January 2013 | Vol. 3, Issue 4
Helping club and district officers achieve success
OUR FOUNDATION
SPREAD THE WORD
FUTURE IS NOW
ASK THE EXPERT
Learn how to host a successful peace forum
Maximize your online presence
Five steps to make your project sustainable
Show your Rotary colors
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
OUR FOUNDATION
As a child, I knew that my country was at
Learn how to host a successful peace forum
war. But in our remote fishing village, life
Inspirational speakers and a wide-ranging agenda can motivate attendees to take action
I was born in Japan in the year 1939.
went on as it always had.
Rotary clubs and districts worldwide are bringing to life this
Sakuji Tanaka
The day the war became real to me was the
year’s RI theme, Peace Through Service, by conducting local and
day it was over. I remember listening to the
regional forums to develop strategies for building a more
radio, with my family, when Emperor Hirohito
peaceful world. By hosting a peace forum, you take an important step in helping fellow Rotarians, leaders in peace and conflict resolution, and your community share their understanding of what world peace looks like and how they can play a part in shaping it.
announced the surrender. I was six years old.
The language he used was very formal, and I did not understand what he said. But at the end of his speech, another voice came on the radio. It said that Japan had surrendered and the war was over. In the days and months that followed, I understood that Japan had to rebuild. I understood also that we would all have to work hard, and work together. And I began to understand that Japan would change — and our lives would change as well. It has always been part of Japanese culture to work hard, and to work together for common goals. When Japan turned its efforts away from war and began to work together toward peace, the result was a country whose identity was completely different from its identity before. As Japan has embraced the idea of peace, we have also embraced the idea of service: because the two ideas are very closely connected. When we recognize that the purpose of our lives is being helpful to others, it changes the way we feel about other people. We do not want to argue or fight. We want to live together in peace, and we have greater inner peace ourselves: Peace Through Service.
ROTARY GLOBAL PEACE FORUMS
Here are some ways to ensure that your peace forum is a success: Make the forum as inclusive as possible, says John McMonagle, who is chair of a three-day peace forum hosted by the Rotary Club of Londonderry, Northern Ireland. “Offer workshops that give everyone the chance to express their views on what peace means to them. Peace forums shouldn’t be just about what attendees take away from it but, more important, what they can add to it.” Create an agenda that doesn’t just define peace as the absence of war, says Chris Offer, a past governor of District 5040 (British Columbia, Canada), who is helping to organize a joint peace forum hosted by his district and District 5050 (part of British Columbia and part of Washington, USA). “Peace is literacy, clean water, abatement of poverty, and absence of hunger,” says Offer. “Global issues are important to discuss, but they must be balanced with issues that Rotary clubs can take on.”
Watch a preview of the Rotary Global Peace Forums in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, and Hiroshima, Japan. Line up at least one dynamic speaker who will draw a lot of people to the event. “You want the speaker to motivate people to go out and do something,” says McMonagle. Adds Offer: “A successful peace forum can only be measured by action taken by Rotarians.” Learn more about the 2012-13 Rotary Global Peace Forums. Order the 2012-13 Rotary Global Peace Forums brochure for more ideas on planning a club or district peace activity.
ON THE COVER
Thousands of people have participated in the World’s Biggest Commercial to promote the global effort to eradicate polio. Add your photo and help change the world at endpolionow.org.
CLUB CLINIC
Plan and track service activities on Rotary Club Central New online tool makes it easy to manage community and international projects Rotary’s success is driven by the service projects and activities that clubs conduct locally and internationally. Now, you can track your club’s efforts — from beginning to end — through Rotary Club Central, Rotary’s new online tool. Click on the Service tab to record the type of project your club is undertaking, along with the resources, partners, and funding you will need. Log your projected number of volunteers, volunteer hours, cash contributions, and in-kind donations at the beginning, and the actual figures after the project is completed, to see how close you came to your projections. These numbers are captured in your club’s service trend chart (see graphic) and are available for club members and district leaders to review. This transparency gives incoming club officers insight into their club’s past successes and challenges and helps them strategize for the future. Since Rotary Club Central was launched in July, thousands of clubs have used it to track their membership, New Generations goals, and Foundation giving. Learn more about this useful online tool.
ROTARY SHOWCASE Share information about your club’s service projects with the Rotary community and your Facebook friends on Rotary Showcase. Upload photos and videos, list partner clubs, and indicate the funds you’ve raised and hours you’ve volunteered.
January 2013 | www.rotary.org/rotaryleader | rotary.leader@rotary.org
FOR CLUBS DEADLINES 1 January For the second semiannual report of club membership 1 February For Rotarians to submit 2013 RI Convention booth applications… For nominations for Outstanding Rotaract Project Awards 28 February For submissions to The Rotarian’s annual photo contest 1 March For group housing participants at the 2013 RI Convention to provide names to Experient Inc., the official housing agent 10 March For clubs to report officers through Member Access 31 March To register for the 2013 RI Convention at a reduced rate; after this date, you can register online at the rate available on-site. Registration for preconvention meetings and luncheons can only be done on-site… For Matching Grant requests of US$25,000 or less and District Simplified Grants…For Rotary, Rotaract, and Interact clubs to submit forms for the 201213 Presidential Citation to district governors for certification…For Rotaract club presidents to update club and membership data in Member Access. Clubs that do not update can be terminated or suspended by RI. Find more deadlines in the Rotary calendar.
OTHER NOTICES Before attending PETS, club presidents-elect should create an account or log into Member Access, click on Rotary Club Central, and set goals in each area: Your Club, Service, and Foundation Giving. Presidents-elect and other incoming club leaders should further refine these goals at the district assembly and let their assistant governor know that goals have been set. A new online tool is saving trees and saving time for club and district leaders. Rotary Club Central lets club officers set and submit their club’s Foundation giving goals online. The tool replaces The Rotary Foundation Fund Development Club Goal Report Form and offers a clear and simple method for capturing and monitoring Foundation giving goals. District leaders also have access to their clubs’ information and can make updates as needed. The Green Path to Peace, the second Global Peace Forum, will be held 25-27 January in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. Register now to attend. Club and multiple donor contributions to The Rotary Foundation can now be made by club officers via Rotary’s secure online giving site. Go to rotary.org/contribute to make your gift today.
SPREAD THE WORD
DID YOU KNOW?
Maximize your online presence Here’s how a little planning and know-how will help you get the most from social media Are you looking for younger members? Do you need volunteers for your signature project? Are you raising money for polio? A simple one-page digital strategy can help you focus your goals. Your strategy should include your target audience and the types of media that will help you achieve your objectives. If you don’t have a website, consider starting there. Facebook and LinkedIn can help you learn what’s important to your audience, while Twitter and Pinterest offer additional avenues for sharing club information. What should be on your club website? Show how your club benefits the community and why it’s worth joining by posting photos and information about your service projects and social events. Indicate where and when the club meets, along with contact information. Keep the information as up-to-date as possible. “Your website says a lot about your club. Make it clean, organized, and simple to understand,” says Chad Waldo, a panelist from the RI webinar Maximize Your Online Presence, and president of the Rotary Club of Lee’s Summit Sunrise in Missouri, USA.
LINKS YOU’LL LIKE Archived webinars RI Visual Identity Guide Best Web design practices Social media tips for clubs and districts Promoting Rotary through Facebook ads Add a page on Facebook for your Rotary club
The Green Path to Peace, the second Rotary Global Peace Forum, will be held 25-27 January in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. Register now to attend. My Rotary Moment, a compilation of personal essays written by Rotary’s senior leaders, is now available. Order your copy at shop.rotary.org. (405, US$10) Good stewardship of your dues and donations is not something to be taken lightly. Financial transparency is very important to Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation, which is why our audited financial statements, tax returns, the RI treasurer’s report, and more are available for review and download at www.rotary.org/financials. The Lisbon Convention Challenge is underway. The governors of the 25 districts with the highest percentage of convention attendees will receive reserved seating for all plenary sessions. The contest ends 1 April, and winners will be announced 15 May.
What should be on your social media pages? “To be effective, you need to be social. Share information that interests others. Visit your audience’s pages and engage with them there,” says Simone Carot Collins, another webinar panelist and a charter member of the Rotarians on Social Networks Fellowship. To reach a wide audience, create a Facebook page, not a profile or group. Use Twitter to share short — 140 characters, to be exact — messages about your club activities. Post photos that tell a story on Instagram and Pinterest. “You only get a few seconds to get your message across,” says Waldo. So make sure your message is achieving your goals.
January 2013 | www.rotary.org/rotaryleader | rotary.leader@rotary.org
End Polio Now album is available at shop.rotary.org. Hear 11 artists, all Rotary polio ambassadors, perform songs to raise money for polio eradication. All proceeds benefit Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign. (103, US$16) Rotary Scholars can receive $30,000 or more for graduate studies in fields that support Rotary’s six areas of focus. Download this flier to promote scholarship opportunities in your community or order copies at shop.rotary.org. (132, free) Club and multiple donor contributions to The Rotary Foundation can now be made by club officers via Rotary’s secure online giving site. Go to rotary.org/contribute to make your gift today. Read Rotary Leader on your iPad, notebook, or smartphone. Add a bookmark for easy access and take Rotary Leader with you wherever you go.
NEW FUTURE VISION GRANTS MICROSITE
FUTURE IS NOW
Five steps to make your project sustainable Involving the community from the start will ensure that a project’s impact lasts long after visiting Rotarians have departed The continent of Africa is dotted with abandoned wells and bore holes — drilled with good intentions but clear evidence of a failure to take sustainability into account. Ensuring that a project will continue to benefit the community long after a club’s involvement has ended is a key concept of The Rotary Foundation’s new global grants. Fortunately, building sustainability into your project design isn’t hard. Take the water project of the Rotary Club of Maputo, Mozambique, funded by a Rotary Foundation global grant. To ensure the project’s success, club members began by asking the country’s Ministry of Education for a list of schools with water and sanitation problems. The choice became obvious after club members visited Hulene A, a primary school located just outside Maputo, with a crumbling sanitation system built decades earlier for a student population one-fourth its current size. “The smell was horrible; there was no water,” recalls Rotarian José Rui Amaral. “The bathrooms were in complete disrepair.” After asking school officials what they needed, the club sought price estimates, with an eye toward solutions that would require the least maintenance. The sanitation system and water tank they settled on came with a oneyear guarantee. Rotarians were careful to make sure that an agreement was signed with the contractor for a regular maintenance schedule, and school officials were put in charge of overseeing it.
This month, Rotary unveils new online tools to make it easier for clubs and districts to apply for and manage their new Rotary Foundation grants, known as Future Vision.
FUTURE VISION: THINKING BIG
Hear what Rotarians are saying about the importance of larger, sustainable projects. You can ensure that your project is sustainable by keeping these five steps in mind:
1
Conduct a local needs assessment. It is critical for the community to help identify the problem and solutions for solving it.
2
Make use of local resources and funding, regional input, and indigenous knowledge as much as possible.
3
Determine the most appropriate technology to address the issue. Simpler is often better.
4
Provide for ongoing maintenance.
5
Teach the community how to operate the equipment, and share business skills to help community members set up a committee or agency to collect fees that can cover operations and repairs.
Go to www.rotary.org/grants to conduct all your Rotary Foundation district, global, and packaged grants business online. Instead of completing pages of paperwork, use the site’s online grants tool to qualify your district, apply for grants, report on grant-funded activities, and even post photos. Applications for 2013-14 grants are now being accepted. Remember that club and district qualification is required to apply for grants; districts must complete the online qualification process first and then qualify their clubs. Reports for existing Foundation grants, such as Matching Grants, must be current in order to apply for a new grant. These tools offer a preview of the digital experience to come with the redesigned Rotary.org, launching in July. The new website will focus on Rotarian needs, making it easier to conduct club and district business, connect with other Rotarians worldwide, and promote your club and district events. Follow the redesign process and share your thoughts at digital.rotary.org.
January 2013 | www.rotary.org/rotaryleader | rotary.leader@rotary.org
Learn more about sustainability in this e-learning class.
DISTRICT CORNER
FOR DISTRICTS
Help clubs understand the new Future Vision grants Learn how one district is helping to spread the word about the benefits of the new district, global, and packaged grants — and how you can, too Helping clubs understand The Rotary Foundation’s new grant model, known as Future Vision, begins with education. Leaders in District 9800 (part of Victoria, Australia) are using meetings, newsletters, and their website to spur club involvement and help Rotarians understand their options and requirements. “The district’s Foundation grants subcommittee is asking clubs to consider undertaking large and meaningful humanitarian projects using a Foundation global grant,” says subcommittee chair Jim Studebaker. The first important step toward taking full advantage of a global grant is to attend the district Foundation grants seminar, which covers the application process and topics such as how clubs can build, manage, and complete grant projects. The seminar is a requirement for clubs seeking a grant. Clubs in District 9800 can also find information about the new grants, along with examples of successful grant-funded projects and activities, in Foundation News, the district’s online publication. The September issue included details and links for clubs interested in a packaged grant with Mercy Ships, one of Rotary’s strategic partners. It also offered information about vocational training teams and the new global grant scholarships. “We can help build a better, safer, healthier, more prosperous and peaceful world, giving hope and making a real and lasting difference to people and communities in need,” Studebaker says. By teaching clubs about the options available to them through the new grants, district leaders can ensure that Rotary achieves these goals.
DEADLINES 1 February For Rotarians to submit 2013 RI Convention booth applications 1 March For group housing participants at the 2013 RI Convention to provide names to Experient Inc., the official housing agent 4 March For districts to submit their Public Image Grant applications 15 March For district governors to submit Significant Achievement Award nominations (one per district) to RI 31 March For District Simplified Grant requests…For district governors to receive completed 2012-13 Presidential Citation forms from clubs…To register for the 2013 RI Convention at a reduced rate; after this date, you can register online at the rate available on-site. Registration for preconvention meetings and luncheons can only be done on-site. 15 April For governors to receive forms from clubs for the RI Recognition of Membership Development Initiatives…For governors to report, in Member Access, clubs (Rotary, Rotaract, and Interact) that qualify for the 2012-13 Presidential Citation Find more deadlines in the Rotary calendar.
OTHER NOTICES District 9800’s effective promotion of the new Foundation grants resulted in the installation of a global grant-funded clean water system on Lubang Island in the Philippines. Learn more about the new Foundation grants. Photo courtesy of Jim Studebaker Help your clubs learn more with Global Outlook: A Rotarian's Guide to the New Foundation Grants. Available to download or purchase.
How is your district educating clubs about the new Foundation grants? Tell us at rotary.leader@rotary.org with “grant education” in the subject line and it might appear in a future issue of Rotary Leader.
January 2013 | www.rotary.org/rotaryleader | rotary.leader@rotary.org
The Green Path to Peace, the second Global Peace Forum, will be held 25-27 January in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. Register now to attend. Public Image Grant applications for 2013-14 will be mailed to district governors-elect in January. Matching Grant and District Simplified Grant reminder The 2012-13 Rotary year is the final chance for clubs and districts not participating in the Future Vision pilot to apply for Matching Grants and District Simplified Grants. Applications are being accepted through 31 March 2013. As long as reporting is kept up-to-date, open Matching and District Simplified grants will not delay the approval or processing of 2013-14 applications. See www.rotary.org/grants for more information.
ASK THE EXPERT
How can we enhance our image in the community? Carlos H. Giraldo, Rotary public image coordinator for Zone 34, encourages clubs to show their Rotary colors Let me share a simple public relations tool that every club can use to enhance its public image or brand in the community. It’s one that you can begin using during Rotary Awareness Month in January. I call it “showing your Rotary colors.” Your club can show its colors in a variety of ways. Members can be encouraged to wear their club shirt while out in Past Governor Carlos H. Giraldo, the community. You can District 6980 (Florida, USA) display your club banners or signs at community events and service projects. And your website, newsletter, and Facebook and Twitter pages can reflect your brand through your choice of colors and graphics. Consistency and frequency are the keys to making this effort succeed. Look at your shirts, websites, and banners. Do they share a unified look in design and color? Is the Rotary emblem clearly and correctly displayed? Are your signs and banners prominently exhibited at all community events, fundraisers, and project sites?
One way to ensure that your club’s brand meets these criteria is to have a written policy in place. Include information about when, where, and how to display your club’s signs and banners. Make it easy to develop a consistent look by clearly identifying the color, font, and layout to be used in your print and electronic communications. You can find information on best practices for Web and print design in the RI Visual Identity Guide. Almost every club has a shirt or banner. All have club or district websites, Facebook pages, or Twitter accounts. Make sure that your club — and Rotary — are easily recognized by members of your community by creating a consistent look. Help raise awareness in your community this month by showing your Rotary colors. Refer to the RI Visual Identity Guide for design best practices. Download a PDF or order it. See photos of clubs showing their Rotary colors
Send photographs of your club or district showing its Rotary colors to rotary.leader@rotary.org. They could appear in a future issue of Rotary Leader.
January 2013 | www.rotary.org/rotaryleader | rotary.leader@rotary.org
Rotary Leader, an electronic publication for Rotary club and district officers, is offered in eight languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. Rotary Leader is published by Rotary International, One Rotary Center, 1560 Sherman Avenue, Evanston, IL 60201-3698 USA. Web www.rotary.org Fax 847-866-9732 Phone 847-866-3000 Subscriptions To subscribe to Rotary Leader, visit www.rotary.org/rotaryleader. There is no charge to subscribe. Submissions Rotary Leader welcomes article ideas about club and district successes, including fundraisers, publicity efforts, service projects, and membership drives. Email a description, photos, and contact information to rotary.leader@rotary.org. Due to the high volume of submissions, we cannot promise to feature your story. This is the January 2013 issue of Rotary Leader. Editor Jennifer Lee Atkin Managing Editor Maureen Vaught Graphic Designer William Moran Writers Daniella Garcia, Arnold Grahl, Ryan Hyland, Dan Nixon, Antoinette Tuscano Photographers Alyce Henson, Monika Lozinska Copy Editors Heather Antti, Beth Duncan Proofreaders Kelly Doherty, Susan Hyland Copyright © 2013 by Rotary International. The Rotary International and Rotary Leader logos are trademarks and intellectual property of Rotary International. All rights reserved. Editors of Rotary publications and websites are welcome to reprint items.
For nearly
FUTURE VISION: VOCATIONAL TRAINING TEAMS
100 years, The Rotary Foundation has supported international vocational
In 2013, it still will.
exchanges.
Find new ways to support vocational exchange activities with new Rotary Foundation grants. Learn more at www.rotary.org/grants.