Lifecycle of a Service Project (Part 2): Planning and Organizing
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Rotary International is pleased to present this five-part webinar series to support the Rotary family in producing sustainable service projects. This slide deck, from part two in the webinar series, highlights different strategies, best practices, and Rotary resources available to help clubs and districts undertake successful, sustainable service initiatives, using real-life examples from Rotarians. Highlights include: • Learn how to conduct a community needs assessment, and how to select a service project • Evaluate how the service project ties into your club or district’s goal • Understand the importance of building measurement, evaluation, and sustainability into your service project
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Lifecycle of a Service Project (Part 2): Planning and Organizing
- 1. Lifecycle of a Service Project (Part 2): Planning and Organizing Rotary International 19 November 2013 #Connect4Good
- 2. #Connect4Good WELCOME TO THE WEBINAR Sheena Lilly Coordinator, Regional Membership Plans Membership Development NOV 2013
- 4. LEARNING OBJECTIVES #Connect4Good During today’s webinar you will: Understand the importance of good planning for the success of a service project Learn about tools available to help your club plan your project Hear real-life examples of Rotary service projects and lessons learned NOV 2013
- 5. PARTICIPATING IN THE WEBINAR #Connect4Good Getting connected to audio Use the Audio pod to select Use Telephone - or Use Mic & Speakers * To improve sound quality, please close all unnecessary programs such as email, MS Office, etc. If you have a cellular device, please move it away from your computer. NOV 2013
- 6. LIFECYCLE OF A SERVICE PROJECT #Connect4Good NOV 2013
- 7. LIFECYCLE OF A SERVICE PROJECT #Connect4Good NOV 2013
- 8. LIFECYCLE OF A SERVICE PROJECT #Connect4Good NOV 2013
- 9. LIFECYCLE OF A SERVICE PROJECT #Connect4Good NOV 2013
- 10. LIFECYCLE OF A SERVICE PROJECT #Connect4Good NOV 2013
- 11. LIFECYCLE OF A SERVICE PROJECT #Connect4Good NOV 2013
- 12. LIFECYCLE OF A SERVICE PROJECT #Connect4Good NOV 2013
- 16. COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT #Connect4Good • Remember for your assessment – – – – Listen to community with an open mind Ask community members what skills they desire Do not make any promises Identify community strengths and members in community to work with you NOV 2013
- 17. FINDING PARTNERS #Connect4Good • Why find partners? – Partnering can help lower the cost of a project – Help to build the capacity of the club NOV 2013
- 18. SUSTAINABILITY #Connect4Good • What is sustainability? – Providing long-term solutions to community needs that the benefiting community can maintain after grant funding ends – Will this community be able to provide this service to themselves in one year? 5 years? 10 years?! NOV 2013
- 19. MEASUREMENT & EVALUATION • • • • #Connect4Good Keep it simple Try to build on each project Learn lessons from data If working with partner organization-ask for help in building measurement and evaluation capacity NOV 2013
- 20. MEASUREMENT & EVALUATION #Connect4Good • Data is only as useful as you make it • Use data to help you plan your next project • Always think about “lessons learned” NOV 2013
- 21. POLL NOV 2013
- 22. Meet our panelists NOV 2013
- 23. MEET OUR PANELISTS #Connect4Good Tonya Gamble Rotary Club Past President Eagle River Area Rotary Club, Eagle River, Alaska, USA D5010 NOV 2013
- 24. MEET OUR PANELISTS #Connect4Good Andre Brandmuller Club President President of Middelburg Rotary Club, Middelburg, South Africa D9400 NOV 2013
- 25. Tell us about your experience NOV 2013
- 26. TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE #Connect4Good • Developed goals • Developed vision • Do one “signature community project” NOV 2013
- 27. TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE #Connect4Good • Identified need by talking with fellow Rotarian who worked with children with special needs • Used goals identified to earlier to meet need of community NOV 2013
- 28. THE PLANNING STAGE #Connect4Good • Land identified • Not many children used park • Park was run by municipality NOV 2013
- 29. TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE #Connect4Good NOV 2013
- 34. TAKEAWAYS • • • • • #Connect4Good Set club goals Community need is most important Don’t be afraid of the budget Be flexible Thank all who were involved NOV 2013
- 35. POLL NOV 2013
- 36. TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE #Connect4Good NOV 2013
- 37. THE PLANNING PROCESS #Connect4Good • Heard about needs in media • Need for training with teachers was great • Still needed to confirm with community NOV 2013
- 39. THE PLANNING PROCESS #Connect4Good • Partnering is important • Personal relationships are key • Meeting in person, when possible, is the best way to go • If you can’t meet in person, talk as much as possible NOV 2013
- 40. SUSTAINABILITY #Connect4Good • Sustainability is important – Having the buy in of the host community is critical – International partner cannot understand need of the host without asking – Bringing host and international partners together is part of creating sustainable projects NOV 2013
- 41. SUSTAINABILITY #Connect4Good • Vocational Training Teams (VTT) were sent to both US and South Africa • Programme was jointly implemented by 2 teams • Programme was custom made to fit needs of community NOV 2013
- 43. SUSTAINABILITY #Connect4Good • Individual member who has passion • Certain amount of knowledge about subject • Champion for change NOV 2013
- 44. TAKEAWAYS • • • • #Connect4Good Nothing is without challenges VTT is a great opportunity (2 if possible) Communication between partners is essential Needs of the host community are crucial NOV 2013
- 46. Recap: Organizing and Planning NOV 2013
- 47. IDENTIFYING CLUB GOALS • • • • #Connect4Good Identify goals for your club Write goals down so you don’t forget them Identify a vision for your club Include all members of your club in this activity. NOV 2013
- 48. COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT #Connect4Good • Assessments can be informal-conversations among people in the community • Don’t only ask about materials but also what skills can be developed • Formal examples of community assessments can be surveys, formal focus groups and asset inventories. • Assess community needs and strengths NOV 2013
- 49. OTHER TOOLS #Connect4Good • Find a partner: ideas.rotary.org • Look for project ideas or to get knowledge from other Rotarians at www.rotary.org/showcase • Community at www.rotary.org/myrotary NOV 2013
- 50. MEASUREMENT, EVALUATION & SUSTAINABILITY #Connect4Good • Measure-Simple measurements are fine, especially when beginning a project • Evaluate-What worked? What didn’t work? How can this help me in the future? • Sustainability-Long lasting impact on the community NOV 2013
- 51. Your service project tips #Connect4Good NOV 2013
- 53. Thank you for attending today’s webinar! Register for upcoming webinars and view recordings here: www.rotary.org/webinars NOV 2013
Notes de l'éditeur
- SHEENA: My name is Sheena Lilly and I am fromMembership Development, and I will be moderating today’s session. If you joined us for our first session in September, you may remember me. I am happy to be here again to help you navigate the planning of your service project.
- SHEENA:Today’s webinar and all following webinars will help you produce sustainable service initiatives. We will highlight strategiesother Rotarians have used in their service projects, offer some best practices, and guide you to Rotary resources available to help support you with your service project.We understand that each service project is unique – some are large in scale, some are small in scale. Some use Rotary Grants to help fund them, and other projects are funded by clubs or districts. During this series, we will try to provide examples of a variety of service projects so you can learn from other Rotarians’ experiences. You can find details about this webinar series and links to register for each session on the Webinars page at WWW.ROTARY.ORG/WEBINARS. We’ll include a link to this page in the follow-up email after the webinar.
- SHEENA:During today’s webinar you will:Understand the importance of good planning for the success of a service projectLearn about tools available to help your club plan your projectAnd hear real-life examples of Rotary service projects and lessons learned from our two Rotarian panelists joining us todayWe want this webinar to be as interactive as possible. So during our time together, we will ask you to share some of your tips for service projects through the question pane, and we’ll also ask you to vote in a few polls. We encourage you to participate actively in the webinar, so send us your questions and comments either through the question pane or on Twitter using the hashtag #Connect4Good. We’ll be sharing some of your questions and comments as they come in. Now we’ll take a moment to show you how you can participate.
- SHEENAYou each have your own control panel in the upper right corner of your screen that looks similar to the one here. Use the orange arrow to open or close your control panel.Next, you’ll select the audio option for listening to today’s webinar. Select the option you prefer in your own control panel.If you’d like to connect via the telephone, the dial-in and access numbers will be provided to you in your control panel once you select the “Telephone” option.Or, you may choose to participate via mic and speakers from your system. SHEENA: For today’s webinar we have __ registrants from __ countries joining us. To maintain the highest sound quality possible, all but our panelists and myself will be muted during the webinar. Please submit questions or comments to our panellists and to RI staff members by using the question pane on your control panel.You can also use the question pane if you’re having technical difficulties. Just describe the problem you are having in the Questions box, and a staff member will assist you right away.Now, let’s take a moment to practice. Please use your question pane to type in one word that describes how you are feeling about the webinar today!****** Comment on answers coming into the questions pane
- SHEENA:We mentioned earlier that every service project is unique. However, there’s one thing all service projects have in common, which is that the best ones all share a common “lifecycle”. On your screen is a graphic that represents the lifecycle of a service project.As you can see, the key areas are:
- SHEENA:Planning
- SHEENA:Acquiring Resources
- SHEENA:Project Implementation
- SHEENA:Evaluation and Promotion
- Each webinar in the series will touch on different aspects of these key areas, and give you best practices and tips that you can implement right away, no matter where you are in the lifecycle of YOUR service project.
- SHEENA:Today, we focus on planning your project. We always hear great ideas from Rotarians, but those ideas are often followed by, “Where do I start?” Whether your club is just thinking about a project or already planning something, this webinar should be helpful to you. No matter how large or small your project is, good planning will help you to successfully execute your project.
- SHEENA:One of the first steps you will want to take before planning a specific project, is to make sure you identify your club goals for the year. Having set goals will simplify the process of identifying projects that your club will work on together. Rotary has a great tool that can help you to do this called Rotary Club Central found at rotary.org/clubcentral. If you haven’t already, create an account for yourself—it’s available for all Rotarians to use!
- SHEENA:Another opportunity to find projects is Rotary Showcase. Showcase is a place for Rotarians to share their stories of projects that are in progress or have been completed. By using this tool, you can not only share your own story, but also seek out clubs that have the same interest as you. Both of these tools have capabilities to search by Area of Focus, so you can narrow your search to areas that you have a particular interest. Even if you aren’t searching for a partner, but maybe would like to get information on how a project was successful, this is a wonderful way to connect with other Rotarians.
- SHEENA:Finally, once you have identified the area of focus around which you would like to do a project, it is important to assess the community for which you will be working. This can be done formally or informally. If you choose to do this in a formal manner, Rotary has an excellent tool to help in this called the “Community Assessment Tools” and can be found in the “Project Lifecycle Resources” page under “Take Action” on Rotary.org.
- SHEENA:Why is it important to do a community assessment? Well, although you may live, work or have visited a community, it is important to hear from the members of the community as to what the need is, what strengths they have and where they would like to see their community in a few years. While assessing a community, a few key things to remember are:Listen to the community with an open mindAsk the community members what skills they desire in addition to material resourcesDo not promise anything during the assessment—you may not know what your club is capable of doingAct appropriately-remember to take into consideration what you have just heardIdentify members within the community that you believe can help you achieve your goals
- SHEENA:After you have your project identified, try to decide if you can partner with a local community organization, non-profit organization, non-governmental organization or governmental organization. These organizations often have experience that you may not be able to find in your community and may be willing to offer them for a lower cost. For example, if you have identified a water project that you would like to do, a local government organization may be able to supply the engineer for such a project. This could help to lower costs and would leverage the funds your club plans to use. In addition, partnering with another entity may help to build your club’s capacity in areas such as doing the community assessment and measurement and evaluation—just to name a few.
- SHEENA:From even the earliest planning stages of your project, it is important to consider sustainability. This is something you need to consider for a global grant project, but something Rotary encourages all project planners to think about, even if you don’t plan to receive funding from the Foundation. What is sustainability and why is it important? Sustainability means that your project is meeting a need of the community which the community will be able to provide for itself in the future, once Rotary funding has ended. When a project is sustainable, it means that the community is now empowered to provide the program, training or other service your club has provided for itself in the future—therefore, it allows Rotary funding to be spread among communities over a number of years. When planning your project, ask yourself, “Will this community be able to provide this service to themselves in one year? Five years? 10 years?” If the answer is yes and you feel as though you can clearly identify how this will happen, then chances are you are on your way to a sustainable project that will function for years to come!
- SHEENA:Measurement and evaluation can seem like an overwhelming task, but it can be as simple as you make it. When applying for a global grant, you will be asked what your measurements are—it is important to really consider this question, as you will be expected to report on it later. Consider the simplest of measures, especially if this is your first time doing a project. If you have done a project a few times, think about trying to collect more sophisticated data. This can be done by issuing pre-tests and post-tests to project participants to measure the knowledge learned, conducting formal group conversations before, during and after your project or issuing surveys to participants. If your project is not funded by The Rotary Foundation, you are not required to measure and evaluate your project, however, we still encourage you to do this. This will allow you to understand what sort of an impact you are making on the community you are working with. Again, this can be an easy task, especially if you are working with an organization. Most organizations require some sort of measurement and evaluation for their projects. We encourage you to ask for this data to share with your club, but also ask if the organization can train your club on how to do this in the future. This way, you’ll be able to do it on your own in the future!
- SHEENA:Finally, it is important to remember that the data you collect from your project is only as useful as you make it. Using that data to plan for your next project will help you in identifying what worked and what didn’t, who you impacted and how you impacted them, and if you accomplished the goals of your project. Use those “lessons learned” when planning your next project to make it as successful as possible!As always, feel free to reach out to Rotary staff if you need help in planning your project.
- SHEENA:Before we hear from our panelists, we want to hear about your experience with service projects in your club or district: Of the tools we have talked about today, which has your club found most useful?:ROTARY CLUB CENTRALCOMMUNITY ASSESSMENT DOCUMENTROTARY SHOWCASETALKING WITH ROTARY STAFFTHIS IS ALL NEW INFORMATION TO MEPLEASE SELECT ALL OF THE OPTIONS ON YOUR SCREEN THAT APPLY TO YOU:MAYBE YOU’VE USED MORE THAN ONE OF THESE TOOLSMAYBE YOU’VE WORKED WITH YOUR CLUB TO IDENTIFY GOALSMAYBE YOU’VE HELPED WITH PLANNING A TRF FUNDED OR CLUB FUNDED PROJECTOR, MAYBE YOU’VE NEVER PARTICIPATED IN A SERVICE PROJECT BEFORE, AND ARE HOPING TO LEARN MORE ABOUT WHERE TO BEGIN[DISCUSS POLL RESULTS]
- SHEENA: Now let’s hear about our panelists’ service projects, and learn a little about how they planned and organized such successful projects!
- SHEENA:I’m excited to introduce our first panelist: Tonya Gamble, Past President of the Eagle River Area Rotary Club in Eagle River Alaska, District 5010.Tonya is the past president of her Rotary Club in Eagle River, Alaska. Tonya and her husband, Brad, joined Rotary together in 2005 after moving to Eagle River to be closer to their work places. Although they were meeting people at their children’s schools, they wanted to engage with more members from the business community. Her favorite thing about Rotary is getting together with other clubs in her in district and seeing friends. She is often inspired by the stories she hears by her fellow Rotarians highlighting the “Power of Rotary.”Thank you for joining us today, Tonya!
- SHEENA:Our second panelist is Andre Brandmuller,President of the Middelburg Rotary Club, South Africa,District 9400.Andre joined Rotary in 1997 after participating in a Group Study Exchange in Nebraska. Since that time, he has been very active in his club projects, including the establishment of a children’s home which currently houses more than 100 children in his hometown, Middelburg, South Africa. He was also a GSE leader in 2010. Welcome, Andre!
- SHEENA: Tonya, why don’t you start by telling us about the service project your club worked on?
- TONYA: Our project really started before we even knew it was going to be a project. In 2009 our club went through a Club Visioning exercise where we laid out a 5 year plan. We developed a mission, the first sentence being, “Eagle River Area Rotary Club works to build healthy communities locally and internationally and the following vision:Leading supporter of education & youth developmentContributing to the betterment of our communityStrong, ethical force for our communityPremier Service Club in Eagle River area & to be recognized as a leading club in our districtOne final goal was a “signature community project” that our club could do.SHEENA: Tonya, it sounds like your goals were a really important part of your planning process!TONYA: They most definitely were. Those goals told us two things-we were interested in working with youth and we wanted to do something that the community really needed.SHEENA: Great! Can you tell me how your project came to be?
- TONYA: Sure! During 2010, my husband, Brad, met with a fellow club member who he had sponsored, but rarely attended meetings or functions. This member, Seth, was the executive director of a local non-profit, FOCUS Inc., which provided services to children with special needs. He relayed to Brad that the parents of his clients had mentioned that there was no place for their kids with special needs to play in our community of about 35,000 people and Seth wondered if that was something that our club could help with. Brad told him that he would take it to the board, but in his mind, Brad was already hopeful that this could be our “signature community project” for which our club had been searching. SHEENA: That’s fantastic, Tonya. Tell us how you planned this playground for children with special needs.
- TONYA: Well, because we were so enthusiastic about the playground, we wanted to get started on it right away! However, because of a matching grant we were implementing, we just knew that we could not take it on that year. The thought was that this would be a great project to start in the next Rotary year and could easily take a few years to develop. I included this project in my PETS goals. SHEENA: That’s really interesting, Tonya. How did your next steps unfold?TONYA: Well, we had the perfect spot in mind since our club build the original Town Square Park in 1986 on a one-acre plot of land, which we then donated to the municipality. Although the park had been added onto by the municipality, there was still a lot of open space. We did already have one set of swings and two pieces of playgound equipment that were hand-me-downs from other playgrounds, but we saw that not many children were using the facility. Because of our history with this park, we decided this would be the ideal area for our fully inclusive playground. Next, we formed a committee. The first committee meeting took place in the early fall of 2011 with a committee of 5 Rotarians, all bringing different talents to the group. We had the FOCUS executive director, my husband Brad who was familiar with construction, a sales/marketing person with grant writing experience; a well connected community member and me, the current club president, willing to fill in any gaps and push the project forward.
- TONYA: In our first meeting, we all agreed that the partnership with FOCUS would be worth it, as they bring the expertise to the area, have an excellent reputation and are also well versed in requesting funds from state agencies with money to give for children with special needs. We all left that meeting with concrete things to do. One thing we learned through this is that our community is filled with so many strengths! Those in our community who helped with this project were instrumental in donating their time—which saved us a lot of money from having to hire people to this work. I encourage others who are working on a service project to consider not only the needs in a community, but also the strengths that can help to make a project successful.
- SHEENA: Tonya, That’s a great point. Every community has strengths that can be used. Did you do anything else to assess the community for your project?TONYA: Yes, we did! One of our committee members launched the project to FOCUS’ clients. He also did research on playground equipment and amazingly discovered that there was a sales representative for a company that manufactured “all inclusive” playground equipment living right in our community and was willing to work with us to get what we wanted. Although, what the club may have wanted wasn’t as important as our stakeholders. We knew that in order to identify the appropriate equipment, we had to hear it from the parents of the children who would use it. They were an integral part in identifying this equipment they thought their children would enjoy and in helping us to plan the project.SHEENA: That’s great. So by now, you have identified the need and strengths in your community, identified the land and equipment you wanted. What happened next?
- TONYA: Well, we still had a long way to go. The original budget we had made was for the park to cost about 35 thousand dollars. This seemed like a large amount to us, since our annual fundraising usually generates around 17 thousand dollars per year. We knew that we would need some grant funding to do this. One of our committee members who had experience with grant writing did some research and found that Kaboom was an organization that provides grants for playgrounds that include the community build concept. They had an extensive website with all sorts of project planning, information, ideas and materials. She also participated in some webinars that they held. These were useful since none of us had ever build a playground before and helped us understand the steps and what lay ahead of us. We were fortunate to get a grant from them and acquire some new skills for our club along the way. As the project developed and plans were being finalized, we were told that this was actually at 200-250 thousand dollar project! Because of our annual budget versus the scope of our project, we thought we would have to split the project into two phases over two years. However, with the success of our PR campaign and fundraising, we realized that we had enough cash and in-kind donations to do both phases at once. We discovered that raising money for a particular project, especially one that benefits our local youth and the concept of leveling the field for children with special needs, was much easier than raising money for our club. The community really responded to the concept of “all inclusive” play and I think this was because the need here for it was so great!SHEENA: Tonya, we are thrilled to hear your project was so successful. Did you consider sustainability when planning your project?
- TONYA: Thanks for asking that question, Sheena. We did consider sustainability, especially in our project. As I mentioned before, we had worked with the municipality to build our Rotary park, and since we were planning to use the same land, we had an understanding with the municipality that they would maintain the park after we built it. Of course, we still find ourselves doing much of the work, but this is out of a desire to do so and because our club really believes in this project. However, we know that the municipality supports this playground 100 percent and are fully committed to keeping it running in the long-term.SHEENA: How have you measured the success of your project?
- TONYA: We work with the municipality to understand how many children are using the facility. The use of the playground has grown exponentially. The minutes of the Parks and Recreation Board report that the chairman took a count one day and there were over 100 children playing at the new playground. Our club has benefitted from this project as well. While working on this project, our membership went from 29 members to 43, nearly a 50% increase! This project has really build a name for Rotary in our community. One of our club members was shopping at a local store and the employee noticed his Rotary pin and thanked him for the playground. The club was also awarded the Heroes of Healthcare 2013 Organizational Award by the Hospice of Anchorage for this project and our local Chamber of Commerce also gave us an award. Eagle River Rotarians have a real sense of pride in building the first fully inclusive playground in Alaska and are looking forward to maintaining it.SHEENA: Thanks, Tonya. What do you feel are the most important things Rotarians should remember about planning?
- TONYA: I think it’s most important to remember the following: (Click)Set your clubs goals and then decide how those goals can meet the needs of the community. Don’t base a project solely around what you or your club wants to do. (Click) Community need is the most important!Don’t let the budget scare you. If you are meeting a need of the community, the community and other organizations will support it! (Click)Be flexible! If you are working with a lot of entities and receiving money—try to be as flexible as possible accommodate the timelines of all people involved. (Click)Thank your donors. Donors aren’t just those who contribute money—anyone who had donated their time, talents and funds should be thanked over and over again. We are so grateful to our fellow Rotarians, financial donors, partner organizations, local government and to the parents of the children who took the time to help us identify the proper equipment. Everyone has a stake in this project!SHEENA: Those sound like really well thought out take aways. Thanks, Tonya!Now, let’s take a moment for a quick poll…
- SHEENA: We’d like to hear from you about some of the Rotary Resources available to help you with the planning process.What ways have you raised support for your projects in the past?ROTARY FOUNDATION FUNDINGDONATIONS FROM ROTARY MEMBERS / CLUB DONATIONSPARTNERSHIPS WITH GOVERNMENTLOCAL BUSINESS SUPPORTOTHER RESOURCESWhile we calculate poll results, we’d like to take a moment to encourage all of you to also sign up for the third webinar in our series, “Lifecycle of a Service Project, Part 3: Acquiring Resources for your Project.” The webinar will take place on January 28th and will discuss in detail resources to help you find partners to collaborate with other clubs or organizations, how to secure funding, volunteers, and needed resources for your service project, and how to understand the Rotary resources available to you to help make your service project a success.Now, let’s see those results. (Discuss results)
- SHEENA: Tonya provided us with a great example of how to plan a local service project. We know there are many of you also interested in hearing about global grants and how to begin planning yours. Andre, can you tell us a bit about your project?
- ANDRE: Sure Sheena, I would be happy to do that. Here in South Africa, every day we hear in the press about the needs in schools with particular reference to the lack of ability of many education institutions due to a history of differentiation in schools from different communities. When we discuss these issues with teachers and parents, the need and demand for further training of educators becomes absolutely apparent. In our environment, it really is general knowledge that there is a huge need for training. I believe that every community organization that has real involvement in the community knows where the needs are, but those needs must be confirmed by doing some basic research, as we did.SHEENA: That’s a great point, Andre. How did you confirm those needs?
- ANDRE: We spoke directly with teachers and principals at the schools in the community we planned to serve. These teachers confirmed the need for teacher training and said that although they often did not have the materials that they needed, they could not make proper use of any materials without the appropriate training for their classroom. SHEENA: How did you move forward with your next steps for your global grant?
- ANDRE: We found that personal relationships are the best way to make these international Rotary partnerships function. In our case, PGD Anton Meerkotter had found a confidante in PDG Michael Duben of District 6400 in Ontario, Canada. They met in Anaheim at a conference and decided they wanted to do a project together. I was asked to identify a project with my team, and we were put into contact with Rotarian Armando Sardanpoli and his team by the two then District Governors. SHEENA: Andre, the personal relationship does seem very important. Do you have any other experiences with using personal relationships to identify your partners?ANDRE: Yes, in fact, in another Global Grant I was involved in, I used contacts met during a trip when I was a GSE team leader. The personal relationships between us ensured that we functioned a lot better than people who had never met. Even if you are unable to meet in person, it is important to talk as much as possible with your partner. This type of relationship will positively impact the results of your project. SHEENA: Can you tell us what your project entailed and how you built sustainability into the design of it?
- ANDRE: I believe every project must be sustainable. In our case, as we established the need for teacher training here in South Africa, we realized there would be a real benefit in utilizing Vocational Training Teams. We decided to use two teams, because bringing a team over from the States was not enough. How would these teachers have an understanding of our needs? What value could they bring without first understanding our community? We had to make sure their was a clear understanding of what we needed, before we could bring trainers in from the States.SHEENA: Very interesting. How did you make sure that happened?
- ANDRE: People with passion for their projects will ensure that the project continues. It will only work if the need is identified and supported by the local receiving community, and is not one which is enforced by the International Partner. We addressed this by sending a VTT to the International District first. During this visit, the D9400 VTT advised the International team what the real needs in D9400 were. Jointly, the two teams worked out a symposium programme which was tailormade for the beneficiary environment. The programme was then jointly implemented by the 2 teams when the international team joined the D940 team for implementation. The Rotary Club’s continued support and enthusiasm has also played a role in the sustainability, and in the process we have got new members who share the same passion.SHEENA: What else did you consider in terms of sustainability?
- ANDRE: Well, Sheena, we believe that in some ways, teacher training is sustainable on its own. When teachers are trained in how to prepare and organize their classrooms better, know their material more, and work with the students in new and innovative ways, this will positively impact their students for a lifetime. However, we saw an opportunity to continue the training on, even after the grant. During the grant we set up a computer lab with internet capabilities and the teachers are able to continue their training under the leadership of the Vocational Training Team. SHEENA: Andre, what do you believe is the most important step in identifying the project for your community?
- ANDRE: In any club there must first be an individual member who has a passion for something. He also has a certain amount of knowledge about that something. This makes him a champion for the project of his choice, and all he needs are persuasive powers and the knowledge of the system to convince the rest of his club to agree to support the project.SHEENA: What are the most important things you want Rotarians to take away from your project experience?
- ANDRE: Well, first, nothing is without challenges. However, with good work and collaboration, these challenges can help your club and district grow. Second, I think that the VTT is a great opportunity for Rotary clubs and districts working on a global grant. The fellowship is wonderful and the information shared is priceless. Third, communication between partners is essential. You must have the same vision for your project. And finally, the international partner must really bear in mind the needs of the host! Although we all have ideas on how we want to accomplish something, we must first think about the needs of the host community.SHEENA: Would you say then that assessing the community is the most important part of a successful project?
- ANDRE: Most definitely. Having a clear understanding of what the community needs and wants is crucial. If you find that your club’s goals do not meet up with the needs of the community, it is much more valuable to identify a community that is in need of what you may have to offer. SHEENA: Thanks so much, Andre!
- SHEENA: Now that we have heard from our panelists, let’s recap what we discussed earlier in the webinar. Tonya, can you remind us about identifying goals for a club?
- TONYA: Sure. (Click)Identifying club goals regularly is crucial. Try to identify 3-5 goals you are interested in before even deciding on a project to do. (Click)Write down these goals and track them as best as possible. (Click)Identify a vision for your club. (Click)And include all members of your club in this activity.SHEENA: Thanks, Tonya. And don’t forget, Rotary has a great tool for Rotarians to use called Rotary Club Central. There you can set your goals online, break your goals down by Area of Focus, you can run reports and show club progress and it is accessible to all members of your club, which makes tracking from year to year much easier. Using Rotary Club central allows you to get full reach of the tool offered to you and can show you the potential in what your club can do. Andre, given what’s been said, what are your view on assessments?
- ANDRE:(Click) Assessments can be done a number of ways. Informal examples are conversations you have in your community or that your host Rotarians have in their community. (Click) Remember to ask not only what materials are needed to meet needs, but also what skills can be developed and capacities built(Click) Formal examples of community assessments can be surveys, formal focus groups and asset inventories. (Click) Finally, remember that what the community needs should come from the community! But don’t forget that within those needs are also many, many strengths. Utilize those strengths as much as possible.SHEENA: Thanks, Andre! And don’t forget these assessment processes can be found in the Community Assessment Tools. We’ll provide a link in a follow up email for you to use.
- SHEENA: When you want to exchange ideas or identify potential Rotary Clubs to partner with, you can use other tools like ideas.rotary.org and Rotary Showcase. There’s also a thriving community on our website where you can interact with other Rotarians and share tips. You can access it at rotary.org/myrotary. In webinar 3 on January 28th, we will provide an in-depth look at how to maximize these tools.
- SHEENA: And finally, remember to measure your project. Simple measures will go a long way. But measuring something isn’t enough. Use the data you collect from your project to help make your next project even betterAnd last, but certainly not least, identify how to make your project sustainable beyond Rotary funding.
- SHEENA: Our panelists have given us a lot of great information about their own service projects, and the planning that went into them. Now we want to hear from you – please share your tips for planning service projects with the audience. Use the question pane to type in your tips. Again, you can also share your tips on Twitter using the hashtag #Connect4Good. [READ SOME TIPS THAT THE AUDIENCE SUBMITTED THROUGH THE QUESTION PANE]SHEENA: (After a few minutes of questions have gone by) Keep those service project tips coming. We’ll continue reading some of these during the last part of the webinar.
- SHEENA:While we’re waiting for more of your service project tips to come in, let’s go to your questions. We’ve already received a lot of great questions, and we will answer as many of them as we can over the next few minutes. Please keep your questions coming – any that we can’trespond to during this webinar will be answered by email afterward.The first question comes from ______. [Read questions, flagged in RED, and direct to the appropriate panelist for response.][Intersperse questions with Service Project Tips, these will be flagged in YELLOW.]
- SHEENA:Thank you for attending today’s webinar. We appreciate your participation! As a reminder, this is only the second webinar in a series of five, so we encourage you to sign up for the rest of the webinars in the series, at the web address shown here on your screen: www.rotary.org/webinarsThe next webinar in the Lifecycle of a Service Project series will focus on ACQUIRING RESOURCES for your service project. You can also find a recording of today’s webinar, and the first webinar of the series, on the same page – just click “On Demand” to view this and other webinar recordings. After today’s webinar ends, you will see a survey on your screen. Please take a minute to complete the survey, since we will use your feedback to help us develop the rest of the webinars in this series. Feel free to share the recording with others who may have missed today’s webinar, and encourage them to sign up to attend the next webinar in the series, Lifecycle of a Service Project (Part 3): Acquiring Resources. Within a few days, you’ll receive an email with a link to a recording of this webinar, information about some of the resources mentioned during today’s presentation, and a link to register for the part three of this webinar series. Thanks again to our panelists, Tonya and Andre, and see you for the next service project webinar!