By Rotary International

By Wendy Aldred, a member of the Rotary Club of Brampton & Longtown, and assistant governor for District 1190 (England)

Several years ago, I became part of the Rotary in Great Britain & Ireland E-Learning Team, developing online courses for Rotary members. I am now leading the project and working with staff at Rotary International to develop courses for Rotary’s Learning Center, where Rotary members can find a wealth of online training materials.

Twelve steps to New Club Formation from the course by the same name in the Learning Center.

I’ve been able to use my expertise gained over 25 years working in the training and human resources consultancy profession to assist Rotarian in being more effective leaders. I wish more Rotary members knew about this resource and took advantage of its materials.

What’s great about e-learning?

Availability. It is there 24/7
Flexibility. You can use it to prepare members in advance for an event. We developed our introductory course for first-year assistant governors to be used prior to the Rotary in Great Britian & Ireland annual Leadership Assembly. The course focuses on three topics: the role of assistant governor, key areas and tasks of assistant governor, and what makes a good assistant governor. …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

By Rotary International

In February, Michel Zaffran will take over as director of polio eradication for the World Health Organization (WHO). Most recently, Zaffran has served as coordinator of WHO’s Expanded Programme on Immunization. He has also served as Deputy Executive Secretary of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI), and represented WHO on the working group that designed and launched GAVI. We caught up with him recently to ask his thoughts about this new challenge:

I am extremely excited, but also emotionally very moved, to have been selected for this position. I started working for the World Health Organization in September of 1987 in the immunization program. A few months later in May the World Health Assembly endorsed the resolution to actually eradicate polio. I was just at a very junior level but remember seeing my bosses work on the resolution, and so I was there from the very beginning. So to actually toward the end of my career be coming back and heading the program for its last miles basically is very exciting and very moving.

My past experience has prepared me very well for this role. I have been working with all of the key partners for many years. And …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

By Rotary International

By Ryan Hyland, Rotary editorial staff

Incoming district governors got their first look at the presidential theme for 2016-17, Rotary Serving Humanity, today at the International Assembly, an annual training event for future leaders. RI President-elect John F. Germ encouraged attendees to work as a team to get the word out about what Rotary is, and what we do, especially as we near the end of our goal to eradicate polio. “The more we are known for what we’ve achieved, the more we’ll be able to attract the partners, the funding, and most important of all, the members to achieve even more.”

We caught up with incoming district governors after the theme was announced to get their thoughts.

Megan Law, Rotary Club of Oklahoma City Midtown, USA (District 5750): “I think the theme perfectly describes what our goal has been all along. We’re here to help one small step at a time. What better way to say to the world, ‘Here’s what we do. We serve humanity.’ ”

Akabom Enebong, Rotary Club of Calabar, Nigeria (District 9140): “Nothing could have been more inspiring. It encourages us to do more. We all need to be prepared to carry out Germ’s theme.”

Kristofer Erlandsson, Rotary Club …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

By Rotary International

Obstetricians from England use their vocational skills to train medical staff on emergency care for pregnant women and newborns as part of a vocational training team to India in 2013 organized by Districts 1120 and 3240.

By Evan Burrell

The question we face almost from the time we are old enough to talk is “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

It’s a question most often put to us by our parents, teachers, and friends. When we are young, we are content to keep our answers pretty vague or even whimsical. When I was 10, I wanted to be a Cowboy Astronaut Zookeeper!! Sometimes I wish I was one, if only to see the look on the face of Rotarians who ask me what my vocation is.

The word “vocation” gets bandied about quite a lot in Rotary circles. When I saw the word for the first time in some dusty old Rotary manual, I thought to myself “someone keeps misspelling vacation”!

Vocation really means “a calling,” a strong desire to spend your life doing a certain kind of work or occupation.

Vacation and vocation don’t have to be that far apart if you are doing what you love. Honestly, I think a …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog