Rotary International produces leaders’ guides for RI Board-recommended training seminars that cover recommended topics. Training leaders can use these guides to plan for their training seminars. The leaders’ guides feature discussion questions, interactive activities and notes for training leaders, as well as corresponding slides and worksheets.

RI provides leaders’ guides for the following district meetings:

District assembly
District leadership seminar
District membership seminar
District Rotary foundation seminar
Presidents-elect training seminar (PETS)

Link to RI page

Rotarians are reaching out to victims of the heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan, as the country continues to cope with its worst flooding in decades.

Major rivers have flooded valleys in about one-third of the country, claiming as many as 1,600 lives and washing away bridges, roads, and entire villages. The United Nations estimates that more than four million people have been left homeless.

“The people of Pakistan were not prepared for a disaster like this to reach this magnitude. Each day it seemed to get worse,” says Shehzad Ahmed, governor of District 3272 (Afghanistan; Pakistan). “It’s difficult for me to imagine how we’re going to cope with this situation.”

Millions of children face diarrhea, cholera, and upper respiratory infections from contaminated water and insects. Eight million people are still in urgent need of humanitarian aid. The UN predicts that the economic cost of the floods could reach billions of dollars.

“While most Rotarians in my district weren’t terribly affected, we still have a moral obligation to help those who are suffering,” Ahmed says. He adds that clubs in his district are collecting food, safe drinking water, and medicine.

Ahmed also formed a district disaster relief committee of past district governors, governors-elect, and governors-nominee, as well as other leaders, to oversee long-term recovery efforts.

“We’ve received tremendous support so far from clubs and districts all over the world,” he says. “Rotarians are motivating each other and their friends to contribute generously toward this noble cause.”

Relief efforts

In response to the floods, The Rotary Foundation Board of Trustees is accepting contributions to help fund Rotary projects that will support long-term disaster recovery in the affected areas. Learn more.

Ahmed’s district is also coordinating with ShelterBox, a grassroots disaster relief organization supported by Rotary clubs around the world, to help distribute emergency aid. ShelterBox is sending 5,000 water filtration units and 2,500 water containers to flooded areas. More than 1,900 tents and 600 ShelterBox containers have already been deployed.

The Rotary Club of Sharpstown (Houston), Texas, USA, filled two 40-foot shipping containers with relief supplies, and is coordinating with Ahmed’s district and District 3271 to deliver them to Karachi, where local clubs will help distribute the goods.

Meanwhile, the Rotary Club of Multan Metropolitan, Punjab, has established five flood relief camps at local hospitals. Club members are collecting tents, household items, food, and medicine.

World Water Works, a Rotary-club sponsored relief organization that provides disaster victims with water purification tools, has sent more than 600 boxes to the southern province of Sindh.

Hugo Pike, chair of World Water Works and a member of the Rotary Club of Chelwood Bridge, Avon, England, says each box contains a water purification kit that can supply each member of a family of four with about 2 quarts of drinking water every day for a year.

“It is likely that this emergency will continue for some weeks,” Pike says. “But Rotary clubs in District 1200 are ready to respond.”

Syed Shahab Balkhi, governor of District 3271, says Rotary clubs can do the most good by planning for the rehabilitation of flooded areas.

“This is unprecedented flooding and has been incredibly widespread,” Balkhi says. “Long-term recovery will be acute and painful. But help has been promised by every club in my district and District 3272.”

L:Volunteers hand out food and other aid to victims of the flooding in Pakistan. R:Pakistanis living on the side of the road after heavy flooding. Photos courtesy of Rotary Club of Rawalpindi Rohtas

I am sharing the latest data on membership & attendance for your perusal. This may be useful resource for the upcoming district membership seminars.
Thank you.

Regards
PP Dr Ho

— On Wed, 8/18/10, Attendance Secretary 3310 wrote:

Date: Wednesday, August 18, 2010, 8:22 PM

Dear Secretaries,

Thank you for your help and cooperation in sending in your July report. To see the results for D3310 please click on the link below:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ApE8Q6ZDG9cgdEpybDRvNk9FalB1aElXWHplVFk0M1E&hl=en&authkey=CNjDurIN#gid=0

Please notify me of any errors or omissions, or any difficulty in viewing the results.

I will be sending you the form for the August report in the last week of the month.

Thanks and regards,
–
Dominic Davies
District Secretary (Attendance) 2010-2011
Link to table

In response to the floods that have devastated Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province since 23 July, The Rotary Foundation Board of Trustees is accepting contributions to help fund Rotary projects that will support long-term disaster recovery in the affected areas. Rotarians, clubs, and districts can contribute both cash and District Designated Fund (DDF) allocations to the Rotary Pakistan Flooding Fund. This account is being administered through the Foundation’s Matching Grants program.

In their application, Matching Grant project partners can pledge DDF and cash contributions and request that they be matched by the Pakistan fund during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 Rotary years. Applications received by the Foundation for recovery projects in Pakistan will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis and will be approved by the Pakistan fund. All the current Matching Grant guidelines and criteria will apply to these projects, including restrictions regarding construction and renovation.

* Download the Rotary Pakistan Flooding Fund DDF contribution form and learn more about cash donations.
* For more information, read the Rotary Pakistan Flooding Recovery Information Guide.

The current Rotary emblem, with keyway.

The Rotary emblem, unchanged since 1924, was redesigned many times in the early years of the organization.

In 1905, Montague M. Bear, an engraver and member of the Rotary Club of Chicago, sketched a wagon wheel with 13 spokes. When fellow club members began to complain that the design was static and lifeless, Bear added flourishes that made the wheel appear to ride on a bed of clouds. Unfortunately, some members felt the clouds looked like dust, defying the laws of gravity by being kicked up on both sides of the wheel.

Bear responded by superimposing a banner with the words Rotary Club over the clouds.

In 1911, Secretary Chesley R. Perry recommended that “action be taken by the National Association to establish the wheel as the basic part of the emblem of every Rotary club.” Clubs were invited to submit designs to an emblem committee before the 1912 convention in Duluth, Minnesota.

The Duluth convention provided some definition. “The emblem consists of the basic principle of a wheel with gears cut on the outer edge. … The spokes are to be so designed as to indicate strength; the object of the gears … being twofold; to relieve the plainness of the design, and … symbolize power.”

The word Rotary appeared at the top and International Association at the bottom. Clubs were encouraged to use a similar design, placing the name of their city at the bottom in place of International Association. The number of spokes and cogs was unspecified.

As a result, numerous variations on the emblem were in use by 1918. The Board appointed Charles Mackintosh, of the Rotary Club of Chicago, and Oscar Bjorge, of the Rotary Club of Duluth, to the Special Committee to Standardize the Rotary Emblem.

Bjorge drafted an emblem with six spokes and 24 cogs, giving it a sturdy appearance. In this design, the number of teeth and spokes was intended to reflect a real, working gearwheel, and not any aspect of Rotary’s history.

In November 1919, the Board adopted Bjorge’s design and a detailed description, and the 1921 convention formally approved them. For many years, descriptions of the emblem simply referred to a 1920 article in The Rotarian, “Redesigning the Rotary Wheel,” which announced the Board’s decision.

By 1924, Bjorge’s design had been modified to include a keyway. This addition has been attributed to Will R. Forker, of the Rotary Club of Los Angeles. He was reported to have said Bjorge’s design made no provision for the transfer of power to or from a shaft, rendering the wheel idle. Forker perceived Rotary as a “living force,” and inserting a keyway into the hub made the new wheel a “real worker.”

In January 1924, the Board formally approved the emblem that was then in use. Not all written descriptions were updated immediately, however. To clear up any confusion caused by the various decisions about the emblem between 1912 and 1929, a standard description of the existing design, with a keyway, was approved by the 1929 convention.

The Rotary emblem, like Rotary’s name and other logos, is a registered trademark. Clubs, districts, and Rotary Entities are welcome to use the Rotary emblem subject to the guidelines for the use of the Rotary Marks as set forth by the RI Board of Directors. These guidelines govern the use of the Rotary Marks on all merchandise, promotional materials, and publications, including domain names and websites.
For more informaiton:

* See Rotary History and Archives .
* Visit the Rotary Global History Fellowship website.
* Read more Historic Moments

“Developing a Club Website” is the first in a series of webinars about best practices for various types of electronic communications. The webinar will offer Rotarians information about developing and maintaining an informative, user-friendly club website.

If you have recently helped redesign your club’s or district’s website, please share your expertise and knowledge with other Rotarians about what you’ve learned by being a webinar panelist. The club website webinar will be held twice in October: Wednesday, 13 October, at 10:00 CDT and Wednesday, 20 October, at 18:00 CDT . (Times are for the Chicago area. Please check for your local time .)

Other webinars in the series will address social media (February) and newsletters (April).

Sign up now to be considered as a panelist. The deadline for signing up as a panelist for Developing a Club Website is 23 August.

If you can’t access the form for signing up, please e-mail your information to bestpractices@rotary.org .

Enter Rotary International’s 2010 Interact Video Contest.

The contest gives participants the opportunity to tell the world about the impact Interact has made on their lives, while bringing Interactors and Rotarians closer together.

“They are still celebrating,” says Virginia Barr, liaison to the Interact Club of Communities-in-Schools at the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice, USA, which was the 2009 Interact video contest grand-prize winner.

“Giving Back Through Interact” was directed and produced by Interactors enrolled in the Communities in Schools curriculum at the juvenile corrections facility in Columbia, with help from adviser Andy Broughton, an employee of the Juvenile Justice Department.

“It really became an avenue for them to share what the Interact club has meant to them,” says Barr, a member of the sponsor Rotary Club of Lake Murray-Irmo. “It changed their perspective on where they fit in the community and reinforced to them that they are indeed a part of the community.”

“We didn’t think we could make a video, but we did,” says Jalen, 17, a member of the Interact club. “I discovered it feels good to do things for others and not get anything back.”

How to enter

To enter the 2010 video contest, create an account on YouTube and upload your video. Then submit the contest entry form by e-mail, fax, or post by 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time on 1 December.

All Interact club and sponsor Rotary club members are eligible to enter. Interactors must be 12 years of age or older to enter. (Entrants under 18 years of age will need to indicate parental consent on the entry form.)

The grand-prize winner’s video will be featured on the RI website. First-prize winners will have their videos featured on the Interact video contest channel on YouTube. All winners will receive a personalized certificate signed by RI President Ray Klinginsmith.

To ensure that your video is not disqualified, check out the short list of do’s and don’ts below, and read the complete contest rules.

Do

* Be creative and have fun.
* Incorporate the theme “How do you Interact?”
* Keep your video between 30 seconds and three minutes.
* Submit your video in English or with English subtitles.
* Use royalty-free music

Don’t

* Include copyrighted music, images, footage, artwork, or videos.
* Include any trademarks, logos, or brand names other than the official Interact logo or name.
* Submit a video that has been previously published, submitted, distributed, or aired.
* Submit a video that you did not create.
* Enter multiple submissions.

Link to RI page

At the June 2010 RI Board of Directors meeting, members encouraged clubs to have their own club trainer. The club trainer can organize new member orientation, provide ongoing training opportunities for members, and lead strategic planning meetings.

If your club doesn’t already have one, consider appointing someone with a training or education background who can enhance your club’s training program.

Learn more about this position and other training ideas.

http://www.rotary.org/en/Members/Training/ForTrainers/Pages/club.aspx

The club trainer, who is appointed by the club president, works with club leaders to create training programs that meet the club’s needs. Club trainers may also work with the district training committee, assistant governor, and governor.

A club-level training program should:
* Ensure that club leaders attend district meetings
* Provide consistent and regular orientation for new members
* Offer ongoing educational opportunities for current members
* Create a leadership-skills development program for all members
* Help the club to create a strategic plan

To see how a trainer might help your club, see the list of club trainer responsibilities.
Leadership development program

Clubs can create a leadership development program to develop members’ personal, professional, and club leadership skills. Clubs and districts wishing to offer this program should consider including the following topics:
* Communication skills
* Leadership styles
* Leading and motivating volunteers
* Mentoring
* Time management
* Goal setting and accountability
* Strategic planning
* Ethics and The Four-Way Test
* Building consensus
* Teamwork

Strategic planning

Club trainers can help Rotary clubs implement a strategic plan, which includes a vision of where the club would like to be in three years and its long-range and annual goals.

The strategic planning process should involve past, current, and incoming club leaders to include a variety of perspectives. Once your club develops a strategic plan, be sure to regularly evaluate your goals and vision and to make adjustments as needed.

Once again the annual Interact Leadership Training Camp for Singapore Interactors will be held from 21-22 Aug 2009 at the MOE Dairy Adventure Camp.

The 2-day residential event entails leadership training facilitated by Rotaractors and Rotarians as well as high challenge adventure element by certified instructors. The sponsorship cost for the full board event is SGD100 per participant inclusive insurance, certificate and handbook. Around 80 Interact leaders are expected to attend.

Key board members, namely President, Secretary, Treasurer, Directors - Community Service and International Service have been invited through teacher advisors and sponsoring Rotary Clubs to attend the training camp. Other board members and teacher advisors are also welcomed.

For enquiry, please contact ILTC Convenor, PP Koh Juay Meng of Rotary Club of Singapore at kmeng@pacific.net.sg

Yours in Rotary
Jimmy Ooi - District 3310 Youth Resource Coordinator