Making the district training cycle work for you

By Maureen Vaught
Rotary International News - 12 December 2007


The numbers don’t lie. According to survey results, district trainers and governors believe the amount of training Rotary recommends is not too little and not too much, but just right.

A district training cycle survey conducted in August by RI’s Leadership Education and Training Division revealed that 72 percent of respondents think the number of training meetings offered at the district level is adequate. And when asked which meeting should be discontinued, 73 percent answered: None; keep all training seminars.

“Based on anecdotal evidence alone, the consensus was that Rotary had an aggressive training schedule and that it was a tremendous burden on participants. We were pleasantly surprised by the results of this survey,” says Michele Berg, manager of the division.

The survey was sent to district governors and district trainers worldwide to learn how districts conduct training and how they view the amount of training Rotary recommends. Survey respondents represented 218 districts in 45 countries.

Of special interest was how districts are making the training cycle work for them. Survey results indicate that some districts are combining training sessions, offering multiple meetings, and even conducting additional training events to reduce costs and accommodate time and distance constraints of participants. Such flexibility is in keeping with the November 2006 Board decision encouraging Rotary districts to combine events or hold them sequentially to meet the needs of local Rotarians.

A survey respondent from South Africa offered this example, “Because of the size of our district, we offer Let’s Talk Rotary sessions in various parts of the district. These sessions, which include Foundation and membership topics, are extremely popular because we’re taking Rotary training to the clubs rather than expecting the clubs to come to the training.”


View survey results.