Your Voice, Your Solution for transitioning with technology

At 10:45AM on 17 June 2010, Lalit Saraswat wrote: Its quite easy to setup a professional Rotary Club website using minimum resources. All you need is a basic domain name + web hosting service, and someone to setup a Wordpress website with a good theme and the correct extensions. We went live with our club website www.rcdabolim.org (Rotary Club of Dabolim Goa India RID3170), and are now helping another club do their website. The website is easy to use - if you can send emails via gmail or hotmail, you are tech savvy enough to update the website yourself.

At 9:55AM on 15 February 2010, Peter Bagley wrote: We have gone digital over the last few years and I am seeking to improve even more our membrs use of our large website. Right now I have a link to RI's club meeting page but it would be very helpful for RI to develope a IPHONE APP that would allow members to directly check this information. Anyone know anything more about this?

At 9:57AM on 8 February 2010, Richard Veber wrote: D9920 has a free member and club database based website ( rotary.org.nz ) it is now also used by 4 other NZ districts, with 7932 registered members; we are discussing an annual 'Go Digital' club award for the best club use, with around 20 ways to get points.

At 10:20AM on 5 October 2009, Rtn.DR.SACHIN JAMMA wrote: I have three suggestions.1)Every new member when he joins club it should be made compulsory for him to start using Email 2)Computer friendly Rotarians should always train untrained & create a atmosphere in club that we cannot survive without digitalization3)RI should send each club a common & simple to use software for Secretaries,Presidents & even members so that all communication is online & in required format.RI may even charge some fees for this.

At 8:43AM on 17 September 2009, Frank Garrelts wrote: In District 1850 we have no problem with digitalizatiion. We use Ro-CAS and RO-WEB in our district. It is so easy to handle that all secretaries use it - and it saves a lot of time for all of us. Frank Garrelts President 2009/10 RC Worpswede

At 8:36AM on 28 August 2009, Joost Devos - Rc Menen - D1620 wrote: The president of our club asked me (being a new member since mid 2008 and active in the IT-sector for about 20 years) to “think” about a digital solution for a problem that all clubs face today: “How do we improve the registration process for our weekly activities, for all our members? The average age of our members is 58.” Because the digital world is my territory, I didn’t just want to “think” about it: I wanted to find a solution. So I started asking questions, listening carefully and analyzing the administrative problems of the club. After collecting enough data, my software team started working on a solution in the form of a web application that can be integrated into existing club websites: “Rotary Internet Agenda” (“RIA”). RIA keeps track of the club activities, registers which members will be present or absent, notifies members of important changes to activities, invites members for new activities, reminds members when they haven’t confirmed their presence to an activity, etc… All club documents, weekly reports and photographs are uploaded to RIA and archived. RIA manages and archives commission- and board meetings, each with their own separated documents, reports and pictures. Our members have no excuse anymore not to register on-time for any scheduled club activity. RIA integrates with other applications too: each activity can be imported into Microsoft Outlook (or other calendar applications), Google Maps is used to help members find the location of activities, etc… RIA has an interface for public activities, which is used to automatically display public activities on the public club website, or in the form of an RSS-feed (to inform interested friends of other clubs about new activities of our club). RIA gives club members access to the club information, regardless of where they are. All they need is a web browser and an internet connection. Each member gets an account. Because not every member should have the same permissions, RIA allows the club administrator to assign roles to individual accounts. For example: only board members have access to the board meetings, only members of a commission have access to that commission. Even external people can be given restricted access to the system. In our club, we gave our restaurant manager restricted access to the activities that take place at her restaurant, so she can easily keep track of the number of people that will attend those activities. The delegation of responsibilities in RIA attracts and motivates the club members to use it. Members that had doubts about such a system changed their minds once they saw a demonstration of the solution, and became real fans once they started using it. We were given the opportunity to publicly demonstrate RIA for the first time during the District Conference on March 28, 2009 in Bruges. Since then, several clubs have joined us, and their members are using RIA on a daily basis. Our experience has been that members, young and less young, are not reluctant to new technology. On the contrary, they are grateful when they’re provided with the right tools that they can discover at their own pace, to help organize their club life. By using RIA, club members have to spend a lot less time and resources on the administration of the club. RIA is the sole digital online central place for organizing, planning and archiving all club activities and paperwork for its members.

At 9:12AM on 24 August 2009, Ben wrote: This year, our Rotaract Club has committed to an electronic system, reducing the environmental impact of too much paper (as well as the inconvenience). We use Google Docs (http://docs.google.com) to prepare all our minutes and other documentation, which also gives people the opportunity to make changes themselves (everything is tracked), and is a much more effective way to keep documents and other important data. Other services such as Windows Live Mesh (http://www.mesh.com) or Office Online (http://www.officelive.com) are also highly effective, and might be useful for those clubs more comfortable with a traditional word processor.

At 9:16AM on 24 August 2009, Rtn Paul Agbroko, RC Effurun, D9140 wrote: This problem is so real and I want to believe it afflicts a good number of clubs. As a friend of mine noted as we discussed a short while ago on these issues, "The problem we face is that technology is meeting us at old age". Even so, as club president, I try to demonstrate how easy and less cumbersome it is to get into the electronic age - how easy it is to have so much data and in mobile form as well, just by having your laptop and perhaps a USB driveon you! The goal to have an e archive for club's history and financial records is not the easiest project for a club where average age is in the upper 40s but it is quite achievable, I would say, as club president.

At 1:09PM on 24 August 2009, Tony Petitt wrote: The Rotary Club of Bretby is making some efforts to moving all documsnts and distribution into electronic format. The Club Newsletter is only printed for 3 members, the rest receive it via email and via the club website. All minutes, agendas etc are circulated via email. Onlt 2 members do not have email facility.

At 1:10PM on 24 August 2009, Richard Grimmett wrote: I joinedRotary in 2004 and took the job of bulletin editor. Converted to email from post for 50 bulletins over a couple of years with 95% success. Introduced web blog www.rotaryoceangrove.blogspot.com posting bulletins each week to this free web service. All bulletins are now archived on this site. Now email a link only to advise members that the site is updated. I have now included minute audio grabs with audioboo.fm an amazing iPhone app. Check our web site!

At 3:41PM on 21 August 2009, ma. cristina c. dagdag wrote: Our club, the Rotary Club of Quezon City Circle, R.I. District 3780, Phlippines will officially launched our website on September 12, 2009 during the Induction of Offciers (RI year 2009-2010. Our official wesite is http://rcqc-circle09.ning.com. Going digital makes our regular meetings interesting and exciting. It helps our members get updated on what transpired during the last meeting and reminds them on the future events of our cub. Moreover, it inspired them to participate actively on the projects.

At 9:58AM on 20 August 2009, Rick wrote: The Rotary Club of Sarasota (FL; USA) has updated our web presence including notifications and newsletters saved on-line and distributed via email. We have reduced the number of hard-copy newsletters to reduce cost and waste. Forms are in the process of being filed on our site, as well.

At 2:55PM on 20 August 2009, Courtney Phillips wrote: Our club has begun scanning or digitizing our documents and store them in the Rotary District 7750 database. This includes our constitution and by-laws, bulletins and other information that needs to be readily available. We have also created a Facebook page, and use it as a forum to talk about speakers' topics, share pictures from events, and advertise what we as a Rotary Club do in the community. All of our members are email and web saavy, and we are teaching those that need more experience, by holding one meeting a year dedicated to navigating rotary.org, as well as our district and Facebook sites. We are also exploring twitter as a means to share more about what happens when you start with Rotary.

At 9:30AM on 18 August 2009, Todd Sheppard wrote: We our in the process of going totally digital. The only way this is possible is by constantly training the "less" comfortable members of on how it works and how easy it is to get the information from this medium. Then show them. Then show them again. Then "hopefully" it becomes old hat.

At 10:03AM on 17 August 2009, PDG Yogananda S R R I dist 3190 wrote: To start with, I would start archiving, wherever possible, the club’s historical and financial documents electronically. Also allow board members who are not comfortable with computers to keep traditional paper files. Their important traditional documents can be scanned. Important that they are trained and motivated to use computers effectively.

At 10:25AM on 10 August 2009, UMAPRASAD DATTA wrote: I think Rotary International can consider offering a common time bound user friendly digitization process and training and development thereof. Discrete efforts of clubs would cost time, money. Also seamless transition with change of priorities could be difficult. Exchange of communication using common platform would be fast and effective. This could also be fund raising proposition of the foundation. As centennial president, I tried and, to a certain extent, was successful in adopting digitization. With change of priorities of club the effort took a back seat and eventually was brought to standstill

At 11:35AM on 10 August 2009, sukhminder singh ( R.C.Bardhaman Heritage) wrote: It's the nature of human beings that when you adopt a new concept or a new technology there will always be a problem from some part. But once you make the habits then it's all right. If you have to move with modern time you must have to accept the advance technology.

At 11:35AM on 10 August 2009, Wendy Mackay wrote: The Rotary Club of Darwin Sunrise has undergone a new look on the web. We are also including facebook and will be putting podcasts on our site for all to view. In addition, there will be the capacity to receive notifications on the latest updates via a notification on your blackberry.

At 1:48PM on 5 August 2009, Luis E. Ortega wrote: Our (Future) Rotary Club of Miami MetroZoo will go digital via the use of a Facebook Page for a fun, interactive website, and the use of Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com) for the secure and easy dissemination of newsletters. We aim to reach (and keep engaged) a youthful cross-section of our related participants (read Interactors and Rotaractors, and Club Member families) by having them become "Fans" of our (Future) RC's Facebook Page. If the FUTURE of Rotary is in our hands, we are prepared for it!

At 9:29AM on 5 August 2009, Rob Scaife - D7040 Webmaster wrote: In District 7040 I've built a district database over the last few years to power a number of public and private features. To increase club participation we 'created' an unofficial and optional post of Club eSecretary. This allows clubs the option of assigning online duties to an eSecretary, useful where the club secretary is unfamiliar with technology or the role of secretary is too much for one person. We've found that this has increased our participation significantly and opens up opportunities for clubs to explore more online opportunities. It can also be a diplomatic way to devolve some tasks from technology resistent members. By moving our records online we've been able to eliminate a $3,000 annual cost to print a paper directory which was inevitably out of date before it could be distributed because someone is always changing information from week to week. That is money we can now put to use in our community service efforts. It's very easy to get online - a free blog can be set up at wordpress.com. Calling it a newsletter makes it an easier sell to people who are a little put off by words like 'blog'. Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress or Joomla! make it easy to get online and are free to use. Look them up at http://www.wikipedia.org for more information.

At 2:19PM on 4 August 2009, Verne Folkmann wrote: Our club the Iowa City Noon Rotary Club of Iowa has gone almost all digital. Our weekly newsletter is put on our website with only a few being sent to members with no computers. Also our yearly dues statement is digital and announced at our weekly meetings. All communication between our Board members is done by email. We have saved a lot of paper and postage that can be used for other projects.

At 3:55PM on 3 August 2009, Phil Abraham wrote: Club members resist going digital. Make the digital versions of the documents available on the club web site and members will find that immediately useful. We have begun to place club archives online to gain folks interest. Most of the archives (original Club Charter Night Program) have never been seen by most of the members. Making the archives interesting and accessible has convinced members (board and all) of the value of electronic archiving and Going Digital.