RI launches new electronic publication
By Jennifer Lee Atkin
Rotary International News -- 22 January 2010
To better meet the needs of Rotary’s club and district leaders, RI is replacing the Rotary World newsletter with Rotary Leader, an electronic publication featuring practical information about everyday tasks, specifically for club and district officers.
The preview issue of Rotary Leader was unveiled at the International Assembly on 22 January by General Secretary Ed Futa. The publication will officially launch with its April 2010 edition.
“About a year ago, we surveyed the readers of Rotary World, our quarterly newsletter for club presidents and district governors,” explained Futa during the eighth plenary session. “We got a variety of responses, but in general, readers wanted more focus on the issues and challenges they face every day in running a club or district. They also said they wanted less paper coming from RI.
“In response to those two overriding themes, we created Rotary Leader, a digital newsletter for all Rotarians serving in leadership roles,” Futa said.
Articles in Rotary Leader will focus on solutions: How do you keep new members? How can you convince everyone in your district to give to The Rotary Foundation? How do you get your club or district featured in the local newspaper?
Subscribers will also be encouraged to submit questions for the Ask the Expert column, and they’ll be able to link easily to key Rotary news stories and announcements to stay up-to-date on the latest information from RI.
Current Rotary club presidents and district governors will automatically receive Rotary Leader, but any Rotarian may subscribe to this free publication. All club and district leaders, including club secretaries, assistant governors, and district committee chairs, are encouraged to read Rotary Leader, as are Rotarians who are considering a leadership position.
“Without the restrictions of printing and international mailing costs, we hope to reach many more Rotarians with Rotary Leader than we could with Rotary World,” Futa said.
The electronic interface of Rotary Leader gives readers the choice of flipping through the publication one page at a time or clicking on links to go directly to an article that interests them. Subscribers will be able to share articles via e-mail, crop stories and photos to save digitally, and print pages for future reference. Where relevant and appropriate, articles will be accompanied by videos, audio recordings, and photo slideshows.
Like Rotary World, Rotary Leader will be published in nine languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. Beginning in the 2010-11 Rotary year, Rotary Leader will be published every two months rather than quarterly.