Posted: 1 year ago

We are arguably the largest and most successful eClub (of the 13 eClubs in the world). We know Rotary membership is declining in the US and some other countries.

What can our eClub provide in terms of vision or strategies that would re-invigorate, re-excite Rotary? What do we bring to the table that is new, exciting, and attractive to young people to join Rotary?

Larry Levenson
President 2009-2010
Prescott, Arizona USA
===================

Posted: 1 year ago

One area in which we are open in a way that traditional clubs are not is our asynchonous meetings.  As a full time school teacher, I never had the opportunity to join Rotary.  With RECSWUSA, though, we can reach out to people who are in a better position to understand the young than almost any other profession.

I suspect that there are similar openings to those in other time-restricted career fields.

Posted: 1 year ago

I wish we were utilized more vigorously as a social media site.

Groups are formed at facebook and twitter that accomplish a lot and have a lot of excitement.  We have the tools here but not the enthusiasm.

If that were to be embraced more, I think the enthusiam could spill over into Rotary proper....

Trying to get without first giving is as fruitless as trying to reap without having first sown.

It does not do to leap a 20 ft chasm in two ten foot jumps.

Posted: 1 year ago

Stephen, I agree that if the forums were used more, it would promote more identification with the club and enliven our work.

That said, there are plenty of Terra Rotarians who go to their meetings each week, say 'hello' or perhaps exchange pleasantries, and add nothing more substantive to the exploration of what it means to be part of Rotary.  The planting of seeds, though, through the programs, announcement, and comments about the meeting (all of which we have), may result in something far more active in the future.  Hopefully so!

I think a key for us is to make sure that what we do generates discussion and participation, as opposed to increasing discussion in order to generate more action.  The kinds of initiatives we have talked about, such as the one to support the efforts of Peace Scholars, might be compelling enough to move some of our members from more passive to more active.

We'll get there!

Posted: 1 year ago

It is my morning for sitting and catching up on what has been discussed on the forum. In one way I agree with Stephen and Rushton about the social aspect of the eClub but in another I disagree.

I agree that we should have more fellowship together but in an eClub it is like the 19th century use of letter writing. Many people of that time, wrote their ideas, hopes, daily life and visions to certain friends (who wrote back and continued the chain of communication). I agree that we need that in any eClub.

Where I disagree is that our problem is not with the virtual system in which an eClub lives and breathes; it is in the nature of who we recruit as members. If someone comes into the eClub wanting to expand their vision of the world by networking with interesting people who also want to communicate, the forum and other tools are used all the time. This can be done by who we choose to join or how we mentor new members in what it means to be an eClubber. It is not the system or the means of communication; it is the willingness of members to share themselves in fellowship. As a museum director, I would never hire someone and try to teach them to smile as the receptionist at the front desk greeting the public; I would hire some who smiled naturally. A public knows when something is fake; whether it is in person or virtually. It just takes more time virtually. We cannot train people to communicate; we can recruit members who already have that skill and willingness to share themselves.

As I have said for the last four years of my membership, "Those who wish to join an eClub and play hide and seek will find that the Internet is an excellent place to hide. Those who join an eClub wanting to play 'sardines' (where the finder and the found share the same space until all are found) are happy and share".

Joe

Posted: 1 year ago

The biggest question to answer for the younger generation of "electronically enabled" Rotarians is "What's In It For Me?"  Rotary offers an extraordinary opportunity for service, but it is human passion that drives the system.  We had a district assembly here in District 5810 at which one of the speakers asked the attendees how they would answer the the question "What is Rotary?"  to someone who has never heard of it.  A summary of his answer: "Rotary is the World's Most Successful Charity Organization"  The desire to be of charitable service attracts some to Rotary, but it is the translation of those feelings into organized thoughts and actions that make it work.   Rotary to me is a trellis -- a scaffold that allows me to be of service to individuals, my community, and the world in ways that I could never do as an individual.  Rotary works best when the group receives clear, specific, measurable objectives for projects we undertake.  The more clear, specific, and measurable we can be in our conversation about Rotary in terms of who we are as individuals and as a group, where we are going as an organization, and who we serve -- the more the people involved (including interested, younger new members) will be able to trust that their contributions will be effective (because the question behind the question of "What's In It For Me?" is "Am I wasting my time?") 

The question of identity "who we are as a individuals and as groups"  is the social core Facebook and other social networking sites.  As such it important to understand "digitial identity" in envisioning Rotary as an electronic, charitable, social network.  Identity and digital identity can be summarized as a combination of: Expression (what I say); Publication (what I share); Profession (where I work); Opinion (what I like/dislike); Details (how and where to join me); Reputation (what is being said about me); Hobbies (what I am passionate about); Certificates (who can certify my identity); Purchases (what I buy and have); Knowledge (what I know); Avatars (what represents me); and Audience (who I know). 

To answer your question: "What can our eClub provide in terms of vision or strategies that would re-invigorate, re-excite Rotary? What do we bring to the table that is new, exciting, and attractive to young people to join Rotary? "  part of the answer may be here:

Commentary:  from Mindjet.com

The Eloquence of the Conversation Prism and Social Science

The inspiration for its inception derived from a consistent observation of top-down methodologies and practices of brands, professional and personal, employed to create a presence on the social Web. Simply stated, brands focused on building presences in the most popular communities without regard to how they would attract inhabitants and ultimately interact, let alone whether or not their core ambassadors were present.

The Conversation Prism suggested a reversal in this approach, instead inspiring a bottom-up strategy that promoted social research, mapping, and ethnography. This inceptive sociological fieldwork would change everything and provide the insight necessary to develop an enlightened and cultured Social Media program that could potentially humanize the brand and foster relationships and engender emissaries to carry goodwill across the social web.

You Me Mutual Value = <3

People aren’t lured into relationships simply because you cast the bait to reel them into a conversation.

Sincerity extends beyond the mere act of creating a profile on Twitter or forming a fan page on Facebook or a group on LinkedIn. The dual definition of transparency serves very different forms of both genuine and hollow separated by intent and impression. Relationships are measured in the value, action, and sentiment that others take away from each conversation. Talking “at” or responding without merit, intelligence, or quality grossly underestimates the people you’re hoping to befriend and influence.

If participation were this simple, then perhaps everyone would excel as a Social Media “expert.”

It’s the difference between community and a halfway house; one will flourish, while the other will shelter transients, never building a thriving citizenry.

Identifying connected communities and observing the themes and culture of each provide entrée into the personification necessary to foster a genuine and equal ecosystem for dialogue.

It’s about bringing information and solutions to people where they congregate before attempting to host their attention on our terms.

The art of conversations is mastered through both the practice of hearing AND listening.

I hear you.

I’m listening to you.

I understand.

Drink it in… identify opportunities to engage, but more importantly, experience the nature, dynamic, ambience, and emotion in order to sincerely and intelligently empathize and converse as a peer.

Conversation Workflow

Making connections at the human level with the intent to listen before action is the only true and rewarding source of mutually beneficial engagement.

Socialized media is empowering us to not only consume content, but also create it. This is the era of new influencers and we become media and earn authority based on the content we share and also how and where we participate. In turn, our social graph creates an orbiting realm of social influence that can be useful to brands that align with our values and lifestyle.

This is about humanizing the story in a way that empathizes with those whom you’re trying to compel.

Conversations are increasingly distributed. This social distribution fragments our ability to connect with masses, but promotes a 1:1 approach that yields a one-to-many upside through the empowerment of influential social beacons.

The Conversation Prism represents that opportunity to proactively survey the landscape to pinpoint relevant dialogue, prioritize participation strategies, and create an engagement hierarchy and org chart.

V2.0 introduces a workflow rotation of concentric circles that assist in the establishment of value-added engagement cadence.

Level One, The Hub:

As a communications or service professional, you'll find yourself at the center of the prism — whether you're observing, listening or participating.

Halo 1:

The next layer of circles is supported by the activity of learning and organizing engagement strategies…

1. Observation — Discovering the communities that are actively discussing your brand
2. Listening — Hearing the people and the underlying sentiment in order to accurately craft response and participation programs, by community.
3. Identification — Recognizing and acknowledging the beacons to potentially enlist as brand ambassadors as well as the consumer who simply needs your response.
4. Internalization — Not every bit of feedback will be beneficial to your organization, but you will recognize patterns or spots of brilliance that can improve existing products and services over time.
5. Prioritization — Assess and structure where and how your team should focus.
6. Routing — Delegate by topic and expertise.

Halo 2:

Social Media represents the intersection of all public facing departments and requires that each infrastructure employ a socialized series of guidelines and response strategies. Inward focus now must include outward contribution. Ideally, each organization will appoint a community manager to listen and also assign and manage the responses of each department. Over time, this process will seamlessly integrate within the company’s CRM infrastructure, creating a new class of Social CRM or sCRM.

Conversations should always map to specific authorities within an organization to provide a competent and helpful response.

1. Customer or Product Support
2. Product and Sales
3. Marketing/PR
4. Community
5. Corporate Communications
6. Crisis
7. Support

Halo 3:

The outer ring completes the image of conversational workflow, but not the cycle. The process is powered by the continual rotation of listening, responding, and learning online and in the real world.

1. Ongoing Feedback and Insight – This is a necessary ingredient in more effectively building a socially aware and trusted brand. We must learn and demonstrate growth based on the feedback we receive. We must also continually share knowledge, provide resources, and communicate vision to earn trust, authority, and respect.
2. Participation – It’s been said that participation is the new marketing. Perhaps it’s better said that participation is the new focus group and mechanism for embracing humility to genuinely humanize your story. It’s how we learn and improve.
3. Online – Effectively building online relationships increase brand visibility and strengthen brand value within respective Social Networks. Embracing and empowering the community carries our brand personality across social graphs.
4. Real World – The true metric for relationships is how well they carry from the Web to the real world. It’s not about reaching customers using the latest shiny new object, it’s about reaching customers where they go to discover and share information and building relationships that have meaning and worth online and offline.

Creating a Social Map

As conversations are increasingly distributed, everything begins with listening and observing. Doing so will help you identify exactly where relevant discussions are taking place, as well as their scale and frequency. This dialog can be charted into a targeted social map that's unique to your brand. In the example below, I created a Social Map using MindManager to represent the communities where (if I were a brand) either need to or currently contribute based on my initial research.

This map is compelling as it demonstrates the scope of missed opportunities to the team and also decision makers. Consider running an audit and tracking the results in an accompanying document that measures and presents the rate of occurrence, whether each instance required a response, and if so, by whom, and also the potential reach of each dialog by quantifying the network of friends and friends of friends (FoFs) in order to establish priority, authority, response strategies, and urgency.

While we can’t control how our messages are internalized, we can surely shape perception at the point of discourse.

Remember, it’s what you say about you, what they hear, how they share that story, and how you weave that insight into future conversations.

The Conversation Prism is a living, breathing representation of Social Media and will evolve as services and conversation channels emerge, fuse, and dissipate.

In the social economy, relationships are the new currency and in Socialized Media, you will earn the relationships you deserve, in the individual communities where stakeholders and influencer assemble.

Other Posts from Brian Solis Related to this Topic:

http://www.briansolis.com/2008/08/introducing-conversation-prism.html

http://www.jess3.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/briansolis/2735401175/

http://www.briansolis.com/2009/01/conversation-prism-language-of-human.html

http://www.briansolis.com/2009/03/twitter-and-social-networks-usher-in.html

 Sources:

Posted: 1 year ago

INTRODUCTION TO IDEAS FROM AN OLDER ROTARIAN WITH 40 YEARS PLUS OF PERFECT ATTENDANCE IN ROTARY CLUBS:  We should have organizational charts. We do. It is called the By-laws. In terms of management, I  use charts as pictures of how things might work ideally but I also know that organizations stand or fall on the quality of the whole (which is the substance of any chart, it is people) with leadership from a chosen and dedicated few. Looking for a solution to why some things are not working with our eClub will not be solved by ‘organizational charts’ because the form of the answers to the problems (charts or not) lies in the vision of the people involved and their commitment to making that vision a reality.

If we need anything, it is "A Vision Statement." I find that in an organization where the problem is a game of ‘hide and seek’ charts are just another way to hide. Over the last few years, since the problem with most members is that they are better at ‘hide and seek’ than RECSWUSA is about keeping to the rules that we make about attendance, posting and communicating, then the solution does not exist within the structure; it exist in the leadership (people) and our members (other people). My playing field since I joined has been the forum (MONTHLY, having my hands filled with the Presidency of a Global Fellowship with a board of 37, it has been my service to our eClub) and trying to get others to play on our eClub forum (not easy)- and I see that as basic to this conversation: getting others to come out of the shadows and participate, which has nothing to do with the form of the organization (see the quality of the By-laws below this introduction since the rules and by-laws have been set up). It has to do with having the body of the organization buy into the concept that this is: 1) a virtual communications media and organization that serves Rotarians, 2) a Rotary eClub which must stop thinking locally, (at times I call it "Arizona-think’), and start thinking how to involve people globally (Larry's involvement of the Peace Scholars does that as a start as did Rhofu's reaching out to an island Rotary as a sister club, as did the dictionary service project as did other initiatives by a few), snd 3) begin to consider what is the nature of an eClub (that is radically different from a 'terra' club") (a difficult question that we must answer to survive).  

Our dialogue for discussing ideas for fixing the shortcomings of our eClub is not a game, like tennis match where we bat balls back and forth,  but, if it were that kind of game, then the court is the world and the balls are our communications tools. We have the organization and the rules to make this eClub work effectively right now but we have little or no enforcement. Our recruitment of new members is not thorough enough (we need people who come in wanting to share, to serve and to communicate with others globally). As executive director of museums most of my life, I know that a few board members work, many procrastinate. We need to recruit WORKERS who are Rotarians, not Rotarians who wish to hide in an eClub. I never could hire a receptionist and teach her to smile naturally to a visiting public: but I could hire someone who smiled because it was another day and could do the job of receptionist. In a large terra club, it is easy to hide: in a small VIRTUAL eClub, it may be even easier if you do not enforce and publicize the rules you already have. 

I think before we start to look around for changing by-laws and rules, we should examine WHERE WE ARE WITH WHAT WE HAVE, and then the executive committee (which takes over with Larry in July) should examine WHERE WE WISH TO BE (meaning at some point to create A Vision Statement about where we wish our eClub to be as an effective virtual, Rotary, global, transparent organization which gives service worldwide.

Here is a selection from our By-laws that answer many of the questions that have been raised about responsibilities. Of course, these can be refined and improved but they have fulfilled the test of time but our eClub has not followed them. After I mention what the By-laws say, I will end with some recommendations that maybe could be commented upon and improved: 

Selection of Ideas from the By-laws: Preamble: Rotary eClub of The Southwest, USA is a provisional club chartered under the special provisions of the Rotary International Cyber Club Pilot Project. In general all club business, meetings, voting, etc. will be conducted via electronic communications. Rather than have a fixed time and day for the regular club meeting, eClub of The Southwest will use the concept of a meeting “window”; a period of five days in which a club member can sign onto the eClub web site and electronically attend the meeting. 

Section 4 — Secretary. It shall be the duties of the secretary to:(a) Keep the records of membership, record the attendance at meetings, send out notices of meetings of the club, board and committees, record and preserve the minutes of such meetings, and to submit the monthly report of attendance at the club meetings, which shall be made to the district governor within 15 days of the last meeting of the month….(b) Make the required reports to RI, including the semiannual reports of membership,

Section 5 — Treasurer. It shall be the duty of the treasurer to have custody of all funds, accounting for same to the club annually and at any other time upon demand by the board and to perform such other duties as pertain to the office of treasurer. Upon retirement from office, the treasurer shall turn over to the incoming treasurer or to the president all funds, books of accounts or any other club property. The treasurer shall be a member of the club administration committee. 

Article IV MeetingsMeetings will normally be conducted via electronic communications. 

Article VII CommitteesSection 1 — General. This eClub shall operate under the RI “Optional Club Committee and Subcommittee Structure” based on functional grouping, modified for the unique requirements of an eClub.  Standing committees for this eClub shall be:Membership                                 Service Projects                     The Rotary FoundationFellowship                                 Club Administration                 Internet Communications 

(h) Duties of all committees and subcommittees are detailed in the eClub of The Southwest Manual of Procedure. (Note: all committees and duties are labeled in Section 2 through 7 in this Article.) 

Recommendations: 1) Make sure that we enforce the rules that we have made about attendance and fees. In other words, use and enforce what we have as tools NOW.2) Make communication on the forum an aspect (being in a virtual club) of being a member in our eClub (just as in a terra club, it is recommended that a member change tables from time to time to get to know a wide range of club members). IT IS CALLED FELLOWSHIP.  3) At some appropriate time in 2009-2010, create A VISION STATEMENT. After creating this document, make it public for Rotary eClub of the Southwest, USA, taking us into 2020 and beyond. Start to plan on the Executive Committee measures to reach that future vision. 4) Report attendance and service hours monthly of all members in a public report each month. Come up with minimum standards for these two important duties. 5) Create an ad hoc committee to examine the forum in terms of what is working, what is not, and make recommendations which are followed through in actual practice. WE ARE A VIRTUAL ECLUB. 6) Once the committees are set up, have them create job descriptions and internal organizational charts for the duties outlined in the by-laws. IMPROVE THE EXISTING STRUCTURE.7) Look seriously at the criteria for what we use for membership. Set standards and keep to them for helping to find other members, communication (fellowship) on the forum,  and make club, local, global service a real part of being a member. Make all records public to all members as part of the reporting processes at least monthly. WHO WE CHOOSE AS MEMBERS IS WHO WE ARE AS AN ORGANIZATION.  

FINAL NOTE: What a ‘vision statement’ does is give substance and meat to what we wish to become as an eClub. Charts and job descriptions are good if you have WORKERS to begin with but a ‘vision of our ideal eClub (working with other eClubs, terra clubs and graduates of Peace initiative)’ adds the passion that enflames the spirit. We need, as an eClub, to enflame the spirit. That is a ‘people problem’!

Posted: 1 year ago

Hi Joe and all,

The comment on knowing where we are with what we have rings a bell for me.  While I think there are some things that could be improved with RECSWUSA, the best place for good things to happen is the person reading the screen right now.

By that, I mean that each of us needs to be in the habit of reaching out to each other.  One reason many move to this club is the oppressive busy schedule syndrome - a current goal for me is to make sure I contact at least one or two members a month individually, from reading their personal descriptions or commenting on things they have added to the site.  Getting better!

Rushton

Posted: 1 year ago

No, Rushton, you are a seeker of others in the eClub, not one who hides. You are one of a few who communicate on the Forum, who attend each weekly meeting and give a comment afterwards, and who serves on an eClub committee in more than name only. Without this kind of fellowship, the concept of service is difficult.

Last night, I examined how many of our members done all the things that I mentioned above and what I found is that the number was around 20 from the 43 plus members that we have. Some in the eClub are better at hiding than the seekers are of finding them and enlisting them to participate. I group the seekers in the concept of a game called “Sardines” (where members hide and when someone finds him or her he crawls into the hiding place until all members are crammed together like sardines in a can. This is in contrast to “Hide and Seek” where a player hides until a leader finds them, races him or her back to the home base and the game starts again, where many of the hiding members are never found). I think of “Sardines” as the essence of fellowship and goodwill, and the important ingredient when service is accomplished.

Recently, Joe Krueger, certainly a seeker, was kind enough to share with me plans for membership/mentoring next year, under the leadership of Larry Levensen, another seeker (I was interested as a member of our eClub and the upcoming President for 2010). Here are my thoughts on those plans (and if you are inclined, please add your replies and comments too):

1.       This is an excellent, exceptional document: well thought out, written so that the organization of the eClub can follow this today and into the future plus expressing the advantages and the “challenges” (which I see as a delinquent organizational problem of enforcement and planning in the past).

2.       Just as the plan is useful for the organization, it must be simplified for the client (the new and mentored member-which is also stated in the document). For instance, when I come to the organization flow chart of actions (how the new member moves through the system, depending on his or her knowledge and length of time with Rotary), what I miss (which may be impossible to show in this kind of linear flow) is the constant, yet periodic evaluation and measuring process. This measuring process could be a series of questions:  (a) is this member willing from the ‘get go’ to participate; (b) is there a vision of what we expect this member to be before they join (and is this clearly, simply understood when they come into the eClub), after they are mentored and in the future ( just as a vision statement of the organization is needed in simple, up-lifting language, so is a vision statement about what an ideal member (see #4) must do to lift this virtual organization into the digital and systems thinking age): and (c) lastly, how has the flow chart been of use as it is broken into bits and pieces so that the levels of movement are gained then a member moves on to the next level. All this might be accomplished within the Membership Committee by creating standards and goals for members (which I see as the next step beyond this important first document, but see #4 as a caution).

3.       Documents are only useful when they are used. Even with the quality of this document to the organization: ‘How can it be taken apart so that it digested in small bites?’ ‘How can the Membership Committee monitor if the standards for minimal participation are met and those that surpass them are noticed and honored?’  Here is where we again get back to the quality of the member that we ask to join this adventure and the quality of the leadership who guides a member through the early stages of membership.

4.       The last point that I wish to make has nothing to do with the document called Membership/Mentoring Committee Plan (approved by the Board of Directors) and is excellent in and of itself. It has to do with “I do not know or I suspect no one now in the eClub knows what an ‘ideal member’ is: but we do know probably what he or she is not.”

 It has to do with standards and qualifications set by organizations. I have been a learner from my teens of political processes and how they raise and fall when the standards for membership are set too rigidly (right now in America it is the Republican Party and a few years ago it was the Democratic Party in their days of decline) or set too loose. We cannot set standards that do not allow the rebel or the questioning vote to be heard. Our processes and our vehicles for communication must be open and free for disagreement as well as agreement. What this has to do with membership is this: many of us want to recruit the ‘right kind’ of Rotarian for our eClub (but we should not make that too restrictive). Our net, like Rotary and its categories for business admission, has to catch the best fish but not just those with a specific agenda. Organizations grow through dedication, communication and diversity. The three T’s for the 21^st century, many experts have said, are: talent, technology and tolerance. We cannot forget tolerance as we search for those with talent and those with the skills to live in a digital, virtual, worldwide ‘village’.  I have to kick myself all the time to remember that.  As we create documents to help us manage our eClub, we need to keep these three principles in mind. Rotary has given us the four-way test but in this century the three T’s must be added.  History has shown that there have been at least five revolutions in America: the American Revolution, the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the Informational Revolution and the Systems Revolution (which some call, the Job Revolution). We are on the cusp of that last revolution with our eClub. We need special people as our members who are diverse and flexible and are willing to communicate.  

Posted: 1 year ago

Disclaimer: if anything in this post sounds overtly critical or negative, it is not the intention of the poster.

What we can do is in fact what we are not doing.  We can have all the org charts, plans, bylaws, and members that one could hope for, and unless there is inspiration and involvement, the rest is moot.

Since day one in this club, we, and all the other eClubs have been trying to run a terra club online.  But that does not work in the virtual world.  There is a subtle but distinct difference between a terra club online and an eClub and until the members understand this and utilize the medium, eClub will be an under-achiever.

By extension, if this is an environment that could be a significant contributor to the future of Rotary, this segment of Rotary's future will under-achieve.

Some beliefs I have about a successsful eClub:

Members should have interaction with Terra clubs at least quarterly and share the experience with other eClub members.

Members should indicate times they will have a greater probability of being on the site and plan to interact with other members via chat, forum, skype, phone or other medium.

The majority of projects should be borne out of eClub and Internet relevant.

Communication should be focused largely around the Club site and not on Facebook, Twitter, or any other site that only reduces critical mass here.  If we are online be online in the same place.  This doesn't mean one can't have multiple windows open of course and interact at many sites, but utiilizing other mediums in lieu of the Club site to interact with other Club members defeats the whole purpose.  We may as well be a Facebook group.

Trying to get without first giving is as fruitless as trying to reap without having first sown.

It does not do to leap a 20 ft chasm in two ten foot jumps.

Posted: 1 year ago

Larry, I'm in Half Moon Bay for the summer, and I am going to go to meetings at the Rotary Club here. Could you send me a history or some talking points to use in talking about the EClub of the Sourhwest so I can speak to this chapter about our group?

Francine Hardaway, Ph.D

Stealthmode Partners

http://www.stealthmode.com

http://blog.stealthmode.com

Posted: 1 year ago

Brian Solis, quoted in these forums, is a good friend of mine. I spend the summer in the Bay Area.  I'd like to say that this site is almost inimical to being used as social media.  I'd like to see it re-imagined as either a Ning or a Buddypress network, and I would be glad to work with someone to take that on.  This is a terrible platform for interaction -- staid, old, and boring. Let's make it more fun and more (young) people will participate.

Francine Hardaway, Ph.D

Stealthmode Partners

http://www.stealthmode.com

http://blog.stealthmode.com

Posted: 1 year ago

Hmmmm.

I'd like to understand what is different at Ning.  I've used it and don't feel it.  In the end, an email chain can be fun and uplifting if it has participants engaging.

With that said, some of the look and feel here is based on restrictions posed on development to maintain similarity to the previous site for the sake of continuity.

We rolled it ourselves and as such can update/upgrade if you'd care to make some contructive suggestions.  I'm all for dusting off the 'old' feel. I'm all for attracting young users, but not at the expense of learning curves or changes that might alienate some of our more august users.

Trying to get without first giving is as fruitless as trying to reap without having first sown.

It does not do to leap a 20 ft chasm in two ten foot jumps.

Posted: 1 year ago

The future of our eClub and the eClub experiment for Rotary International is one of getting members who communicate. That has to do with the nature of the individuals, not the system used for communication.

I agree with Stephen. We can adjust our forum as our membership wishes but changing the whole system is not the solution. The solution is simple. It is called "commitment to communicate". That has to do with the people who are members, not the system by which we work. No one ever said that being a Rotarian was easy in today's world, but it certainly is more than the simple exchange of greetings. If ideas and concepts cannot be communicated over the Internet, then the eClub project will not work (no matter what system is in use). It is commitment to share one's life that is the secret, not changing a system because it is easier. I have students who do not wish to write an essay in a college class (wanting some simpler system where analysis, evaluation, critical and creative thinking are not involved). These students would not be good candidate for membership in a Rotary eClub, young or old. Being a Rotarian is more than a handshake. It is a commitment to serve (which means for an eClub, a commitment to share ideas, events, revelations, inspirations and thoughts with other Rotarians). As I said, this is not a separation between young and old; but a separation between those in eRotary who step forward and those who wish to use the name of "eRotary member" but hide in the shadows of the Internet.

It would be a mistake to change the system of the forum before we find a solution to the commitment dilemma. I support Stephen's advise on what is proposed. And after using the Forum for 158 posts and communicating with some interesting eClubber, I certainly do not find the system used "staid, old and boring." What fits those words is the concept that an eClub can be a 'terra Rotary club. It cannot and survive.

Joe

Posted: 1 year ago

The last comment I made was probably the same as Stephen saying, "Hmmm" except I am a little more long-winded. What the exchange has done though is start me thinking about how an eClub is drastically different than a "terra Rotary club". Here is my thinking on that:

1) In today's world, we have America's fifth revolution (not my idea but the concensus of many minds): 18th century: American and Agricultural Revolution; 19th century: Industrial Revolution; 20th century: Information Revolution; and 21st century: System Revolution. The last two are where the eClub phenomena springs from. We doubled information from all time from 1904 to 1994 and will again in 2014 so that we cannot know everything, therefore we need a key to unlock certain categories of information (that is, systems thinking).

2) An eClub is a compulation of systems: technology which is used for communication, culture since Rotary now has no borders or boundries, individual (gender plus types of individuals), Rotary itself which is a system that has a beginning but we cannot see where we are going except through understanding the multiple systems that make it up, and lastly, emerging systems which change the estalished systems faster than most of us can keep up with the change (therefore we work now in teams, not as individuals).

3) The challenges of eClubs are adjusting to this change while bringing in members who have been schooled in the older "terra (rather than virual) systems". This is not saying that the old systems cannot be adapted to the new but we must work through the three challenges of our age: technology, talent and tolerlance (for those in another system).

Stephen has done an enormous job in setting up a forum system that has grown and adapted to change as our eClub has grown. Our leadership has had to adjust to the multiple systems as we moved from an Arizona beginning to a global organization (our eClub and the eClub system) where the systems (our members) overlap in terms of time, culture and personalities. The Forum as he has adjusted it is a living, growing, young tool for the eClub to embrace or hide from. In the fifth American revolution of "systems thinking", if we do not embrace it with a commitment from our multiple systems of members, then this experiment of communication and service by our eMembers will not work (no matter how much Stephen does to tweek the system).  

Lastly, in a terra Rotary club you have a localized system where there are less systems to adjust to and be tolerant of. Our eClub is feeling the same growing pains that the world without borders and boundries is going through and experiencing. Changing the system all the time gives none of us time to adjust and make sense of the systems that we form, therefore do not change the forum system. Change how we as eMembers use it.