The Rotary Club A center for efficient services

When the Club Leadership Plan was being developed, the main idea was to provide Rotary Clubs with an administrative structure that could maximize efficiency. Therefore, an optional tentative organizational chart was created to provide clubs with ideas of administrative roles and tasks performed at the club level.

With the Avenues of Service as the basis for club actions, the tasks were defined and distributed among committees, allowing the clubs to be efficiently managed with their help.

With the new Avenue of Service dedicated to Youth, it is time to redistribute the tasks and appoint a steering committee to take care of all subjects related to our Youth. Besides the planned activities focusing on the younger generations within RI’s structured programs, concrete actions in regards to youth can generate effective projects to decrease the needs of this community group.

The chair of this steering committee will have a place on the club’s Board, and along with the other board members will help plan the club’s future.

This reengineering process is focused on efficiency, and therefore, requires clubs to include two equally important permanent activities: medium-term planning and new leadership development.

To ensure that these two activities are as efficient as possible, the club must conduct club performance and membership assessment.

The truth of the matter is that currently all three organization levels need to be evaluated: international, district, and club levels.

The club’s performance should not be evaluated without first analyzing recent actions, to comply with the plans for the current Rotary year as approved by the club’s assembly. The evaluation can include a detailed analysis of each committee’s work and the Board’s performance.

Assessing club members is a more complex subject. Currently, members are evaluated based only on two factors: payment of dues and attendance to meetings.

If we are to transform each club into a center of efficient services, we need to evaluate our members to determine their participation in the achievement of club goals and their desire to serve humanity. Selfevaluation is very important because it allows the Board to understand the members’ perception of tasks they have been delegated.

During a special club meeting, each member should ponder on the following question: “What have I done during this Rotary year that gives me the right to have my member ID card next year?” How would you answer this question? Some might consider this personal evaluation to be a little extreme, especially because it has never been done before. However, this voluntary self-analysis is not only an honest look within, but also gives club officers valuable information on some hidden talents. Another very important question: “Based on my club’s actions, where would I feel more comfortable to work and apply my professional and personal talents?” In any club, the sum of the talents of all members is a valuable asset and more often than we think, it’s unknown or even neglected.

If we are to see each club turn into a center of efficient services, we have to work hard to extensively use our most important resource –each and every Rotarian.

When a new member joins a club, the most important point that frequently is not evaluated is the potential this new Rotarian has to serve and contribute to achieve the club’s objectives. This can be done, as I have mentioned several times, by giving the new member an opportunity to serve on a club project. The new member will benefit and will understand, through personal experience the club’s operational characteristics, perhaps even suggesting other similar and useful projects for the future.

There is no doubt that when a new member joins a club it expands its capability to serve; however, it is when the club uses the talents of that new member that it becomes a center of efficient services.

When we give members an opportunity to serve, they experience the joy of using their talents and feel the pride of belonging to Rotary, the fulfillment of their social responsibility, and the enthusiasm of opening new frontiers in Rotary service.

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