Learning and Leadership
September is Basic Education month in Rotary.
We in Rotary are servant leaders. We wouldn’t be in Rotary if we weren’t leaders. Leaders learn. Leaders read. Leaders study. Part of leadership in Rotary is continuing education.
In our District 5340 we have:
- District Training Assembly for club officers;
- Rotary Leadership Institute;
- District Grant and Global Grants seminars;
- Membership seminars, District conferences; and
- President Elect Training Seminar (PETS), a three day training program.
All with an emphasis on educating ourselves to be better informed Rotarians and leaders.
To become District Governor, I had three weeks of learning at Governor Nominee Advanced Training Seminar (GNATS), Governor Elect Training Seminar (GETS) and International Assembly. There is an emphasis on continuing education in Rotary.
The four-time British Prime Minister William Gladstone was known to have 32,000 books in his home of which he read 22,000. We know this because he made a note in his diary every time he read a book.
Winston Churchill wrote almost fifty books and won the Nobel Prize for Literature. It is this desire to learn that separates the leaders.
I want to introduce you to a most valuable and important tool we have for our clubs and Rotarians: The Rotary Learning Center found at: https://www.rotary.org/en/enhance-your-leadership-skills-rotary-learning-center.
Here we will find courses (over 150 in English), with resources that connects us with an online community. The courses are generally 30-60 minutes in length. We can go on at any time to learn just anything about club officers, projects, Foundation, membership and branding. We can speak with other registrants and the moderators of the courses.
In time, all Rotary materials will be available online and interactive. The Learning Center will continue to expand allowing us to keep information up to date.
Some of the benefits of using the Learning Center include:
- Training our club members and officers;
- Self-paced, individual training to increase knowledge of Rotary;
- Add courses or use the curriculum to create New Member Orientation and Training program;
- Find courses to develop a Leadership Development program;
- Use topics/courses as topics for club programs; and
- Reports available for clubs and Districts to track member progress.
These resources will make us all better Rotarians and leaders. Let’s spend part of September becoming familiar with the Learning Center and all that it has to offer. That’s what Education month is about.
We in Rotary should never stop learning. This is how we grow and teach others to grow.