Dear Fellow Rotarians:
i want people to be really active on the website. This Thursday, if it’s okay with you guys (i’m speaking directly to the members of North Orange County New Generations Rotary Club), i have decided to give a presentation on what i perceive to be the best ways to handle media and our web presence. I want everyone to be there, because i’m going to be explaining how you sign up, how you post, and how you operate our website. I will moderate it. Don’t worry about that. But i want you guys to be like journalists, going out there and reporting the things that we are doing as a club, what we are noticing, areas that we might be able to help, and charities and or organizations that we would like to admire, support, and or promote.
Our presence on the web, and out there in the world largely depends on our name recognition, and how much exposure our club, and our site has with others (in the community, the nation & globally). It is my intention for the remaining amount of time i have in the position of secretary & media correspondent to implement a system that can be used to delegate responsibilities, coordinate group efforts, inform, publicize and demonstrate the positive nature of our efforts in and out of the community by utilizing web tools, and social media to network this club with the outside world.
If we are indeed serious about effecting change in our community, and eventually the world, the effort we put out is much more effective if documented. This is because by documenting (ie: a club usage of the website) can serve as a history of our club – from different members perspectives. This method will also allow the site to serve as a portfolio of our events, charities, & good will towards others. And it can be a tool we use to flush out ideas that we have as individuals, while presenting them to the group. Once this occurs, we will then be able to focus our attention on the things that we feel are most productive within our club.
I challenge the NOCNG Rotary Club to utilize their social media sites in unique and interesting ways to draw in new members, as well as helping to put out information – not only to those within our own organization, rotary international, but also those who may come across the site on the web. I didn’t mean for this post to be this long and drawn out, but something that was very useful, and interesting to me occured on the day of the assembly. I was trying to figure out how much parking was going to be, and Long Beach Rotary had tweeted a .pdf file that was the free parking for the event we were going to. It was quick, easy and effective. I was alarmed that they had their information flowing and prominent out there where it could be easily reached; and that this information wasn’t theirs, but that they were passing it along from the District’s website.
One of the things that i learned within the seminars was something i already knew. You already know. But just seeing it as it plays out in a club makes it more real. The new technologies get picked up first by the youth. The wisdom gets passed down by the elders. i have moved our website away from Mobile.ME, and transferred it over to WordPress.com. We loose a little bit of the flashiness, but we gain the ability to have multiple users, networking with 3rd party social media, and peace of mind that the site is hosted by the same people who host President Barack Obama’s whitehouse.gov & barackobama.com. I think that you will come to like it, and that it will work for our club better than the other site.
enjoy.
Stephen
check out this article about the “Each Rotarian: Reach One Keep One” slogan: grow.4.future.members
New Generations: A Rotary Club 