Ideas from the Clubs

Whilst District can supply some inspiration, the best ideas come from individual Rotarians who persuade their Club to do something.

Use this page to pass on your Club's good ideas and please remember that it does not matter if you have been doing it for years: tell others of your experiences. If you would like anything included, pass the details to Chairman Jon Lövegreen.

All submissions will be considered as entries for the Val Scerri Award for Vocational Service

Work with local schools to provide work placements for secondary school pupils. A Hindley variation was to have schools select pupils having an expectation lower than their ability and to pair them with sympathetic adults, from a similar background, who had done well. The first meeting between Rotarian and pupil was at a formal dinner organised at the Club's expense, where the after-dinner speaker was chosen from higher education.

Work with students to set up an off-site server carrying the school's web pages.

Use Rotary's good name to find an enthusiastic sportsman, musician, scientist, mathematician. et cetera and offer them to local schools for small group, specialist teaching. Some schools will resist but children matter more than schools so ignore them and try another one.

Set aside a sum of money from the Club charity account and award it to a young person for a project, which will significantly improve that person's education or career. Horwich take this very seriously and have given several of £1,500 each for such things as music scholarships, and support to attend international athletic meetings.

Less easy than it used to be but still worth the trouble. Many children today are short of successful role models and, in particular, they are short of examples of 'ordinary' people who do well in careers that the children believe are reserved for the 'clever' or the 'rich'.

Arrange to take over any handy bit of public space, such as a shopping arcade, and arrange an 'on the spot' invention competition for the local schools. Supply teams with every-day materials (cardboard, string and the usual 'Blue Peter' stuff and set them something to build that requires the innovative use of those materials. Use Rotarians and non-Rotarian experts as judges.

Crompton and Royton have a lot of experience. Get in touch with them or go along to one of their events to find out what is involved.

A bit courageous, this one but try it if you wish! Members are encouraged to resubmit themselves for an informal driving test, conducted by suitably-qualified Club members (other Rotarians would do). The idea is to make people thoughtful about the less-than-perfect driving habits that most people acquire.

All your members were eligible to join Rotary because they were good at doing something. Consider what and apply it, free of charge, in the local community. Examples are: builders landscaping the garden of a local authority home, joiners putting chains on the doors of old age pensioners and a milkman delivering Christmas cards, drawn by local school children to the homes of the lonely or elderly.

There are many people with skills to pass on and the time to do so. Put them in touch with others who want to acquire a new skill and both will gain from the experience. Hindley are about to do this by printing leaflets that have a list of everything from archery to yodelling, with such things as bowling, brick laying, plumbing and plastering in the middle with blanks for everything else. The leaflets will be placed in libraries, pubs and surgeries and published in local newspapers. Participants simply indicate what they can share or what they want to learn and give their name and address before posting it to back to the Club. A database is maintained and people put in touch with each other.

Everybody wins. Skills are shared, potentially lonely people are given purpose and Rotary increases its profile as a service provider.

At a Club night, invite three or four members to talk about ethical issues that they have found difficult. Perhaps a physician faced with a terminally-ill patient in pain, a businessman who was asked for a bribe or a Vicar invited to condone some action that was against his or her principles but not against those of his or her church. Have the Club discuss the problems and think about how they would have reacted.

At a Club night circulate an anonymous questionnaire that asks five ethical questions-an example might be 'Do you think that it is ethical to pay cash in order to avoid VAT?' Rotarians answer on a five-point scale between 'definitely yes' and 'definitely no'. Collate the answers and discuss them in an open forum.

As a change from a speaker or business night, invite one member to open a discussion on any topic that interests them and ask others to comment. You will need a strong chairman who can keep control of the evening to avoid it being hogged by one or two people. It is better suited to evening Clubs but, when they go well, members will not want it to finish. Topics as widely different as UK versus foreign tourism, experience of private and NHS medicine, the effect of professionalism on sport, et cetera, all provide for a thought provoking session.

Occasionally speakers do not turn up when expected. Fill the gap by asking a few members to describe their worst business or professional experience. It can be very enlightening!

The scope is endless but the basic idea is the same. Be a group of credible grown ups whose applause is valued. Oldham Metro has an award for gifted mathematicians (with a £250 prize), St Helens provide three prizes for the local college and Rochdale provides one of their schools with a well-respected shield for the 'most improved' pupil. All are good idea and all could be adapted to any Club's local needs.

Reward a local person-ideally a non-Rotarian-for their vocational service within their community. A workable format, used by Hindley, is to present certificates to three or four recipients at an evening meeting to which spouses, guests and press have been invited.

Hindley have two forms of the certificate: one for outstanding service from within a paid occupation and one for voluntary work undertaken with a vocational zeal. Electronic versions of both, which can be adapted to suit the Club's needs, are available from the District Chairman.

Bolton couples it to a cash prize of £250 and awards it against tightly defined criteria. However you do it, remember that it is not just middle-class occupations and actions that are worth recognising.

As a variation on the Vocational Service Award, recognise the vocational commitment of people who have given up some of their own lives to care for a loved one during a prolonged illness.

Pick two senior members and have one research the career history of the other. At a member's only meeting, the researcher interviews the other member to bring out the POSITIVE aspects of that member's vocational experiences. Whilst this might seem to be 'old hat', it is surprising how stimulating newer members find the evening.

A variation tried by a few Clubs is to invite non-Rotarians to be the 'interviewee'. Local newspaper reporters, doctors and headmasters can provide a surprising insight into how your community works.

Could your members give first aid? If not then perhaps they might consider if they should. Bolton started the process with a talk and demonstration from a local expert and then followed it with a supper.

Help at local schools by organising or participating in a seminar-aimed at the year 11 pupils-to reveal the nature of work and the actions needed to prepare for it.

Not an activity but an approach. If you want to do something, do not depend only upon your members but look outside for individuals able to help - that is how many people came into Rotary in the first place. Work with neighbouring Clubs and organisations, such as Probus, where some activity needs more labour than your own Club can muster.

As an alternative to having a speaker, pick any difficult topic and debate it. Some Clubs have done this informally; others have taken over a public hall, organised a formal debate with a proposer, opposer and chairman to which they have invited non-Rotarian guests. It can be used as a recruitment opportunity.

Electronic versions of programmes, voting sheets, and evening planners, all of which can be adapted to suit a Club's particular needs, are available from the District Chairman.

Less popular than they used to be and harder to organise but still worthwhile. Factories, Police operations, airports, super market warehouses, schools and farms are examples of places and facilities that will welcome visitors if they are approached carefully. See how others work.

Just because mock interviews, job talks, site visits, et cetera, have been around for a long time does not mean that they are less worthwhile. Consider, what new twists you can add: perhaps follow a new member's job talk with a repeat performance from one of the older hands; get together with a local Club for a combined site visit and use the occasion to plan for other fellowship gatherings.

One example of such a 'twist' comes from the Bolton-le-Moors and Tyldesley Clubs. Their mock interviews are at schools for the educationally sub-normal, whose students have lower ambitions than many but need to try even harder to achieve them. After the interviews the members work as mentors to provide encouragement.