5 reasons to get your club online

by Sophia Dembling
The Rotarian

About 40 percent of Rotary clubs still don’t have Web sites. If yours is one of them, it’s time to make the leap. Here are just a few ways that being online can benefit your club:

Visiting Rotarians can find you. The Rotary Club of Los Angeles provides a clickable invitation on its site, rotaryclubofla.com, that lets Rotarians who are planning a trip to L.A. connect with the club.
It gets the news out. Pablo Fernando Sanchez, who heads the public relations committee for the Rotary Club of Bucaramanga Nuevo Milenio, Colombia, says his club receives messages from all over the world in response to news items posted on the Spanish-language rotarynuevomilenio.wordpress.com.
Every member can become a PR expert. Just by sending friends and colleagues a link to a club’s site, members can spread the word about Rotary as well as club projects and fundraisers. Downloadable fliers like those on the site of the Rotary Club of Princeton, N.J., USA, princetonrotary.org, make it easy to publicize events.
It allows for creative recruiting. District 7510 (New Jersey) holds an annual contest for the best club Web sites (go to rotarynj.org and click on Public Image). “We have noted that clubs with the best, up-to-date sites are also the clubs that have the best member recruitment and retention,” says district Webmaster Lewis A. Edge Jr.
Members can network effectively. The Rotary Club of Bakersfield, Calif., lets members post links to their businesses’ sites from bakersfield-rotary.com. Similar features, like a members-only online directory with photos, can help members – especially those in larger clubs – get to know each other.

6 Comments:

At 9:46AM on 10 December 2008, Rtn. Rajesh Rupani wrote: I fully agree with the concept of e-presence of the clubs. We at Rotary Club of Thane East (www.rcte.org) strive to keep our website upto date and have also utilized the power of internet to reach out to our community, understanding their needs and thus fostering a culture of need-based project execution. It has also benefitted us by the fact that members of the community come forward and volunteer towards activities of the rotary movemement. Please do visit our website and leave your feedback

At 5:50PM on 14 October 2008, PP Walfrido "edu" Manzano wrote: Really for a Club to be online is to have website of its own like our Rotary Club of Davao D3860 Philippines which you can locate at <www.rcdavao.org>. Our experience was with the advent of ecommunications RI became just a ball in the palm of our hands. It's really amazing. IT as Alvin Toffler wrote in his book "The Third Wave" is now our generation....PP Walfrido "edu" Manzano, Rotary Club of Davao, RI District 3860, Philippines

At 10:02AM on 10 September 2008, PHF PP Bakulesh Pandya wrote: Depth of exporsure and interaction the club gets into after getting online, is unimaginable! One can't afford to live in isolation!

At 1:44PM on 29 August 2008, Becky Tsukishima, D5040 wrote: Once the website is online, it is also very important to keep it up-to-date and post the latest club news and projects.

At 9:33AM on 15 August 2008, RTN. SYED AZMATULLAH RC: CHENNAI PHOENIX RD: 3230 wrote: In this electronic era, it is essential for a club to have a web site of its own. To add to the list of benefits, the club can make revenue out of ads on the website which can be utilised for social services.

At 9:38AM on 14 August 2008, Mainak wrote: There can be no doubt about the fact that ALL clubs should go online. Since when RI proposed that Rotary should be more e-friendly, we feel this necessity. Thanks for the article. - Rtn. Dr. Mainak, RC Burdwan Greater, RID 3240

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