Pushy or persistent?

When promoting Rotary are you just informative yet persistent ... or are you just plain pushy?  Have a read of this and then consider whether how you approach your publicity is best:  https://a2rotary.wordpress.com/2016/02/01/why-is-rotary-so-pushy/ 

Banners to the fore! ... behind!

Great to see clubs making good use of available banners and placing them so photos destined for media include these.  Clearly Rotary!

Read about this particular project at:  http://rotarystories-nzandpacific.blogspot.co.nz/2016/01/pride-of-workmanship-awards.html 

Designer truck

New idea: 

Bahamas Waste unveiled their latest 'designer truck' to bring awareness to Rotary's efforts to end polio in the world.  It would be hard to find a better mobile public relations board for Rotary as such trucks are on the road all day, every day ... helping to ptrevent disease and ensure better sanitation!

Bahamas Waste have had three past presidents and five total Rotarians on their Board of Directors so they share a common philosophy with the Rotary core values.

Celebrating The Rotary Foundation’s 2016-17 Centennial

Did you know that The Rotary Foundation is turning 100 in 2016-2017?

The Rotary Foundation is a very significant part of the vitality of every club as every club will participate in at least some of their programmes and most support the Rotary Foundation through donations. Therefore it make sense for every club to use the Centennial as a way for strengthening Rotary among members and in their community; this will be a significant motivational (membership) and marketing (publicity) opportunity not to be missed. Start planning to maximise this opportunity now.

The celebration of The Rotary Foundation’s 2016-17 centennial officially kicks off at this year’s convention in Korea, but you can prepare your club and district officers now using materials in the centennial promotion kit.

Here are some ideas for promoting the centennial in your upcoming presidents-elect training seminar and district training assembly:

• Use the centennial logo on your Foundation training materials.
• Share weekly Foundation facts with participants prior to training sessions.
• Feature the Foundation in your program, emphasizing that clubs should hold Rotary Days to showcase the Foundation’s history and good work.
• Strategize ideas to promote the centennial in your community.
• Share your district’s plans for increasing Foundation giving in honour of the centennial.

Cambridge Rotary illustrates good publicity for their 24 Hr Cycle Challange

How well are you promoting your event?  Let’s look at one example:

Cambridge Rotary in support of Alzheimer's New Zealand present the 24 Hour Cycle Challenge hosted at the Avantidrome in Cambridge, NZ.   Web:  www.24hourchallenge.co.nz

·         There is a relevant event logon clearly showing Rotary’s involvement and using the correct Rotary branding - a good idea to invest in relevant graphics for events that have longevity

·         The event site home page clearly states the club’s involvement

·         The event logo is on every page of the event website so Rotary’s involvement is always top and center

·         There is a link on the home page to more information about the club (their website)

·         The club website is up to date, well laid out, informative and has a means for the club to be contacted (although maybe a direct phone contact would improve this?)

They have promoted via their district and club website with information to all district clubs and inclusion onto a spread of social media plus all sorts of local media and beneficiary and sponsor networks … in other words letting as many people know through as many sources as is possible and repeating the message in the lead up as many times as they can.

Neglected?

At Rotary Institute in Nelson, RI Director Elect Noel Trevaskis stated that the majority of those who leave Rotary comment that "we know no more about Rotary than when we joined".

This lack of knowledge about Rotary means that they did not know how, or have the confidence to, become engaged.

Yet there are in place some ready tools and opportunities that any club can make known and available to their members.  Let's consider a few in brief:

Rotary Leadership Institute (or if you like 'Rotary Learning and Information'):  This provides an understanding of the breadth about Rotary along with an understanding where Rotarians can go for more information to add a depth of knowledge as they have a practical need.  New Rotarians (and many longer-serving) have found this absolutely invaluable in helping them become engaged and enthusiastic in Rotary to the delight of their clubs who are always wanting members to take the lead on projects and to invigorate the club with new ideas.

District Training events .... obvious... say no more.  Other than there has been a huge amount of work using Rotarians who are professional trainers to ensure the delivery of Rotary training is excellent so if you have members who went to district training a few years ago and either it was "a waste of time" or they have "been there, done that" then they may wish to go again or at least not discourage others who would benefit from going, from going.

MyRotary has a huge resource that is designed to educate Rotarians about specific roles and the various programs and aspects of Rotary but who want to do this at their own pace.  This ranges from information pages through to actual learning modules.

The options just keep coming ... what about the many free newsletters that members can subscribe to and have delivered straight to their Inbox.  Many are tailored to assist people in specific roles and as such are incredibly useful, and can be unsubscribed from at any time.  From a personal development perspective, many have information that members can use in their business and personal lives.

... not to forget our new-look and very well thought of Rotary Down Under magazine!  You haven't read it lately then do so as you will find it is quite changed from this time last year. Most Rotarians who are serious about their Rotary at least skim thorough this each month and often will pick out an item or two they will read in full.  Even a few might read it cover to cover but they would be rare but that is not the point ... just picking up a fact here or interesting point there makes us all better Rotarians, so for that fact alone it is worth members taking the magazine out of its cover.

Then of course clubs can use the magazine and any other Rotary source to slip the odd fact into the club meeting ... switched-on Sergeants know the value of this to extract a few coins from those who cannot answer facts turned into questions!

And there is more.  Clubs NEED to encourage and assist members to learn about Rotary but equally, individual Rotarians from their first day in Rotary have an absolute right to go to RLI, district training, look at the website and more.

We all know the above but it is only those who actually DO the above who are succeeding in creating vibrant clubs.  So what about it ....

Is your website like this monkey?

Does your website portray your club in the best manner?  Can visitors to your website get the information they need and from there is it easy and clear who they can contact for more?

Here is a link to follow to a post that will be useful in answering the questions:

1. How can you make your website more engaging?
2. How can you improve relevance?
3. How can you offer marketing value?

Go to: http://buildingtherotarybrand.blogspot.co.nz/2015/06/effective-website.html#more  

Now to answer your question ... why the monkey?  What is its relevance?

The answer is nothing ... much like some Rotary websites. On second thoughts ... the monkey did capture your curiosity causing you to read this post.

Are you Rotary? Really? YES WE ARE AND PROUD OF IT

We have all heard of it.  We have all seen it.

The Rotary project where no-one coming along knows it is a Rotary project.

Not your club I am sure because you all look the part in your club polos, hats or aprons and everywhere people look there are Rotary banners and more.

And at other times your members are no doubt proudly wearing their Rotary pins. 

Such is the power of the Rotary emblem ... we too often underestimate its importance.

So, for your Rotary emblem needs there are new contact details to change in your address list as the supply of these is brought back in-house at Rotary Down Under:

 

RDU Supplies (licensed Rotary brand distributor) 

www.rdusupplies.com.au  (website being created)

Email sales@rdusupplies.com.au

Toll free from NZ phone 0800 287 682  / +61 2 9633 4888

PO Box 779, Parramatta, NSW 2124, Australia

How's that? Which would you choose?

Burleigh Heads Rotary recently had a superb project in Nauru and that will soon receive some well deserved publicity but what we want to illustrate is the impact possible from the way you present your photos.

They could have done what far too many Rotary projects do and take a boring line up that does nothing to inspire ... here is what that would look like:

This is good for record keeping or as a momento but not for publicity that excites.

But Burleigh Heads Rotary are far too experienced at getting great publicity so what they really took was this:

No wonder they get so many people 'on side' and helping their projects ... a 'six' every time from this exciting club.

So next time you take a photo at a project think about how you can make this interesting for your readers.
  
Show the sweat, not the cheque. 

If you are donating funds, no line-ups or cheque presentations ... instead get a photo of what the money bought being used. 

And show faces please ... backs of heads and part obscured faces are hardly inviting.

Remember the specs:

• minimum 300kb but preferably much higher-res quality (send the full sized photo as it came off the camera as 5 MB can be cropped to make an even better photo that 300kb)
• action oriented
• close up 
• be creative - think of the audience
• Faces, faces, faces 
• Send as an ATTACHED picture file in jpeg ... do NOT embed in the email or a document

A good photo trumps anything else in getting publicity ... the text of an article can always be improved but a poor photo is always a poor photo.

Polio Announcement: One year of no new Polio cases in Nigeria - help spread the word

On 24 July, Nigeria will have passed one year with no new cases of wild poliovirus.

This is the longest the country has ever gone without a case of polio and a critical step on the path toward a polio-free Africa. We’ve come a long way since the bleak years when the virus reached its peak. It was only a decade ago that polio struck 12,631 people in Africa- three quarters of all cases in the world.

11 August will mark an even greater milestone: one year since the last case of polio in Africa. For Africa to be certified polio-free, all countries in the region, including Nigeria, must go two more years without a case of polio. To do this, all children in Nigeria must continue to receive the polio vaccine, including those in hard-to-reach and underserved areas.

I am immensely proud of our Rotarians who have donated $688.5 million to fight polio throughout Africa, including more than $200 million to Nigeria. I congratulate these Rotarians from Africa and around the world who have also devoted countless hours to immunize the children who now have the opportunity for healthier, happier lives.

Please note if the stringent World Health Organization testing criteria are met, then Nigeria could well be removed from the list of polio-endemic countries in September of this year.

As our public image coordinators, we need your help spreading the news about this significant milestone. It is crucial to keep the world informed about the progress being made in the fight against polio. The support of Rotarians, donors, and local governments are key to our goals and we rely on you to help keep them informed. This is why the RPICs program was set up. Now is the time to deliver.

Visit endpolio.org to download a toolkit of materials, which will help you raise awareness about this progress by:

• Distribute a press release to news outlets in your area, to share Rotary’s role in the fight to end polio. Customize this press release template and send it to editors and news directors at local media outlets.
• Send an op-ed to your local paper.. Update this sample op-ed for publication in your local newspaper. Check for your paper’s specific guidelines (e.g. word count) and then send it to the op-ed or editorial features editor for consideration.
• Share news about progress in Nigeria using social media, and encourage your networks to donate. Sample posts and shareable content are available to download for your use. Social media is a crucial part of our milestone campaign and is one of the most efficient ways of spreading information.
• Click here to share your support on Twitter for the fight to end polio.