Unfortunately, other than perhaps a recitation of The Four Way Test, visitors and members attending many Rotary meetings see little there to distinguish these gatherings from the meetings of any other civic or service club. Many new Rotarians are receiving minimal, if any, orientation into what differentiates us from those other associations. If our members don’t know who we are, and our meetings don’t reflect how we differ, there’s not much hope for growing and retaining our membership.
Fortunately, the materials in Rotary’s Learning Center can form the basis for giving our new members a good foundation on which to build. They also can feed the curiosity of all members about subjects in which they have an interest. BUT, as leaders, WE have to make sure they know about these tools, use them ourselves, and continually reinforce their use.
Learning leaders in some clubs and districts are even laying out course paths tailored to each member’s talents, role in the club, or interests. Rotary’s made it easy for us to receive reports telling us who has completed which courses and is ready to take on a leadership or committee role in those areas. To use these reports, just complete the Access to Learning Center Reports course in the Learning Center. To take this course:
- Go to learn.rotary.org
- Sign in to My Rotary if you’re prompted to.
- Use the menu in the upper left to go to My Dashboard.
- If the course doesn’t appear under My Courses and Learning Plans, search for “Access to Learning Center Reports” in the search box.
We can also encourage members to take advantage of these tools by:
- Downloading the course catalog to find out what’s new in the Learning Center.
- Subscribing to Learning in Action, a monthly newsletter.