Awesome! The singular word that describes what over 150 Rotarians felt at our first ever District Learning Symposium on April 27th. Key feedback from attendees was the great feeling of learning together in-person. Attendees made new acquaintances and friendships, and everyone walked away learning new things around membership, club finances, grants, public image, communication tools and creating fun club meetings. We hit it out of the park with attendance, learning from each other by sharing and creating new friendships and partnerships.
The success of the symposium is due in no small part to our district leadership and the guidance of our district governor-elect, Rachele Bouchand and District Finance Committee Chair, Rosemary Barker Aragon. Our facilitators and instructors did the heavy lifting and time investment to create quality sessions. Thanks goes to Cathy Burnell, Kay Cook, Kathleen Davis, Marilee Fuller, Cathy Gibson, Annette Grimm, Tressa Kentner, Tim Leahy, Wendi Fischer, Jeff Brennan, Kirk Laughlin, Chris Nakea, Kae Peterson, and Miguel Torres.
And there were magic tricks and games to show how activities can bring a fun element into club meetings. We had role playing to show how to bring in new members, introduce them to the club and get them involved so they will feel welcome from the start.
Our session on being a club treasurer provided insights on how to keep and maintain consistent financial records across continuing club administration as well as expectations of the district’s requirements of clubs. There was discussion and sharing by participants on what tools, programs, and resources to help in financial record keeping.
The public image session had an engaging exercise whereby participants developed their ‘elevator story’ about Rotary and their club. Participants shared successful best practices around use of social media to bring awareness and engage the public about Rotary to grow new membership and celebrate the accomplishments of their club and its members.
The session on communication tools focused on tips of how to use the district database DACdb and stressed the importance of clubs keeping it updated with their information so that other clubs can effectively communicate and collaborate.
Our sessions on global and district grants were full and, was the largest attendance seen in quite a while. Participants learned dos and don’ts of submitting grants and how to successfully get approval. Clubs shared their experiences in grants that sparked questions and great discussions.
Attendees gave us a strong message that they would like these in-person symposiums to continue. We gathered valuable feedback on how to keep elevating the event and learning experiences for future symposiums. Stay tuned for the next evolution of our learning symposium as the Rotary year moves forward.
