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 Your Voice, Your Solution for making up meetings online

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Rotary e-clubs have been an official part of Rotary International since 1 July, after a six-year pilot project.

M any of your club’s members travel frequently for their job and miss the weekly meeting.

They put a lot of effort into making up missed meetings, but they overlook one helpful option: attending an e-club meeting.

Rotary e-clubs have been an official part of Rotary International since 1 July, after a six-year pilot project. Many e-clubs have links on their websites explaining how to make up a missed club meeting.

How do you convince members that attending an e-club meeting is worth their time?

Rotary International's monthly problem-solving forum asks Rotarians for their strategies to address the challenges they deal with every day. Please use the comments section below to share your solutions to this month's problem. Comments may be used in abbreviated form in other RI publications, including the Rotary E-Learning Center.

Past problems and your solutions:


15 Comments:
At 10:42AM on 5 October 2012, Keith Nixon wrote: The value of e-club make ups are that you are involved throughout the whole process. The feedback required ensures that you plan and write down your thoughts on a significant topic in which you have an interest or expertise. This allows you to share with other Rotarians your particular perspective which adds to the collective knowledge in Rotary. I believe that, used sparingly, it is a valuable process, albeit without the face to face fellowship that we all enjoy at our weekly meetings.
At 10:46AM on 4 June 2012, PDG Aswini Kar wrote: Many a times members are unable to attend the meeting due to other preoccupation. In these circumstances e-clubs are a welcome feature. One can make up attendance in e-club and can interact and in their meetings.This definitely helps members to keep up their attendance level.I have been regularly attending e-club meetings and I support this and encourage members to do so.
At 12:04PM on 6 September 2011, Zahiruddin Babar wrote: Look With A New Vision
At 11:56AM on 16 May 2011, Robert W. Thomas, PDG wrote: Making up at an e-club is an entirely different experience than making up at a regular Rotary club. There is no personal interaction at all with an e-club make up; but that is expected. I have found though that usually when I do a regular make up I may get to talk with one or two Rotarians briefly and then get to listen to discussion between members about local non-Rotarian issues. The only time that I feel connected during a regular make up is if I am making up in an area club, or at least one in the District. The advantage of e-club make-ups is that I can usually select the program and it will be of some interest to me, not the local project that does not mean a thing to me.
At 9:10AM on 6 May 2011, Hirotake Yamato wrote: It is wonderful for us to live in the world "the Rotary" which one man dreamed. We can meet only the members in the area Club, and also the members in eClub.
At 11:56AM on 27 April 2011, Russ Miller, PDG wrote: I've read the comments both pro and con. As a PDG and member of an eclub I must confess that when the opportunity was presented about seven years ago to start a pilot project I was appalled at the idea. Today I fully understand the viability and necessity of eclubs in expanding the concept and accessibilty of Rotary and the good work of the Rotary Foundation. I did wake up and smell the roses as we owe the opportunity to serve and help others to our less mobile friends and volunteers. As newer technologies find their way into eclubs the wealth of fellowship we already share will grow exponentially. I regularly attend tarditional meetings whenever the opportunity presents itself but I have a wide circle of close Rotary friends via my eclub. We as eclub members do participate and experience ALL of the same benefits as any member of a traditional club.
At 11:55AM on 21 April 2011, Nancy Cassel wrote: We have a laminated membership card that each member is given that has the club number and member number on it. The most important thing on the card is the listing of several e-clubs. We make certain members are aware of the information provided and recommend they try the e-clubs for make-ups. Our attendance is almost always in the 90%'s.
At 11:05AM on 15 April 2011, Jess St Clair wrote: Its worth their time and it literally could not be easier. If this service / option was not available, I would literally have to stop my day trading, pack up my one year old daughter, and drive to a meeting, meanwhile wrestling a very tenacious littile girl at a club meeting where I may not know a soul. It literally helps me to save time, effort and it keeps me from interupting my day. Jess St Clair Arlington Sunrise Rotary Arlington, Texas
At 4:43PM on 11 April 2011, Marilyn Bedell wrote: I was delighted that I was able to do a make-up via an e-club when I was recoverning from surgery. I was able to maintain my attendance requirement, and I learned some new information about the e-club, and enjoyed reading the information I found on-line. I found it a good use of my time.
At 9:36AM on 11 April 2011, Janie Carlisle wrote: As a member of an eClub I believe the major reason for making up at one of our clubs is the same for making up at ANY club. You can't attend your regular club meeting and have to maintain Rotary attendance requirements. eClubs may not be for everyone as far as membership goes but is a very viable solution for maintaining membership via make-up meetings. Were it not for eClubs, I could not be a Rotarian at all so am very happy this is an option. We do all the same things any other club does so yes we ask for donations and yes other Clubs expect you to pay the cost of the meal when you make up with them as well as participate in Happy/Sad Bucks.
At 9:51AM on 11 April 2011, Frode Mindrebø wrote: Being part of the team who's about to finalize the start-up of the E-Club of District 3170, I'm optimistic about the E-Club concept. Any feedback on dos and don'ts in here will be considered useful. Wish us luck!
At 10:10AM on 4 April 2011, Roy Kaple wrote: Wake up and smell the roses. Making up on line removes the very essence of what Rotary is all about, and is like walking into a room full of roses with no smell. Paul Harris recognized the power of personal contact, and that power is no less powerful today.
At 10:06AM on 4 April 2011, SN Agrawal, RC Ichalkaranji Textile City wrote: I have attended a lot of meetings on websites just to get the feeling. Its easy & simple. Only irritating thing is asking for donations. Many slub sites do it, but not compulsory. Do clubs ask us for donations if we attend their meetings physically?
At 9:41AM on 4 April 2011, Brian Coleman wrote: I have made-up on-line several times, always whilst overseas on holiday, where I am not in the right place or time to attend a physical Rotary meeting. I have found it rather unsatisfactory, in that it is somewhat like reading a Rotary magazine - in fact a lot of the content appears to be lifted from these. So I really ask the question, "What is the point of making-up this way?" In my case it's a desire to maintain my 20 year 100% attendance record, but I am not really convinced I'm not cheating, even when attending any other kind of Rotary meeting is totally impossible. My concern with publicising the opportunities to make-up in this way is that members will use it as another reason not to attend their own meeting. In the case of my club, attendance has declined significantly since the methods of making-up were widened to include committee meetings and service projects, which I find a worrying trend. The attitude appears to be "I've worked for Rotary once this week, so I'll skip the meeting." But perhaps that is our club's problem in not making meetings sufficiently interesting as not to be missed!
At 4:46PM on 1 April 2011, Keith Van Vliet wrote: I have had one experience of making up a missed meeting at an e-club. The technology was a bit frustrating but less so than other commercial sites that dealt with the same volume of interchange. I am the editor of our club newsletter, and my first impulse was to put the information in there so others could experience this helpful process. I cautioned them to be lpatient with the technology, as it was certainly more convienent that physically going to another club for a make-up.

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