A frame from the Big West Rotary’s training session for district leaders.
By David Bobanick and Jim Bell, Rotary public image coordinators (United States)
As Rotary leaders, none of us work in a vacuum. Big West Rotary (Zones 26 and 27, western United States) created a model to leverage the collective knowledge and expertise of its coordinator team to train and support district and club leaders in membership, the Foundation, public image, and other areas. We think building a collaborative, multi-zone model to enhance training and support could be beneficial to your districts, as well.
We started by bringing our Rotary coordinators and assistant coordinators together to develop resources, share ideas, and design a monthly online training for all the district public image teams in our combined zones. The training is shared with all district leaders and other regional leaders in our zones, and incorporates feedback from district leaders.
Recent topics
Typically, we include two different topics presented by subject experts. There is time for a question and answer session. And it’s all recorded and shared on the zone’s website.
Recent subjects have included:
- What you need to know to be an effective public image coordinator
- How to build an effective public image team
- Tips for using social media to promote Rotary
- Navigating the Brand Center
- Designing an engaging website
As a recent example, we held a training session to empower districts to develop successful World Polio Day events. The training was attended by 200 people and we had a number of new or expanded World Polio Day events in our zones as a result. All membership, public images, and Foundation chairs at the district level were invited. End Polio Now coordinators shared how they build storytelling tools. Rotary coordinators offered tips for engaging members and developing outreach plans. And public image coordinators explained promotional tools available in the Brand Center and on endpolio.org.
We are in our third year of this model, and leaders are seeing the benefits of not only working together but the consistency of training. It truly is all about everyone being on the same page at the same time!
https://blog.rotary.org/2021/03/10/why-zone-partnerships-work/