if you want it color. But to keep it cost effective you can print in black and white and distribute every week. • Periodicity should preferably be weekly. Though you can also publish it every fortnight or monthly. • If you have a distribution list of more than a 100, you may go in for offset printing. To save cost, you can have the color masthead printed at one go for the entire year, and ask the printer to print weekly information in B&W only. • You can monetize it by requesting local traders or even Rotarians having their businesses to put in their advertisements to cover the cost of year’s supply of bulletins. The total cost can be divided amongst the advertisers, and per advertiser cost also becomes affordable.
What to write about? • • • • • • • • • •
Report of the club’s weekly meeting. Report of the club projects undertaken during the week, including photographs Announcements of forthcoming club, district, and Rotary International events. Message of the Club President Editorial note by Club Editor Achievements (Personal or Professional) of the Rotarians and their families. Any inspirational article/anecdote Introduction of your club members, especially new members. Contributions from members In fact, there is no dearth of information that one can incorporate in the club bulletin.
1
GUIDELINES FOR ROTARY CLUBS Rtn. C.J. Singh . District 3080 Public Image Coordinator 2011-12
‘
For any information or query, please send email to seejaysingh@gmail.com
Publishing With more and more people in our communities having access to internet and having email ids, the club bulletin’s printed version can be converted into a PDF document very easily and distributed through email too.
Your Mailing List • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
All members of your Club Office-bearers of Inner Wheel Club Office-bearers of Rotaract, and head of the educational institution, and Rotaract coordinator Office bearers of Interact, head and Interact coordinator of educational institution Media (Print, Radio, Television) State/District Administration Prospective Members Heads of industries associations/chambers of commerce. District Governor District Secretary District Public Image Coordinator Assistant Governor of Your Zone Public Relations/Club Bulletin coordinator Past District Governors (This is an illustrative list and you can create your own mailing list)
Distribution • Prepare the distribution list using MS Word which can also print labels for putting them on the envelopes, comprising Club Members, District Governor, RI Officers, local administration, journalists, and District Bulletin chair, etc. • You can have the labels of addresses printed out at one go for at least 10 issues, and every time when you get the bulletin, just paste those address labels and mail them. • Emailing the newsletter in pdf format is another option. You can upload them on your website also and send the link to your mailing list.
Important • Don’t forget to enter into annual national competition for the club bulletins conducted by Rotary News Trust, Chennai. The entries are invited in January/February each year. All you have to do is to take five/six copies of the consecutive issues of your club bulletin and submit to Rotary News Trust, for this national-level competition.
2