Here are some options available to you for club and committee meetings. RI President Mark Maloney is encouraging all of us to use our discretion when it comes to club and district meetings and events, including Rotary programs and activities. Canceling or postponing in-person meetings or Rotary-related travel may be appropriate in light of club-specific circumstances. Even if events are held as scheduled, some members may choose to not take part.
In either event, we should all be thinking in terms of how to use this time to stay connected to Rotary, to our fellow club members and even of ways to serve our clubs and our communities. While we are living in challenging times, the hallmark of Rotary has always been rising to challenge after challenge.
Here are some options that will allow Rotarians and your clubs to stay connected and to serve our communities:
Facebook Live Some clubs are already using this technology to broadcast their club meetings etc. This might be a very viable option for clubs that are continuing to meet in-person but have members who cannot or don't attend out of health concern, quarantine or even when they are traveling. There are a number of tutorials on YouTube to help you launch this service for your members. If you need more assistance on this, don’t hesitate to reach out and we can work to connect you to Rotarians who have been using this creative method to keep Rotarians involved.
Zoom / GoToMeeting / Fuze and the like for club meetings: Zoom https://zoom.us is a free online meeting service for 1 to 1 meetings and up to 100 participants for meetings up to 40 minutes that can help your members stay connected during this period. Many clubs are already using online meeting services for committee meetings. Zoom Pro, GoToMeeting https://www.gotomeeting.com and Fuze https://www.fuze.com are all very reasonably priced alternatives for conducting online meetings. If you need assistance with these services, please let us know. One piece of good news – the webinars/meetings can be recorded for those who aren’t able to join at the scheduled time to be viewed later.
Service Opportunities Some service projects can continue even while observing safe contact rules. For example, some clubs are planning trail or highway clean-up projects during this time. Consider what projects your club has that could help your community while maintaining appropriate hygiene like dropping off food to the local food bank.
Service from Home Consider creating a suggestion set of service projects for your members that can be completed or delivered from home. This might include members' hobbies or even service that involves reaching out to others (club members and others in your community) in a time of potential isolation e.g. calls, texts and even old-fashioned letters might make a world of difference to others.
Social Activities Some clubs are planning on taking regular hikes together where they can keep a safe distance while sharing fellowship with other club members.
Rotary reading This may be a great time to catch up on your Rotary reading - like the Rotarian Magazine, Century of Service: The Story of Rotary International by David Forward, articles on Rotary.org, Discussion Groups, podcasts, etc. You might even be interested in signing up for the online Peace class or other options on the Rotary Learning Center https://learn.rotary.org/members/learn/catalog or checking out Rotary Discussion Groups https://my.rotary.org/en/exchange-ideas/groups!
We know this is an unprecedented time. We are here to support your club, and make sure your Rotary club continues to be a thriving, vibrant and impactful organization. Let us know if you have other innovative ideas that you believe will serve our clubs and our communities. We will be sharing them as we can.